The grumpy thread

[AnnoyingPentium]

16 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Cool, thanks. Looking forward to trying the Maybole bypass instead of the depression of actually going through it!

It's great. Used it a few times now as it's so much easier!

[Wibble]

1 minute ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

It's great. Used it a few times now as it's so much easier!

Fab, thank you 👍

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, Wibble said:

Fab, thank you 👍

Just watch as they may have brought back the temp 40 speed limit at one stretch.

[Mat.T]

Thanks to some nice kids from a local school my works Skoda pick up now looks like:

https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/witham-fire-live-updates-warning-7320281

Kids set fire to a bungalow which then in turn set fire to the workshop belonging to a mate of my boss. Along with various other buildings and the field next door. The Skoda was inside along with a Bentley Mk6 project, tools livelihood his works van.

We had to put a spare set of wheels on the Skoda and drag it out of the way for the insurance assessor to look at. I can't believe how rot free it was! The search is on for a similar vehicle, decent small pick ups seem few and far between.

[MikeR]

horse flies , they always find me , this time in the middle of my back , throu my T shirt ,   flying teeth ridden little bat stewards ....

[WillCarter]

Having a bit of a saga when it comes to buying a Rover 75. Know exactly what I want, but the universe seems to be fighting me all the way. All started a few weeks ago, found myself heading towards Wolverhampton to go and view a 75 that was (and still is actually) on eBay. Old boy was apparently giving up driving, had owned it since new, been a bit of a workhorse but in generally good shape. Got there and it had been fairly described cosmetically, nothing special, but a good spec and nothing that couldn't be freshened up. Agreed a price of £950 which would give me just over a grand left in the kitty to clean it up and was happy with the deal. That is until I took it around the block for a quick drive prior to handing over the readies. Absolutely no boost from the Turbo and the time it took the Autobox to downshift could be counted in minutes. Thanks, but no thanks and off back down the M6 we went.

A few days later on a Sunday evening another one appears on eBay, again Birmingham-ish based, this time a facelift model, but in my favoured Racing Green and in apparently immaculate condition. Quickly contact the seller, he suggests doing a video call viewing to save me a trip if it's not what I'm after which we arrange for the next day after work. Few messages go back and forth and it sounds like exactly what I'm after. Belongs to his father as a second car, but he's scaling back to just a daily at this point, but the Rover has wanted for nothing. We agree a price in principle and I head to bed looking forward to the video call the next day. Up early the next day for work, have an eBay notification. 'Sorry, car is sold, someone paid without even seeing it.' I'm fuming, but what can you do? It's gone and let's face it, he'd have been an idiot to turn it down.

Another week or two passes and another suitable candidate appears on my radar. Another eBay find, again in Birmingham (there's a theme here), this time at what appears to be a dealership. Make contact, the dealer calls me up and we have a good chat. I ask him for any faults or issues, he assures me that it's a fantastic example, that I won't be disappointed, drives like a dream, unmarked interior, all the stuff you want to hear. I tell him I won't be able to view it until the end of the week, not a problem as he won't be available until then anyway, so a viewing on Friday is arranged. Another call on the Friday to make sure I'm coming, again I'm assured that I won't be disappointed, he sells a lot of these and this is one of the best he's seen in a while. We get to the address and I'm surprised to find the car parked on the kerb outside a house rather than  dealership, not the end of the world though. Knock the door, an old man staggers up, thrusts the keys through the gap says 'it's got trade plates, take it for a drive' and shuts the door again. 

I'm somewhat confused but I'm here now so I go for a look round. First impressions are important when you're buying a car, and let's just say that this one wasn't really giving a great one. Every panel was marked or dented and the rear bumper had been stoved in at some point, sending the parking sensors haywire in the process. I'd pretty much already made up my mind at this point, but I thought I'd at least find out what a supposedly good one was like to drive. Get in and the unmarked interior was well, not unmarked. It was just an interior in average condition for its age, and certainly not deserving of the adulation it had been given over the phone. Started it up took it for a drive. Admittedly it pulled well, but it was joined by a symphony of clunks and knocks from the suspension when tackling even the tamest of undulations. If this is the best one he's driven in a while is like then I dread to think what the worst is. 

Get back to the house feeling a little insulted by the fact I'd committed four hours of mine and my partners Friday evening to it, so decide that I'll try an equally insulting offer of a grand (it's up for £2300) just to make myself feel better. Knock the door, same old man, start my spiel... 'nothing to do with me mate, I've never driven the thing, he just left it here'. And with that, the door was closed and that was the last I heard from either of them. 

