The grumpy thread

[purplebargeken]

I wanted a mince pie yesterday. There aren't any. Anywhere. Cunts.

[Snipes]

12 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Did 607 miles towing yesterday, delivering one of my collection which will be a seperate thread soon. Got back knackered after being away for 4 days, scanned the emails this morning, a couple of urgent ones. A friend arrives, we drink tea and shoot the shit for a couple of hours, he leaves. My broadband is now not working. Rebooted the computer - nowt. Rebooted the router - still nowt. Checked landline - essential for me as no phone signal - still nowt. Decide to go out and return the trailer, notice my farmer neighbour has been scraping the mud off my track. Meet him and "have you a phone" he asks. Aaah, BT had laid the cable on the surface next to the track. Scraping said track had found the cable. Guess which is stronger, phone cable or 4 wheel drive 5 tonne tractor with scraper?

Bollocks. Have reported the "fault" to BT, they say they aim to fix in 4 working days. So that means no phone or internet til then. Had a brainwave. Set up my dongle I use for France in the loft. Partial success, signal comes and goes but I occasionally get the net for a few minutes. This post has taken over an hour FFS

Last time I had a issue with BT and broadband it took over a month and they only managed to cancel the thing after completely failing to fix it and a load of moaning on social media. It was a huge nightmare after years of zero problems, despite moving house in that time.

 

[Timewaster]

4 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

I wanted a mince pie yesterday. There aren't any. Anywhere. Cunts.

Come to my house, there are boxes of the bloody things. 

[New POD]

6 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

Come to my house, there are boxes of the bloody things. 

Come to work with me tomorrow.  I'm committing an act of work place bullying by placing all the unhealthy food in the kitchen with the words "Free food: Start your Diet this year, the way you know the year will end. #fatshaming" 

[New POD]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

Come to work with me tomorrow.  I'm committing an act of work place bullying by placing all the unhealthy food in the kitchen with the words "Free food: Start your Diet this year, the way you know the year will end. #fatshaming" 

Note, I thought about going for a run, going for a cycle ride or even just a walk this morning, but so far I've been shopping for food.  And Imodium. And prepared roast chicken for my tea.  I've just realised that i haven't bought anything for lunch.  

 

[anonymous user]

Earlier this morning I walked down to the shop and bought a pain au chocolat to have for breakfast, unfortunately while I was making coffee the pastry mysteriously got snaffled off the worktop, I found the remains of the paper bag it had been in on the sofa. Not sure which spaniel had it, I gave up and went to Greggs.

[Craig the Princess]

Am I the only person who finds washing the car, especially in winter, a massive chore?

But if you think I'm spending £6 on a car wash you can bugger off.

[Lord Sterling]

55 minutes ago, Craig the Princess said:

Am I the only person who finds washing the car, especially in winter, a massive chore?

But if you think I'm spending £6 on a car wash you can bugger off.

No. I gave up long ago. Thankfully here in the Midlands there are more than a few hand car washes available for as little as £2.50.

[reb]

I've taken to bunging £2 out of my fuel money in a jetwash every few days and doing the best I can in the 5 minutes. Trying to keep it actually clean is silly because I live on a farm, so even if all the roads were clean and dry the car would be filthy again by the time I got home.

[xtriple]

Car dealers used to love the first decent weekend in arch/April as all the cars that hadn't seen a sponge all winter got their first hose down.... the owners promptly fainted at the rust that had appeared since last the looked and went out and bought a new car. Wash your car you lazy twats, keep the salt off, ruin a car dealers holiday in the Maldives   

I have mince pies. They are peering at me and I want them but they set my stomach on fire so a treat for an occassional day...

[Craig the Princess]

2 hours ago, xtriple said:

Wash your car you lazy twats, keep the salt off, ruin a car dealers holiday in the Maldives   

I don't think Cavcraft is going to get that far if I need a new car. He'll be lucky* to get a round trip to Wrexham.

[myglaren]

Reminded that I have missed yet another opportunity to consume the christmas pudding I bought five years ago.

I'm sure it will survive until next christmas though. even if I might not.

[Crackers]

Focus going in for rear springs job tomorrow. Not at the garage who quoted £350.

No no. Going to my dad's tame mechanic who "will be much cheaper" despite not having actually given us a quote.

Keep posted for what I'm driving while the Fookus is away.

[auntiemaryscanary]

My street is in a residential area but a major cut through - no drives so cars both sides leaving single file traffic only. We often get face-offs we're people won't give way. Often the drivers get verbal and on occasion violent. 

The whole road needed re-surfacing years ago but since austerity this happens every winter. That's the sub-base next to vehicles. I guess the yellow circle means the Council will be round to put a crude patch of tarmac in bag down at some point - it won't last long.

