The grumpy thread

[Remspoor]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Maybe, but I need a rest, not a roadtrip.

You are flying in 2022 No rest there either.😁

[sheffcortinacentre]

I'm sick of courier services telling me I can help save the plant by collecting my parcel from one of their collection points.

 

Fuck off I've paid for the item to be delivered to my door plus what you really meen is 

1. You only have to make one drop to an easy location ( where you'll be picking up from too).

2. You'll use less fuel ( I'll have to use more negating  my saving of buying online).

3. You'll have less outlay (more profit) wages , time, etc.

If you can't make a big enough profit get into a different business you where happy to undercut royal mail to get into it.

 

 

[High Jetter]

55 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

You are flying in 2022 No rest there either.😁

Yup. If it works right, flying is 7.5 hours door 2 door inc picking up shopping. I' ve driven it in the past, 12 hours min. It's the ferry time that gives me the problem. Not confident I'd trust the MG yet either.

[High Jetter]

58 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

I'm sick of courier services telling me I can help save the plant by collecting my parcel from one of their collection points.

 

Fuck off I've paid for the item to be delivered to my door plus what you really meen is 

1. You only have to make one drop to an easy location ( where you'll be picking up from too).

2. You'll use less fuel ( I'll have to use more negating  my saving of buying online).

3. You'll have less outlay (more profit) wages , time, etc.

If you can't make a big enough profit get into a different business you where happy to undercut royal mail to get into it.

 

 

Sometimes it's easier picking up from a locker, especially if it's a gift for her. (Or yourself)

[cobblers]

21 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Sometimes it's easier picking up from a locker, especially if it's a gift for her. (Or yourself)

Yup, when I'm buying something I don't want my wife to find out about (she works with me and does all the goods in) I get it delivered to the spar shop across the road from our house. It's probably saved our marriage.

[High Jetter]

Star headline: SHOCK HORROR SPAR SHOP SAVED OUR MARRIAGE!

4 figures at least, shirley?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Sometimes it's easier picking up from a locker, especially if it's a gift for her. (Or yourself)

I have used this for a couple of high value items over the last couple of years.  Mainly from Amazon, but purely because their idea of "delivered to householder" is knocking on the door once then buggering off, leaving the parcel sitting on the door step.

Despite the sign we have on the door saying "Please ring bell" and any special instructions fields saying the same.  Maybe 1 in 10 times the dogs will hear a knock at the door, but unless we have the door to the conservatory open (unlikely as it's the temperature of the surface of the sun in there in summer and about 3 degrees above absolute zero in the winter) there's no chance of us hearing someone knocking on the door.

We've had several things disappear from the step following that happening...annoying when it's something low value and not mission critical, but a real ball ache if it's something valuable or time sensitive.

[PhilA]

6 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Forgive me if I've got my maths wrong but that works out at about £0.90 a litre!? Hasn't been that low for what, 15 years now?!

Something like that but even if something's cheap, the unexpected percentage hike is still a pain.

[GMcD]

7 hours ago, PhilA said:

Something like that but even if something's cheap, the unexpected percentage hike is still a pain.

Yup.  The average driver in the USA does twice the miles of a UK driver in his car that typically has worse fuel consumption so it stings just as much as it does here when prices climb.

[andyberg]

7 minutes ago, Gerrymcd said:

Yup.  The average driver in the USA does twice the miles of a UK driver in his car that typically has worse fuel consumption so it stings just as much as it does here when prices climb.

Is that because sometimes we actually walk to our local shop 😂😂

[cobblers]

31 minutes ago, andyberg said:

Is that because sometimes we actually walk to our local shop 😂😂

Yeah but in America there are no pavements and the local shop is a supermarket 4 miles down a 6 lane road. It's impossible to be a pedestrian there!

[New POD]

16 hours ago, artdjones said:

You obviously don't know anything about the Irish insurance market.

Basically, no short term insurance at all.

I was making a suggestion without facts. 

[New POD]

25 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Yeah but in America there are no pavements and the local shop is a supermarket 4 miles down a 6 lane road. It's impossible to be a pedestrian there!

Stayed at a conference hotel about 20 miles from Chicago. 4 times over 4 months. 

Flew in on Saturday night. Flew home Friday night. 

Sunday, I got the hotel to drive me to the station and I got a return train ticket to the windy city. 

Got back to the Station, and thought I'd walk. Only about 2 miles. Wasn't too bad, but there was about a mile with no sidewalk. Got back to the hotel and the reception staff were horrified. 

One of the guys on our course flew in from Texas.  Rented a mustang for the week. Parked it in the car park. And then drive it back to the airport.  Only drove it 30 miles..

