The grumpy thread

[sierraman]

18 minutes ago, New POD said:

I don't brake check. I take my foot off the accelerator. It's much less likely to result in road rage and sends out the actual signal you want to send.  Which is "I'll go slower to make it easier for you to overtake" 

The number of people at the speed awareness course I attended who said they were speeding because the person behind was tailgating, was ridiculous. (5 out of about 25 people).  

I just slow down to a snails pace gradually if there’s no overtaking opportunity. They soon back off. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Im tempted to buy a roll of bubble wrap just to see how they package it.

I've done this. It arrived loose in a massive box.

[grogee]

16 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

The cassette deck (1980/81 Technics RS-M215) I've had in my bedroom for years was moved through to the living room stereo this morning. It's now running off-speed, I'm guessing the belts are finally dying - worst case scenario the motor is away.

I mean, 41 years on the original belts is good going mind you. I could replace the belts, but that's outside of my technical capabilities.

Try it, you might surprise yourself. I've done a few (cassette decks, not your actual model). Fiddly but take your time, have lots of light and you should be ok. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

4 minutes ago, grogee said:

Try it, you might surprise yourself. I've done a few (cassette decks, not your actual model). Fiddly but take your time, have lots of light and you should be ok. 

I did an RS-B205 some years back and haven't been able to get the two halves of the mechanism back on even now. 

See above comment in relation to the Pioneer CT-757 I had.

I've never had this one open but the plan will be to open it up to at least see what I'm up against. I'm willing to try changing belts again, since I have more of an idea what I'm doing.

[grogee]

1 minute ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I did an RS-B205 some years back and haven't been able to get the two halves of the mechanism back on even now. 

See above comment in relation to the Pioneer CT-757 I had.

I've never had this one open but the plan will be to open it up to at least see what I'm up against. I'm willing to try changing belts again, since I have more of an idea what I'm doing.

I have a bag of assorted size belts because I got sick of paying £5 for each one individually. If you like I'll send you the bag and you take what you need, then send it back. 

You'll need some alcohol/meths and ear buds to clean the sticky belt residue off the sprockets though. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

I have a bag of assorted size belts because I got sick of paying £5 for each one individually. If you like I'll send you the bag and you take what you need, then send it back. 

You'll need some alcohol/meths and ear buds to clean the sticky belt residue off the sprockets though. 

Thank you! However, I'm planning to get my own bag of belts since this isn't the only one that needs belts at this moment in time.

Re: alcohol/methylated spirits, I've had to do that before but with a VHS video recorder. 

On that note, here's today's fun fact:

An O-ring rubber seal for a Vauxhall Vectra B 2.0 oil filter is the perfect fit as a belt for your Thorn VCR. The more you know, eh?

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Thank you! However, I'm planning to get my own bag of belts since this isn't the only one that needs belts at this moment in time.

Re: alcohol/methylated spirits, I've had to do that before but with a VHS video recorder. 

On that note, here's today's fun fact:

An O-ring rubber seal for a Vauxhall Vectra B 2.0 oil filter is the perfect fit as a belt for your Thorn VCR. The more you know, eh?

That is solid gold useful info, thanks. The chances of me having either in the future are pretty close to zero. 

VCRs are cool though

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, grogee said:

That is solid gold useful info, thanks. The chances of me having either in the future are pretty close to zero. 

VCRs are cool though

My Grampa had one in his garage from the Vectra he had at the turn of the millennium. The VCR is mine and is up the loft since I bought a better one, so lives as a spare.

[myglaren]

17 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I have a Sony twin deck (TC-WR445) you could have for a couple of quid for postage. Think it needs new belts but it's a simple enough system that Stevie Wonder could replace them, IIRC.

Anyway, I shall leave it at that since I don't want to stray away from the topic even further lol.

A very generous offer, thank you.

I may take you up on it but will have a tinker with the Aiwa and see if it can be revived.

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, myglaren said:

A very generous offer, thank you.

I may take you up on it but will have a tinker with the Aiwa and see if it can be revived.

Aye, have a nosey first as I could be wrong in saying it's one of the one's with the devil's mechanism.

[cobblers]

Been trying to get some premises to move my business into for 18 months now. We don't advertise and I'm turning work away, because I don't have room to do it or take more staff on to help, and I'm working myself to death just to try and keep the current customers happy,

Already been fucked around by one landlord and strung along for 15 months - we should have been in a year ago, but they haven't even started building it!!!!!, so I started looking elsewhere.

Found a place closer to home, very expensive, smaller. but it was freshly built and would be ready to move into in a few weeks,

3 weeks ago I went down to have a final meeting with landlord, letting agent, owner etc and they all seemed happy with stuff. Got an email off them  saying they were drawing heads of terms up to sign, etc. Then nothing. I called them and the guy was "out of the office" and never got a call back. Didn't think a lot of it because they're useless and never call back anyway.