Spend the weekend feeling pissed off and thinking I might as well just go and get myself a 3-Series or an A4 like everyone else. Get back to my Mums this afternoon who I'm staying with while our house purchase completes and her husband excitedly tells me that he's seen a 75 turning into the next street, it was CDTi Tourer just like I want, go and see if it's still there. I'm out of the door like a flash and around the corner, I walk up the street and there it is, the PERFECT 75! CDTi Auto, Connoisseur, Aquamarine, Meteor alloys, pre-facelift, it's basically the car I would have ordered had I stepped into the dealership in 2003. This is destiny surely? I've never knocked on anyone's door to ask about a car before but I'm not letting this one go.

The owner answers, I make the enquiry. He's never selling it. Can I leave my number just in case? No point. Why would he? It's absolutely perfect, I wouldn't sell it either. I thank him for his time and take one last forlorn look at the car.  Back to the drawing board.

[High Jetter]

I know it might seem like a waste of time, but the experiences help crystallize exactly what you do want, IMHO. Concentrate the search on CDTi Auto Tourers, Connoisseur, Aquamarine, Meteor alloys, pre-facelift.

[Crackers]

To whoever has nerfed my car whilst parked, scraped and bent the number plate plinth and cracked the lacquer on the bumper, and driven off without leaving a note, let me be absolutely crystal clear:

Fuck yourself. 

I know it's minimal, but I noticed it immediately when I came out to the car today. The plinth can be replaced or removed easily but the paint damage is a pain. Whoever did it probably didn't even know they'd touched it, but regardless of the damage you should always fess up and leave a note. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Is it me or is pub landlord a bit of a soft lad to not hire a water bowser from a plant hire co. and get someone to plumb it in? For a few hundred quid he's missed a week of summer trade when there's actually money to be made as a publican?

‘People are worried it will happen again’: the English village whose water ran out (msn.com)

[Metal Guru]

30 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Is it me or is pub landlord a bit of a soft lad to not hire a water bowser from a plant hire co. and get someone to plumb it in? For a few hundred quid he's missed a week of summer trade when there's actually money to be made as a publican?

‘People are worried it will happen again’: the English village whose water ran out (msn.com)

The reservoir is at 67% capacity. That doesn’t seem unreasonable for mid summer. I used to live in Kent , it seemed there was a hosepipe ban from 1976 ( “drought year” ) until I moved in the 90s.

[J W Pepper]

5 hours ago, Crackers said:

To whoever has nerfed my car whilst parked, scraped and bent the number plate plinth and cracked the lacquer on the bumper, and driven off without leaving a note, let me be absolutely crystal clear:

Fuck yourself. 

I know it's minimal, but I noticed it immediately when I came out to the car today. The plinth can be replaced or removed easily but the paint damage is a pain. Whoever did it probably didn't even know they'd touched it, but regardless of the damage you should always fess up and leave a note. 

Get a vehicle with a towbar, find who did it and reverse into them slowly and drive forward, making sure you rip their plate off and repeat about 2 dozen times, problem solved 😆

On a serious note its a bugger, and hope you can get it fixed without too much trouble 

[Talbot]

Today was going very badly.   After a 450 mile journey filled with UTTER CUNTS on the road, most of who are certified oxygen thieves and a waste of life, I finally got to Glasgow.

Went to book in to the hotel I booked a few days ago.
They don't do cooked breakfast: Strike one.
They do not allow people to have a door key for the hotel and the door is locked from midnight to 7am.  No argument: Strike two.
Turns out that they had taken payment for an entire week at the time of booking,  Not when I got there, or on departure, but at the point of booking:  Strike three.

Refund.  Fucking now.  To be fair, the guy did refund me, but what a complete shitshow of a hotel.

Round the corner to a hotel I've stayed in before.  Straight in, £25 a night cheaper, cooked brekkie available in the morning and 24hr service.  Missed dinner, but got a recommendation for a decent local catbab shop, so now have a munchie box and the diet starts... well.... probably in a month or two.   I feel fat and will likely regret it tomorrow.

[Mrs6C]

31 minutes ago, Talbot said:

so now have a munchie box

With a Dougie Donnelly action figure?

[Talbot]

Only an adjustin' spanner.  Thankfully no wig either!

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

life, I finally got to Glasgow.

Went to book in to the hotel I booked a few days ago.
They don't do cooked breakfast

FFS, why? Haven't you learned nuffing? 🤣

[sierraman]

14 hours ago, Talbot said:

Today was going very badly.   After a 450 mile journey filled with UTTER CUNTS on the road, most of who are certified oxygen thieves and a waste of life, I finally got to Glasgow.

Went to book in to the hotel I booked a few days ago.
They don't do cooked breakfast: Strike one.
They do not allow people to have a door key for the hotel and the door is locked from midnight to 7am.  No argument: Strike two.
Turns out that they had taken payment for an entire week at the time of booking,  Not when I got there, or on departure, but at the point of booking:  Strike three.

