The grumpy thread

[Dyslexic Viking]

6 minutes ago, Lacquer Peel said:

It looks like an easy belt to do, there is lots of space around the timing end unlike many fwd cars. 

Yes, they are probably simple for those who can. I have tried in the past to change timing belts and I have always messed it up so it is a job I do not do myself unfortunately.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Aerial in the car is very much fucking fucked now, think it's the amp in the aerial base. Signal is extremely weak and won't hold a station at all no matter which stereo I use.

[omegod]

Today i was this many days old when I discovered that 6ft 2" does not fit into a roofed MX5 without risk of concussion when driving over a crisp bag, this has made me very very sad   

 

[jakebullet]

Return of the random writing on the rear window of the c1. Previously it was homophobic now it's weird "mam told me not to" crudely drawn cock.

???

[Supernaut]

13 hours ago, omegod said:

Today i was this many days old when I discovered that 6ft 2" does not fit into a roofed MX5 without risk of concussion when driving over a crisp bag, this has made me very very sad   

 

I've heard of taller people fitting different seat runners to MX-5s to lower the seat.

Not that I have any first-hand experience, being 5ft 6" myself!

[loserone]

On 19/06/2022 at 10:29, Dyslexic Viking said:

Yes, they are probably simple for those who can. I have tried in the past to change timing belts and I have always messed it up so it is a job I do not do myself unfortunately.

Yes, but have you bought it yet?

 

I would love to try a diesel 19.  

[myglaren]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the happy thread.

Knock on the door, not expecting any deliveries.

Postie on the doorstep to tell me my keys are in the door.

Been there since yesterday evening   and 

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Yes, but have you bought it yet?

 

I would love to try a diesel 19.  

No I do not unfortunately. I'm struggling to find a way to get it home. Talked to Dad today and he does not understand why I need another car and understands even less of what I'm going to do with that old Renault. So I wonder if I have to let this pass also something that is a bit annoying as i will probably not get the chance to buy a diesel 19 again. 

 

But I am considering contacting the seller and asking if he can let me know if he is unable to sell the car and wants to scrap it something I think is a big chance  will happen.

[Rust Collector]

21 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

So I wonder if I have to let this pass also something that is a bit annoying as i will probably not get the chance to buy a diesel 19 again. 

This is what's troubling me at the moment. I have this nagging thought that each time I see something old and cheap it will be the last chance I have to own one before prices get silly/they become even rarer. I find it best not to look anywhere that I might see adverts these days 😅

[Dyslexic Viking]

15 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

This is what's troubling me at the moment. I have this nagging thought that each time I see something old and cheap it will be the last chance I have to own one before prices get silly/they become even rarer. I find it best not to look anywhere that I might see adverts these days 😅

The big problem I have is that I live in Norway and the car market here is much smaller than the UK so there is a high probability that this is Norway's last surviving Renault 19 diesel.

But I should also stop looking at cars for sale but struggle to do it. Had I had space and money and a car transporter, I am convinced that I would have owned hundreds of cars within 10 to 20 years. This is how bad I am.

[Pieman]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:24 PM, Rust Collector said:

So, I finally owned up to buying the 100 today (yes, it’s been sat on the drive for a few days now).

As I wasn’t planning on bringing it home, I told my mrs ‘I have a car to move’ when I went to collect it. Then due to Murphy’s law I’ve ended up bringing it home and leaving it on the trailer (if it doesn’t touch the ground, I don’t have to own up to owning it, right?). Obviously, I have been doing everything asked of me by my partner whilst it is out there in order to keep things sweet and avoid questions until I can shift it 😅 

Today I wanted to play cars, but she fancied a trip to the beach. No bother, whilst I don’t like the beach it’s only down the road, and I can take beers to pass the time. Keeping her happy is the name of the game until I think of a way to own up to my bad decisions.

I’m an idiot and I often forget to use sun lotion. Last weekend I got burnt like a bastard on my shoulders and I’ve been uncomfortable all week. Before we left I asked if she had packed the sun lotion. ‘Yes, it’s in the bag’. We go to the beach. First call of action for me, sun lotion as I don’t want to get burnt again… yeah, the sun lotion isn’t in the bag. My dearly beloved forgot to pack it (‘yes, it’s in the bag!). I’m not happy but I don’t complain. A little while later, I’m asked out of the blue ‘when are you going to own up to owning that Audi?’ 😳 oh dear. I fessed up, told the story of the ancient advert etc., she wasn’t angry (we have enough cars that it’s obvious I had a problem already) but she did chirpily mention that we’d now be staying at the beach as long as she liked.