[AndyIggs]

8 hours ago, Crackers said:

Focus going in for rear springs job tomorrow. Not at the garage who quoted £350.

No no. Going to my dad's tame mechanic who "will be much cheaper" despite not having actually given us a quote.

Keep posted for what I'm driving while the Fookus is away.

Usually ends up being more ?

[twosmoke300]

Bet he wont be setting the rear wheel alignment up !!!

[Snipes]

27 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Bet he wont be setting the rear wheel alignment up !!!

Probably seized anyway, either the bolt in the bush or the adjuster head against the subframe.

[BorniteIdentity]

21 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

No. I gave up long ago. Thankfully here in the Midlands there are more than a few hand car washes available for as little as £2.50.

Hoorah for modern slavery!

I’m partially joking. I’m sure they’re paid minimum wage. I’m also fairly sure they have big deductions made for meals, sustenance, boarding, laundry, ablutions etc. 

Then again - if you’re at a hand car wash for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, what use is money anyway??

As you’ve probably figured, I’ve stopped using them. The whole thing makes me feel uneasy. There’s an IMO in town where everyone appears to be happy, and a hosepipe on my driveway! 

[Kiltox]

Isn’t IMO just a franchise? Suspect you could find the same working conditions with a fancier sign above the door if so. 

[loserone]

10 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

a hosepipe on my driveway

Wish I had this.

[Craig the Princess]

Tbh I normally use the ARC drive through because I'm a big kid and like the machine.

[sierraman]

48 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Bet he wont be setting the rear wheel alignment up !!!

Wouldn’t you just be able to compress the spring in situ with one of those sort of one sided compressors that have a cup either end? Avoid touching the lower arm bolt?

[BorniteIdentity]

12 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Isn’t IMO just a franchise? Suspect you could find the same working conditions with a fancier sign above the door if so. 

It is. But the three lads there I know of from around town. They all stuck money in and seem to be doing alright out of it. 

I don’t want to sound like a sanctimonious old virtue signaller. People should do wtf they want. It’s just something that nags at my conscience. 

[Kiltox]

4 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

It is. But the three lads there I know of from around town. They all stuck money in and seem to be doing alright out of it. 

I don’t want to sound like a sanctimonious old virtue signaller. People should do wtf they want. It’s just something that nags at my conscience. 

A £2.50 hand car wash does seem a bit off tbh 

[strangeangel]

On 1/3/2020 at 12:57 AM, Rovorsche said:

I have a Humax freeview recorder, its a few years old and has the odd sulky moment but it mostly does iPlayer/Netflix/AmazonPrime but it does sulk, enough to make me look for something newer.

 

 

I've had two of those. The first went back to Richer Sounds because it kept turning itself off and on, and the replacement lasted just past the warranty period. If you put it into standby it lost all it's reservations etc. If you tried to circumvent this by leaving it on all the time it simply locked up after about a week. Not wanting to buy another heap of shit, I bought a second-hand Topfield off Bumtree for £15 as a stop gap while I did some research. That was about five years ago and the Topfield is still here - easier to use, far more reliable and the only potential downside for some might be that it's too old to receive HD broadcasts.

 

[mrbenn]

Surely it depends on the level of car wash.

If they're running a sponge over it then rinsing it's only going to take a few minutes and they might be doing quite well out of it. Sell cheap, wash many.

If they're doing a pre-rinse, TFR spray, contact wash, cold rinse, spray wax then buff then £2.50 seems a bit light. But I'd wager they're not.

There is one that costs £18 near me and people queue literally down the road.

[twosmoke300]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Wouldn’t you just be able to compress the spring in situ with one of those sort of one sided compressors that have a cup either end? Avoid touching the lower arm bolt?

Not enough room . There is a sykes kit available that compresses through the centre but it cost about twice what any mk1 focus is worth

[mrbenn]

The garage that looks after my Focus made reference to a kit they have for doing springs without taking everything to bits, must be something like that.

[sierraman]

13 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Not enough room . There is a sykes kit available that compresses through the centre but it cost about twice what any mk1 focus is worth

One of these types? 

Which way do you normally do them avoiding the bottom arm bolt? Undo the drop link and the shocker bottom bolt then pull it down? 

[Lord Sterling]

BMW is to be repaired, finally. But again as usual its gonna cost which I could really do without. I'm gonna sell it/roffle it when its done because I need to raise money very quickly for the Visa ...again... 

Also, just to be clear on the car wash front; I either use IMO as I used to work for this outfit or other car washes, I am aware that it is often a joint business. Maybe I should start re-washing my own cars again and stop being lazy and unfit.