Refund.  Fucking now.  To be fair, the guy did refund me, but what a complete shitshow of a hotel.

Round the corner to a hotel I've stayed in before.  Straight in, £25 a night cheaper, cooked brekkie available in the morning and 24hr service.  Missed dinner, but got a recommendation for a decent local catbab shop, so now have a munchie box and the diet starts... well.... probably in a month or two.   I feel fat and will likely regret it tomorrow.

I didn’t think hotels still operated like that where you weren’t allowed a key and had some sort of curfew. It sounds like how they’d have carried on in the fifties. 

[Yoss]

15 hours ago, Talbot said:

Today was going very badly.   After a 450 mile journey filled with UTTER CUNTS on the road, most of who are certified oxygen thieves and a waste of life, I finally got to Glasgow.

Went to book in to the hotel I booked a few days ago.
They don't do cooked breakfast: Strike one.
They do not allow people to have a door key for the hotel and the door is locked from midnight to 7am.  No argument: Strike two.
Turns out that they had taken payment for an entire week at the time of booking,  Not when I got there, or on departure, but at the point of booking:  Strike three.

Refund.  Fucking now.  To be fair, the guy did refund me, but what a complete shitshow of a hotel.

Round the corner to a hotel I've stayed in before.  Straight in, £25 a night cheaper, cooked brekkie available in the morning and 24hr service.  Missed dinner, but got a recommendation for a decent local catbab shop, so now have a munchie box and the diet starts... well.... probably in a month or two.   I feel fat and will likely regret it tomorrow.

 

57 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I didn’t think hotels still operated like that where you weren’t allowed a key and had some sort of curfew. It sounds like how they’d have carried on in the fifties. 

 

[Hertz]

22 hours ago, WillCarter said:

Having a bit of a saga when it comes to buying a Rover 75. Know exactly what I want, but the universe seems to be fighting me all the way. All started a few weeks ago, found myself heading towards Wolverhampton to go and view a 75 that was (and still is actually) on eBay. Old boy was apparently giving up driving, had owned it since new, been a bit of a workhorse but in generally good shape. Got there and it had been fairly described cosmetically, nothing special, but a good spec and nothing that couldn't be freshened up. Agreed a price of £950 which would give me just over a grand left in the kitty to clean it up and was happy with the deal. That is until I took it around the block for a quick drive prior to handing over the readies. Absolutely no boost from the Turbo and the time it took the Autobox to downshift could be counted in minutes. Thanks, but no thanks and off back down the M6 we went.

A few days later on a Sunday evening another one appears on eBay, again Birmingham-ish based, this time a facelift model, but in my favoured Racing Green and in apparently immaculate condition. Quickly contact the seller, he suggests doing a video call viewing to save me a trip if it's not what I'm after which we arrange for the next day after work. Few messages go back and forth and it sounds like exactly what I'm after. Belongs to his father as a second car, but he's scaling back to just a daily at this point, but the Rover has wanted for nothing. We agree a price in principle and I head to bed looking forward to the video call the next day. Up early the next day for work, have an eBay notification. 'Sorry, car is sold, someone paid without even seeing it.' I'm fuming, but what can you do? It's gone and let's face it, he'd have been an idiot to turn it down.

Another week or two passes and another suitable candidate appears on my radar. Another eBay find, again in Birmingham (there's a theme here), this time at what appears to be a dealership. Make contact, the dealer calls me up and we have a good chat. I ask him for any faults or issues, he assures me that it's a fantastic example, that I won't be disappointed, drives like a dream, unmarked interior, all the stuff you want to hear. I tell him I won't be able to view it until the end of the week, not a problem as he won't be available until then anyway, so a viewing on Friday is arranged. Another call on the Friday to make sure I'm coming, again I'm assured that I won't be disappointed, he sells a lot of these and this is one of the best he's seen in a while. We get to the address and I'm surprised to find the car parked on the kerb outside a house rather than  dealership, not the end of the world though. Knock the door, an old man staggers up, thrusts the keys through the gap says 'it's got trade plates, take it for a drive' and shuts the door again. 

I'm somewhat confused but I'm here now so I go for a look round. First impressions are important when you're buying a car, and let's just say that this one wasn't really giving a great one. Every panel was marked or dented and the rear bumper had been stoved in at some point, sending the parking sensors haywire in the process. I'd pretty much already made up my mind at this point, but I thought I'd at least find out what a supposedly good one was like to drive. Get in and the unmarked interior was well, not unmarked. It was just an interior in average condition for its age, and certainly not deserving of the adulation it had been given over the phone. Started it up took it for a drive. Admittedly it pulled well, but it was joined by a symphony of clunks and knocks from the suspension when tackling even the tamest of undulations. If this is the best one he's driven in a while is like then I dread to think what the worst is. 