Now, I’m definite that she didn’t deliberately leave the sun lotion at home, it was an honest mistake. However, karma is a bitch, because I’m burnt to fuck and she’s absolutely fine!

here’s to another week of discomfort then…

Solution: get a partner who likes cars as much as you do, like I have.  I think she enjoyed the historic meeting at Donington yesterday even more than I did.

[Rust Collector]

18 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Solution: get a partner who likes cars as much as you do, like I have.  I think she enjoyed the historic meeting at Donington yesterday even more than I did.

To be fair to her she may have had a point that 13 cars is possibly* more than we need 😅

[Sunny Jim]

20 hours ago, omegod said:

Today i was this many days old when I discovered that 6ft 2" does not fit into a roofed MX5 without risk of concussion when driving over a crisp bag, this has made me very very sad   

 

You need to perform a "foamectomy"! You take the cover off the seat and then cut away foam from the base so you sit lower in it. I'm 6'1" and it did the trick for me (but only 11 stone so don't sink that low in a seat!).

https://www.miata.net/garage/foamectomy/index.html

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, myglaren said:

Not sure if this belongs here or in the happy thread.

Knock on the door, not expecting any deliveries.

Postie on the doorstep to tell me my keys are in the door.

Been there since yesterday evening   and 

Don't worry (too much) that's quite a regular occurrence. I find keys in doors quite regularly, probably at least once a month, and I've been a postie for 32 years so that's a lot of months.

I always knock and almost always the people inside didnt know they were there. Very occasionally someone has said they left them there because they were coming in and out or something but even then they don't seem to mind me pointing it out.

It's just another public service we perform that no one knows about. 

[Garythesnail]

9 hours ago, jakebullet said:

Return of the random writing on the rear window of the c1. Previously it was homophobic now it's weird "mam told me not to" crudely drawn cock.

???

 

 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

It's just another public service we perform that no one knows about. 

Yup, key personnel. 

[GMcD]

Modern repo parts in made of cheese shock horror. I've had to order yet another flasher relay as a replacement has given up the ghost after one journey. Pissing annoying as I dug the Toledo out from the back of the garage on Sunday so I could use it this week. 

I would buy an electronic one but I rather like the click of the old style ones rather than synthetic beep noise. If anyone has a reliable source let me know. 

[GMcD]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

Don't worry (too much) that's quite a regular occurrence. I find keys in doors quite regularly, probably at least once a month, and I've been a postie for 32 years so that's a lot of months.

I always knock and almost always the people inside didnt know they were there. Very occasionally someone has said they left them there because they were coming in and out or something but even then they don't seem to mind me pointing it out.

It's just another public service we perform that no one knows about. 

I left my car keys in the ignition once on the Friday after work.  I was staying in a flat in Govan at the time so it was a fucking miracle it was still there come the Monday morning.

Not repeated since!

[Saabnut]

I am at the airport and it’s full of idiots who fly once a year and are surprised that security happens and they can’t take liquids which of course are essential to week in fecking Malaga

[Bren]

Fecking asthma. Wheezing like Darth Vader. Took 50mg of prednisilone - still waiting for them to kick in.

[wuvvum]

12 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

Modern repo parts in made of cheese shock horror. I've had to order yet another flasher relay as a replacement has given up the ghost after one journey. Pissing annoying as I dug the Toledo out from the back of the garage on Sunday so I could use it this week. 

I would buy an electronic one but I rather like the click of the old style ones rather than synthetic beep noise. If anyone has a reliable source let me know. 

My Innocenti has an electronic one and that clicks.  It's not quite the mechanical click of an old bimetal relay but it's better than a high-pitched beep.

[myglaren]

16 hours ago, Yoss said:

Don't worry (too much) that's quite a regular occurrence. I find keys in doors quite regularly, probably at least once a month, and I've been a postie for 32 years so that's a lot of months.

I always knock and almost always the people inside didnt know they were there. Very occasionally someone has said they left them there because they were coming in and out or something but even then they don't seem to mind me pointing it out.