[artdjones]

40 minutes ago, New POD said:

I was making a suggestion without facts. 

Insurance is the bane of business in Ireland. With the Irish, if there's pain, Ka-Ching Ka-Ching. People are finally realising that it's ripping everyone else off.

A TD(MP) recently lost her career when she sat on a swing at the pub while holding a beer bottle in each hand, then fell off and sued the pub. Not helped by her claim that she was incapacitated but had actually done a 10k a few weeks later.

[RoverFolkUs]

After 2 and a half years of narrowly dodging it, Covid has finally reared its ugly head in my household

I'm negative so far, and the affected person only has very mild symptoms but we'll see how things pan out 

Fuck sake

[AnnoyingPentium]

*looks out window and it's quite clearly scorchio*

Okay good, I'll get to replacing that brake servo hose.

*goes outside*

*it rains*

[Datsuncog]

Yeah, been dodging rain showers all afternoon here too... mightily frustrating!

[High Jetter]

On 7/1/2022 at 2:05 PM, High Jetter said:

Car hire, Ireland. In 2018, it cost £350 to hire a car for a week from Knock airport. Quotes for this August are north of €1,300! Apparently they sold the fleet due to covid and are struggling to get new stock. Not sure how we're going to get round this, flights already booked.

Just managed to book for a shade under £800. I do wonder how they're going to try to shaft me on collection though.

[PhilA]

Another Canute ran the stop sign and drove into this poor Canute who then crashed into the power pole.

And that's why the Canuting power is out.

 

Driving is hard

[Remspoor]

On 7/1/2022 at 10:54 PM, sheffcortinacentre said:

I'm sick of courier services telling me I can help save the plant by collecting my parcel from one of their collection points.

 

Fuck off I've paid for the item to be delivered to my door plus what you really meen is 

1. You only have to make one drop to an easy location ( where you'll be picking up from too).

2. You'll use less fuel ( I'll have to use more negating  my saving of buying online).

3. You'll have less outlay (more profit) wages , time, etc.

If you can't make a big enough profit get into a different business you where happy to undercut royal mail to get into it.

 

 

when we first stared using Amazon here in Spain we use to get phone calls to ask us if we would pick up the package at the local pick up point. A fuel station. We refused for the reasons you have posted. Some would say we do not live at our address because t5hier  sat nav could not find us. It took a while, but in the end all couriers can now find us. We are in a village in the only occupied house. There is around 10 other buildings.

[Remspoor]

4 hours ago, PhilA said:

Another Canute ran the stop sign and drove into this poor Canute who then crashed into the power pole.

And that's why the Canuting power is out.

 

Driving is hard

I occasionally watch RR&BD Driving School on YT. I cannot believe how hard it is in the USA to drive and some of the laws covering insurance.

[Lacquer Peel]

21 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I have used this for a couple of high value items over the last couple of years.  Mainly from Amazon, but purely because their idea of "delivered to householder" is knocking on the door once then buggering off, leaving the parcel sitting on the door step.

Despite the sign we have on the door saying "Please ring bell" and any special instructions fields saying the same.  Maybe 1 in 10 times the dogs will hear a knock at the door, but unless we have the door to the conservatory open (unlikely as it's the temperature of the surface of the sun in there in summer and about 3 degrees above absolute zero in the winter) there's no chance of us hearing someone knocking on the door.

We've had several things disappear from the step following that happening...annoying when it's something low value and not mission critical, but a real ball ache if it's something valuable or time sensitive.

Amazon is engaged in a race to the bottom and their drivers are run ragged. 

[Bren]

Saw Bryan Adams at Widnes.

I am surprised some people bother going to concerts given the amount of time they spend getting up to go for beer then getting up again for a piss afterwards.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I occasionally watch RR&BD Driving School on YT. I cannot believe how hard it is in the USA to drive and some of the laws covering insurance.

Coming from the UK, I can say this:

1) You are allowed to drive very heavy, articulated vehicles by proving you can drive your Honda Civic around the block.

2) The road signs here are very awful. Not just regular awful.

3) Interstate driving is often a problem because some drivers have been on the road for many hours. Couple that with old sections of Eisenhower camber, curve and surface designed for 55 mph and they'll lose control at a moment's distraction doing 85.

4) Big intersections with long lights lead to bored people and impatient high speed red-jumpers.

5) 44 ton trucks are not speed limited. They're usually doing 85 too.

And yes, insurance here is expensive. When the TV commercials say "Go with company X and save hundreds!", that's per annum but still.. between 3 vehicles (2 fully comp, 1 third party) I pay nearly $400/month in insurance alone.

Then they wonder why so many drive uninsured. That's also why I have specific coverage for uninsured motorists on my policy. Basically I'm paying for them if they crash into me and it's found to be my fault. Or vice versa.