I drove past the place today to see how they were getting on with installing the mezzanine. Looked through the window and by the looks of it, someone else has moved in because there's a load of boxes and someone elses stuff in there!

FFS man, I'm getting sick to death of this!

 

[wuvvum]

I've just spent the last hour retrieving the Volvo's car cover from the top of an 8' high, 5' wide bramble hedge, whence the wind had picked it up and blown it.  Which I could have done without.  The cover has blown off a couple of times before but usually the strap at the back catches it and it just flops around on the floor behind the car.  Not this time though - the wind must have been either unusually strong or from a different direction than normal.  I'm going to have to invest in some additional straps I think.  And probably a new cover as this one is now probably going to be full of holes.

[MikeR]

travel insurance .....

normal person ..circa 30 quid

me ... lets times that by 10 .....

fro

[iainrcz]

Turns out landing flat on your arse hurts.

[New POD]

6 hours ago, MikeR said:

travel insurance .....

normal person ..circa 30 quid

me ... lets times that by 10 .....

fro

Where are you going? 

[hairnet]

bootle

[AnnoyingPentium]

Forty One whole fucking quids to brim the Fabia... £1.39 p/litre at Asda in Ayr. Might have to start going to the cheap one in Cumnock again, it was only £1.32 p/litre.

[reb]

37 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Forty One whole fucking quids to brim the Fabia... £1.39 p/litre at Asda in Ayr. Might have to start going to the cheap one in Cumnock again, it was only £1.32 p/litre.

I was £94.50 to fill the Volvo the other day, scarily close to maxing out the pay at pump.

[Spurious]

2 minutes ago, reb said:

I was £94.50 to fill the Volvo the other day, scarily close to maxing out the pay at pump.

£124 to fill a pretty empty Fiat Ducato. Luckily it's not mine to fill. The Trust must be spending a fortune on fuel these days. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 minutes ago, reb said:

I was £94.50 to fill the Volvo the other day, scarily close to maxing out the pay at pump.

[cobblers]

2 minutes ago, Spurious said:

£124 to fill a pretty empty Fiat Ducato. Luckily it's not mine to fill. The Trust must be spending a fortune on fuel these days. 

yup, my Peugeot boxer, yesterday. The light wasn't even on yet!

😭

[angle]

Gah, someone's had the cat off my sister in laws Civic. Doubt it's worth saving at 20 years old and very scruffy, but jesus there's nothing worthwhile around for under a grand is there?

[horriblemercedes]

3 minutes ago, angle said:

Gah, someone's had the cat off my sister in laws Civic. Doubt it's worth saving at 20 years old and very scruffy, but jesus there's nothing worthwhile around for under a grand is there?

That's a real pain, but it's probably not too bad just to put a cheap aftermarket one on. Something like this would keep it legal: 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-INCH-SPORTS-CAT-CATALYTIC-CONVERTER-HI-FLOW-100-CELL-UNIVERSAL-STAINLESS-/174108557807?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

[reb]

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

In fairness I'd run it more than 50 miles with the light on, which would have added a gallon or two to the total.

[Fumbler]

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Forty One whole fucking quids to brim the Fabia... £1.39 p/litre at Asda in Ayr. Might have to start going to the cheap one in Cumnock again, it was only £1.32 p/litre.

£1.39? One pound thirty nine pence? I wish it was that cheap here. Best I've found was £1.45.

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

£1.39? One pound thirty nine pence? I wish it was that cheap here. Best I've found was £1.45.

Road trip?

[Spurious]

2 hours ago, cobblers said:

yup, my Peugeot boxer, yesterday. The light wasn't even on yet!

😭

Oh no.

 

They need to really do something about fuel in the short term. Oil's creeping up again and it'll be hitting us in the pumps again.  They need to cut the duty on it.

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, Spurious said:

 They need to cut the duty on it.

Cut the duty? I reckon hell freezing over is more likely to be honest; this is a nice little money spinner for the government. Though I do wonder how much public pressure would be required to lower fuel duty?

[carburettor]

8 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Oh no.

 

They need to really do something about fuel in the short term. Oil's creeping up again and it'll be hitting us in the pumps again.  They need to cut the duty on it.

Absolutely no chance of that as far as I’m concerned though, with this govt. or the next.

[Spurious]

1 minute ago, Fumbler said:

Cut the duty? I reckon hell freezing over is more likely to be honest; this is a nice little money spinner for the government. Though I do wonder how much public pressure would be required to lower fuel duty?

Pressure on local MPs.  Lot of these "red wall" tory seats are getting a bit shifty as they'll probably get a P45 the next election.  They're already telling Boris they'll send letters into Graham Brady so it's not impossible I would think. They're facing pressure on this NI increase too.

Cost of living has seen a massive jump in the last year.

I dunno, wishful thinking perhaps.