The grumpy thread

[Floatylight]

Today's Grump, attending National Motorway Awareness Course after being done in a permanently changing flexible speed limit for doing 59 in a 50..

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[MikeR]

last day at work for this year , bit of an early dart ....

 

loaded up the car with all my prezzies and goodies and drove down the driveway

 

like I have done for the last umpteen years ...

 

and hit the high kerb like remains of the front gate post with my wheel ....

 

front of car sounded like it had been scrunched , it jumped up in the air

 

big scuff mark on tyre , big dang on top another dang on the alloy rim ...

 

thankfully the wine was ok ..... close call ..

 

but it still drives staight and dont wobble

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Daughter no.1 just texted to say the 330d auto transmission has gone tits up. Lost drive in D went into R and was fine back into D no drive but drove OK in manual . Probes needs fluid, eh?

Seriously, anyone need a stonking 3 0 D lump for a Range Rover etc, sell complete still running ( just) with MOT till September (?) full leather and a Chinese android factory looking SatNav/ stereo etc. £500.

 

More info when I fetch it home, oh and car wanted urgently , Price of a Dyson hairdryer or less, prefer barge/ mid size.

 

 

Oil, or could be the range switch. GM automatics in these. If it drives OK in manual then the box itself is probably alright. Check the oil level and then diags.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

There is one with gold trim for about £399 too. I know a lass after one & I keep taking the piss, it won't do anything a £20 argos special won't.

 

 

 

I wouldn't give Dyson the steam off my piss, purely on principle.

[Guest Hooli]

I like the fact he saves old airframes but I'd never buy any of their over priced shit.

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

This fucking woman! The patient next to me has his missis here and I swear, the moment they turned up she's been on and on about what time this and when's he going that. Everytime I open my eyes... There she is standing there waiting for her next victim to ask... How long this, how long that?

 

Since 1pm! I've been here since 7! I'm trying to recover here and all I can hear is whispers... I'll see how long this and when you can go that...

 

FUCK OFF. There should be a fucking ban on these cunts staying here, now her old man is up and wandering about- MOANING... DOUBLE FUCK OFF!

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

That grump only went and bloody worked! They've just fucked off! GOOD!

 

AUTOSHITE= AUTOSATISFACTION GUARANTEED !!1!

[chaseracer]

Today's Grump, attending National Motorway Awareness Course after being done in a permanently changing flexible speed limit for doing 59 in a 50..

 

CRIM.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Oil, or could be the range switch. GM automatics in these. If it drives OK in manual then the box itself is probably alright. Check the oil level and then diags.

Update on this, I went to her work to pick it up , drove perfectly for about 3 miles then seemed to gradually lose drive. Stopped turned off then back on , OK for another mile or so, then wouldn't move at a roundabout - in rush hour obvs .

Again turned on and off, then perfectly through all gears up to about 90, parked up and will check fluid tomorrow.

It'd be a shame if this is the end for the thing, because it goes like a bastard and feels nice and. tight, considering its 216k miles.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I haven't contested a parking ticket before. Maybe the time wasted is worth more than £35, fair point.

 

 

I did in Dartford, once.  Bought a ticket, stuck it on my dash and it flipped over as I closed the door.

 

Sent an email to the council contesting it with a photograph of my ticket attached and they accepted it.  In the reply letter, they also included a free ticket holder to stick to my windscreen.  That really wasn't a ballache at all.

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

I used to leave all my daily tickets on the dash and just add the new one in a random spot among them. Figured it would give the warden some fun* activity to do.

Only issue was opening the window at high speed.

 

Some days I could get away with not paying at all! Thanks NCP. Eventually it all went wrong, fines mounted up, debt collectors were put into action and the threat to remove my car was made. I replied telling them to come take my £20 rotten Escort. They didn't.

[SierraMikeHotel]

I've had parking tickets twice in my life and successfully contested both.  While I take Cheggers' point that you should consider the value of your time, if it's a case of firing off an email or filling in a form then it's got to be worth a go - only, of course, it the ticket really was issued unfairly.