Phil

[Pieman]

Every other post you make is either about extreme weather threatening to destroy your home, or something about America that is rubbish.  It always leaves me thinking "And you choose to live there?"

Then I remember I live in a country which is the laughing stock of the entire world in every aspect.

[PhilA]

15 hours ago, Pieman said:

Every other post you make is either about extreme weather threatening to destroy your home, or something about America that is rubbish.  It always leaves me thinking "And you choose to live there?"

Then I remember I live in a country which is the laughing stock of the entire world in every aspect.

Just plucking the choice pieces. After all, this is the Grumpy thread.

 

Don't forget, I've been here 15 years, and when in Rome; it's merely a different way of doing the same thing.

Yes, due to the geography, the weather can be much worse than there- often rather short bursts of very violent weather which in this case have affected me personally on an annoying scale for two years running.

On the flip side the people here are good, the food is a damned sight better and the overall attitude to life is better.

 

So yes, America is a bit marmite, but where isn't if it's not been home for a while?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

@PhilA In my limited experience of driving in the States, I noticed that highway driving was all about picking a lane and driving in it without any regard for the speed of the other vehicles.  We were around DC-Pennsylvania and New York.  Do you get that where you are?

[Remspoor]

9 hours ago, PhilA said:

Coming from the UK, I can say this:

1) You are allowed to drive very heavy, articulated vehicles by proving you can drive your Honda Civic around the block.

2) The road signs here are very awful. Not just regular awful.

3) Interstate driving is often a problem because some drivers have been on the road for many hours. Couple that with old sections of Eisenhower camber, curve and surface designed for 55 mph and they'll lose control at a moment's distraction doing 85.

4) Big intersections with long lights lead to bored people and impatient high speed red-jumpers.

5) 44 ton trucks are not speed limited. They're usually doing 85 too.

And yes, insurance here is expensive. When the TV commercials say "Go with company X and save hundreds!", that's per annum but still.. between 3 vehicles (2 fully comp, 1 third party) I pay nearly $400/month in insurance alone.

Then they wonder why so many drive uninsured. That's also why I have specific coverage for uninsured motorists on my policy. Basically I'm paying for them if they crash into me and it's found to be my fault. Or vice versa.

Phil

Thanks for the insight.

[Bren]

Forces TV has ended. Gutted.

Along with strikes and rampant inflation their 70's programmes gave 2022 a real touch of 70's authenticity.

[PhilA]

5 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

@PhilA In my limited experience of driving in the States, I noticed that highway driving was all about picking a lane and driving in it without any regard for the speed of the other vehicles.  We were around DC-Pennsylvania and New York.  Do you get that where you are?

On more isolated sections of interstate (usually 2 lane) there tends to be slightly better lane discipline because the road calls for it- slower vehicles keep right.

Once the road enters a more urban area that often goes out the window because the road system forces chaos.

As a rule, I've found that in Europe the motorway system will generally force you to exit to one side (right on rhd roads, left on lhd) and if there is necessity for an interchange the exit lanes may grow to more than 1 on the exit side, while the main section of road continues. Lane 1 is always lane 1, 2 is 2. 3 or more continue alongside.

That system is what's attempted to be kept to here but once you enter a densely populated urban area that usually goes out of the window , and the principle of "the lane you're in is for where you're going".

Sightly less intense than D.C., interstate 10 into New Orleans is a reasonable example of the chaos. If I join I-10 at the 10/310 interchange and head eastbound, i have to join using the left of the two lanes. That then adds to the interstate and becomes what would be termed lane 1 in Europe. At that point I have 2 lanes to the right of me and two lanes to the left. The right hand two then peel off toward the airport and 3 continue east.

If I stay in that lane, never exit, it'll bring me through areas of road where I'm in the middle lane, with 3 lanes to my right and 3 to my left. Those lanes join and leave the road several times, and finally I'm forced off the road onto Canal St exit, about 15 miles later.

Around D.C. that can become more extreme- if you join in the right lane and stay in it, you can actually exit the road and peel off on the left.

Thus, around cities, the concept of "passing lane" goes well out the window and is replaced by the "this lane (or group of lanes) goes to X" principle whereby all lane position and passing rules vanish.

What makes it worse is when someone who's used to city interstate drives on rural interstate and ignores the rules. 

That and 44 ton semi trucks tend to sit in the middle lane if there's 3 and so if they're going slowly, traffic will just flow around them on either side.

I'm told it infuriates and confuses people whose experience of high speed roads being more ordered and the "middle lane hogger" being a rolling roadblock rather than a free for all moving traffic island.

Phil