It's just another public service we perform that no one knows about. 

Thanks

The unusual thing is that it wasn't the regular postie either.

There are a couple over the road who are both posties and her round is this area.  They are on holiday though.

There was one morning a few years ago I couldn't find my keys to go to work.  Eventually discovered them in the door, outside of course.

Fortunately a very low crime area.

 

[MikeR]

I used to go out to the car to go to work and found I had left the hatchback up all night !!!!

 

[Yoss]

4 minutes ago, MikeR said:

I used to go out to the car to go to work and found I had left the hatchback up all night !!!!

 

I've left a window open occasionally but a tailgate is special. 

[Pieman]

5 hours ago, Saabnut said:

I am at the airport and it’s full of idiots who fly once a year and are surprised that security happens and they can’t take liquids which of course are essential to week in fecking Malaga

A couple of weeks ago I was flying to Italy (via Paris, thanks to a combination work booking the flights for me and Bologna being a pain in the butt to get to from the UK) - got to BHX really early after all the horror stories re security queues...and there weren't any, I didn't even slow down at security and actually asked one of the staff "Who's pinched all the queues?"

Karma then got me for my humour, as the bloody flight was delayed for over two hours!

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I've left a window open occasionally but a tailgate is special. 

A previous neighbour here left the driver's door open all night on their saab. Not just unlocked, but wide ajar. I found it in the morning as I was going out, shut it for them and the alarm went off!

[omegod]

5 hours ago, Saabnut said:

I am at the airport and it’s full of idiots who fly once a year and are surprised that security happens and they can’t take liquids which of course are essential to week in fecking Malaga

I meant to mention what I saw a few weeks back when flying to New York from Manchester T2, a guy next to me at security had an old metal biscuit tin taped up with hazard tape, a language barrier prevented him telling the security guard  what it actually was so it got opened up gingerly and pretty much everyone shit themselves when it was found to be full of a mass of circuit boards, wires and LED's 

He seemed oblivious to the stupidity of carrying something like this, You basically couldn't make anything look more like a bomb than whatever the fuck it was 

[Zelandeth]

Things that being a northerner who has moved to the Midlands reveals a number of things which are really annoying.  The one that's top of my list today: fscking ants!

Been trying to get a couple of jobs done on the car and the little bastards are trying to eat me alive.  

[Bren]

Saw a car for sale on tinterweb. I had the temerity to ask the seller some questions to which he never replied.

Am I supposed to just turn up and hand over a large amount of money?

[Ghosty]

I've had very little to do at work recently, I keep getting retrained to work on different parts of the campaign I'm on (temp government outsource contract that originated as test and trace, now relief work for the Home Office regarding Afghan refugees). The work pretty much dried up at the end of April... for the last two and a half weeks I've done literally nothing at work, with no sign of it ending. They tell us 'just go on the helpline' which has no script, no actual purpose, and hasn't rang once in two and a half weeks (I have a suspicion it's set up wrong on my work VM, shhh). I spend the days working on cars. However I want a real job cause nice as this is, it does me no favours. Getting plenty of interviews.


Got a briefing email through yesterday saying the contract (previously rolling 2 week, since May) has been extended to 22/8 as they still need us (?!), and if nothing changes they'll serve notice on 8/8. So I have a feeling I might lose my job soon - no worries, I'm already looking for other stuff, but it's worrying all the same. I've asked for clarification as the email was written strangely.
We aren't usually able to talk to colleagues but since the work laptops have Teams, you can - a 60 year old woman I've been working with for a bit started talking to me as she also resented having nothing to do (I think she's annoyed and is talking to me because I'm not afraid to speak my mind about incompetent higher ups sometimes). However she's been retrained on something and the higher ups have kept that quiet - knowing what I do, I asked my team leader how much longer I'd be doing fuck all and the response was 'don't know, they're meant to be training you on more stuff but don't know when it's going to happen'. Lies, they're doing it without me. 
My new friend also told me our team leader is apparently leaving the company on Thursday. Not been mentioned anywhere else... we're already down a team leader after one of them mysteriously disappeared while being investigated by HR after I complained about disability discrimination. A replacement never came... 
With two down, that would leave one team leader that doesn't have access to the Home Office systems - dealing with about 60 people. What a shitshow...