 

For the first one I'd only been driving for a few months, and parked on a residential street near Bromley town centre.  It was somewhere that my parents often used to park to avoid the town centre car parks so I thought it was OK.  When I got back to the car and saw the ticket I was really surprised, and spent a fair amount of time looking up and down the street for signage.  Eventually someone came out of their house and I asked him what the restriction was: without saying a word he lifted a leaf-laden tree branch and revealed the new-looking "resident permit holders only" sign hidden behind.

 

The advice from the council was to pay it (so that I'd pay the reduced rate) then appeal, so I did.  Can't remember what form the appeal took - probably a hand-written form back then. They refunded the ticket and apologised for having put the signs up in the winter without considering that they'd be obscured by leaves in the summer.

 

A couple of years later - in the same car, Mum's old Pug 309 now that I think about it - I was visiting friends who lived in central Canterbury when there was a big dump of snow (East Kent is basically Scotland during the winter) and I had to stay an extra night.  Again I contested it and got a refund, I think adding links to the Met Office and Police warnings not to travel probably helped!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Hah!

 

I had a ticket once from the Lidl in Ashford.  Lady Grumpius forgot to scan the ticket after the checkout (she claims it was me, it wasn't...).  Anyhow, I sent an email to the parking enforcement company and phoned Lidl directly.  In the end, I sent them a redacted bank statement to show that we had clearly been shopping in Lidl and that although we had forgotten to scan the ticket, we weren't actually in contravention of their policy.  They accepted that, too.  I was surprised to be honest because the private companies can be much worse than the councils...

 

 

 

(East Kent is basically Scotland during the winter)

 

About to have my first winter in East Kent.  Wish you'd told me sooner...!  Thinking about it, it snowed in my town a couple of weeks ago and settled overnight...

[SierraMikeHotel]

I went to uni in Canterbury: my parents lived in Dover when they were first married so I was warned but I confess I didn't really believe it until I experienced it.

 

You don't expect to be snowed in in a city centre that's only 60 miles from London!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I got snowed in very badly in March near Charing (Ashford way), so no doubt I'll end up being the only one that gets snowed in when I go back to work again... even though I've moved!  Smack bang in between Dover and Canterbury now.

[SierraMikeHotel]

I always found that the line was Maidstone.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I always found that the line was Maidstone.

 

 

Back in 2004 I was in Sixth Form in Maidstone and my then-girlfriend's Mum (who worked in Bearstead) had to rescue us.  We got a room at the Hilton because we couldn't get back to her house.  Sudden snow flurry right at 3PM.  That was a right bloody shock.

[SierraMikeHotel]

End of 2004? I started a job in Canterbury in January 2005 but my first couple of weeks didn't actually happen because nobody could get into the office. I'd rented a place just off Wincheap so I could get in but of course I didn't know the job, or have a key...

[dozeydustman]

 

About to have my first winter in East Kent.  Wish you'd told me sooner...!  Thinking about it, it snowed in my town a couple of weeks ago and settled overnight...

 

 

 

 

I went to uni in Canterbury: my parents lived in Dover when they were first married so I was warned but I confess I didn't really believe it until I experienced it.

 

You don't expect to be snowed in in a city centre that's only 60 miles from London!

 

 

I thought it was only Thanet that got snowed in? Never stopped me commuting to Gravesend the 2 years I lived in Ramsgate, especially as more locals to the depot 'couldn't get to work' because OMGSNOKAOS

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I thought it was only Thanet that got snowed in? Never stopped me commuting to Gravesend the 2 years I lived in Ramsgate, especially as more locals to the depot 'couldn't get to work' because OMGSNOKAOS

 

 

Gravesend was difficult a few times as a kid.  I lived on the Prince of Orange junction and in very heavy snow it could be a big issue.  I do distinctly remember walking to school and outpacing cars significantly a few times.