Get back to the house feeling a little insulted by the fact I'd committed four hours of mine and my partners Friday evening to it, so decide that I'll try an equally insulting offer of a grand (it's up for £2300) just to make myself feel better. Knock the door, same old man, start my spiel... 'nothing to do with me mate, I've never driven the thing, he just left it here'. And with that, the door was closed and that was the last I heard from either of them. 

Spend the weekend feeling pissed off and thinking I might as well just go and get myself a 3-Series or an A4 like everyone else. Get back to my Mums this afternoon who I'm staying with while our house purchase completes and her husband excitedly tells me that he's seen a 75 turning into the next street, it was CDTi Tourer just like I want, go and see if it's still there. I'm out of the door like a flash and around the corner, I walk up the street and there it is, the PERFECT 75! CDTi Auto, Connoisseur, Aquamarine, Meteor alloys, pre-facelift, it's basically the car I would have ordered had I stepped into the dealership in 2003. This is destiny surely? I've never knocked on anyone's door to ask about a car before but I'm not letting this one go.

The owner answers, I make the enquiry. He's never selling it. Can I leave my number just in case? No point. Why would he? It's absolutely perfect, I wouldn't sell it either. I thank him for his time and take one last forlorn look at the car.  Back to the drawing board.

I feel your pain. We had a similar issue when looking for a Vauxhall Adam for my wife/daughter to learn to drive in. Viewed 6 in total over 11 months, eventually we did get there and found a really nice one within budget.  Just a matter of being patient but it depends the urgency for your circumstance really.  Hope the "one" turns up soon for you.

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, SH1TE said:

😂 well for a Monday, a customer we did a prior inspection prior basically accused us of being crooks when we only tested to guidelines and it failed miserably.

Nice as pie we have another job 🤣 hopefully expectations follow testing manual this time. NICE

‘But it passed last year!!!’

[horriblemercedes]

1 hour ago, SH1TE said:

My brother's friends were animals, drinking until they puked, puking in public, being vile to bar staff after a cocktail mixed and wiping arse on curtains in their 20's🤮 maybe the hotel doesn't want to cater to this type of fine upstanding type🤔 can't say I'd blame them.

 

You're right - people who order such mental things as a cooked breakfast are bound to vandalise hotels and deliberately offend leisure industry workers.

[Talbot]

Indeed.  Anyone who has met me will know for absolute sure that any hotel room I stay in ends up trashed/on fire/flooded/all of the above and I try very hard to treat everyone I meet like shit on my shoe.

It was surreal.  The more I think about it the stranger it gets.

[MikeR]

remote for the telly went all sticky keys , so I stripped and cleaned it , and it stopped working ....

so I ordered a new one for 7 notes off amazon and picked it up this afternoon from the pick up point  ( u do that when your a tight arse and retired, walked as well  )

the new one worked great , all new looking , none of the letters worn off either ,

so the old one in pieces on the bench I put it back together for binning .. ( I am sad like that )

and tried it ,,, it just bloody worked !!  ??????

 

[GeorgeB]

On 7/28/2022 at 8:03 AM, barefoot said:

Really? 

The only thing that can actually be claimed in favour of MacDonalds is consistency. Wherever you are in the world, no matter how bad things get, you can always rely on a big mac tasting like shit.

EFA.

[Wibble]

Top tip, don’t connect your jumper pack the wrong way in the dark, they don’t like it:

Thought it had reverse polarity protection but obviously not. Fucks sake, only used the bastard thing once, I iz a blind prick😡

[Wibble]

Yep, I know but still pissed off with myself.

[MrGTI6]

37 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Top tip, don’t connect your jumper pack the wrong way in the dark, they don’t like it:

Thought it had reverse polarity protection but obviously not. Fucks sake, only used the bastard thing once, I iz a blind prick😡

Did this once on a Hilux Surf. The previous owner decided to tie some red tape around the negative terminal! I'm sure you can work out what happened next...

I've since learnt to always check properly!

[Wibble]

Glad I’m not the only one!

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Wibble said:

Top tip, don’t connect your jumper pack the wrong way in the dark, they don’t like it:

Thought it had reverse polarity protection but obviously not. Fucks sake, only used the bastard thing once, I iz a blind prick😡

Spicy Pillows! reminds me this bigclive classic, if you get lucky the anti back charge diode pack will blow open like a fuse, if not well...

 

[Wibble]

Thanks, interesting but I’m still pissed off with myself as have had to by a new booster☹️

[andy18s]

9 hours ago, SH1TE said:

At least it didn't catch fire

Yet...I'd be leaving this somewhere safe surrounded by sandbags tbh.

Maybe even have a chat with a local fireman..