 

SMH, that was the place over the barber shop, right?  You mentioned that to me before.  That would have been in Lower Sixth, so yeah.  Probably the end of 2004 or January 2005.  I was still living in Gravesend with my folks and got the train and from school (often got a lift from Cuxton on the way in and back) so any kind of train chaos was an absolute nightmare...

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

That grump only went and bloody worked! They've just fucked off! GOOD!

 

AUTOSHITE= AUTOSATISFACTION GUARANTEED !!1!

 

 

Urghhh, she's back... And now they're arguing quietly* in the corner! I'm outta here!!

[dozeydustman]

Gravesend was difficult a few times as a kid.  I lived on the Prince of Orange junction and in very heavy snow it could be a big issue.  I do distinctly remember walking to school and outpacing cars significantly a few times.

 

 

 

The only real trouble we had was Windmill Hill with the lorries, and the bottom end of Willow Walk in Culverstone, though I used to carry snow socks in the cab as I had from Istead Rise all the way to Vigo.

 

Our old DAFs were excellent for doing handbrake turns in. The ABS would kick in on the Dennis motors.

 

 

Probably the end of 2004 or January 2005.  I was still living in Gravesend with my folks and got the train and from school (often got a lift from Cuxton on the way in and back) so any kind of train chaos was an absolute nightmare...

 

 

OMGTRENKAOS because Connex South Eastern/Southeastern Railways, when it was a snow day service all year round.

[SierraMikeHotel]

 

 

SMH, that was the place over the barber shop, right? You mentioned that to me before. That would have been in Lower Sixth, so yeah. Probably the end of 2004 or January 2005. I was still living in Gravesend with my folks and got the train and from school (often got a lift from Cuxton on the way in and back) so any kind of train chaos was an absolute nightmare...

I looked at it but never lived there - I was in a shared house on York Road. Pics of the Passat and the blue Saab on my thread probably show it.

 

DD has a point, my boss lived up the hill near the uni so she could have put wellies on and walked down.

 

That was a very strange job and she was a very strange woman though... She had a brilliant story about Colin Dexter trying to get into her knickers.

 

Ramble thread?

[Supernaut]

"Oooh, I live in Kent and a sudden flurry of snow meant I couldn't get home, ooooh"

 

Grow a pair.

 

Or at least invest in some winter tyres.

[dozeydustman]

"Oooh, I live in Kent and a sudden flurry of snow meant I couldn't get home, ooooh"

 

 

Never come to Chichester if there's 1 flake of snow.......

[GrumpiusMaximus]

"Oooh, I live in Kent and a sudden flurry of snow meant I couldn't get home, ooooh"

 

Grow a pair.

 

Or at least invest in some winter tyres.

 

 

I was 16 and didn't drive back then.

 

Last year, in March, we had 2 feet of snow outside my front door and the first bit of driving was 200 yards up a steep slope on to the lane, which wasn't gritted for a mile in either direction.  And they'd cancelled all the trains.

 

Perfect excuse not to go to work.

[SierraMikeHotel]

There was another occasion where I'd borrowed my mum's car (the 106 by then) and I couldn't give it back because there was a solid snowdrift at the bottom of York Road that was as tall as me.

 

Kent may be south, but if you tilt the map to reflect reality you see that it's in the North Sea!

[Fumbler]

The South East can have terrible snow. Like in 2009 when we had lots of it. Apparently the same will happen in January because of the polar vortex (Non total perspective I am told) will be coming to visit us again.

[clayts450]

Cruiser FTP this morning prior to drive into work, probably related to the torrential rain yesterday.

 

Stuck key in ignition, everything good, dash lights on, clutch down, turn key - everything goes dead. Something's blown somewhere. Job for the weekend then.

 

Streetwise to the rescue again.

 

One of the benefits of owning chod is you are rarely late for work because of vehicular issues. Unless you're really unlucky and all your fleet is fucked.

 

I get the piss taken out of me at work for owning more than one car, but they had to concede that this was one time where it did help.

[cobblers]

Great, £1600 stolen out of my bank today. Presumably had my card cloned?

I'm sure this is going to be loads of fun. FFS