The grumpy thread

[Back_For_More]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Roofer failed to turn up about a week and a half back to do a survey and quote.  Phoned me up yesterday when I was in the middle of something and apologised profusely and promised they would be here today.

Guess what?  They never showed up again.  Am I surprised?  Not in the slightest.  Am I pissed of?  Yes, absolutely.  I've a thousand things to do this afternoon and really could have done without needlessly twiddling my thumbs for two hours for someone to not appear. Again.

I'm afraid once they'd stood me up the 1st time I'd tell them to show up at my convenience - fucked around once is enough.

They can lose their lunch or evening time or fucking do one..... 

[New POD]

5 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Without boasting too much but I took my A levels 40 years ago. I was in the top 6 in my year at one of the best academic state schools in the county. I got AAB. Nowadays half are getting 5 A* at crappy comps. 

Without boasting, 37 years ago I got D, E and an O level pass in subjects I'd got As in at O level, so god knows what I did for 2 years. (Drinking and Fixing motorbikes mainly)

Didn't stop me getting into Polytechnic, or becoming a Chartered Engineer. 

[New POD]

19 hours ago, DavieW said:

And here's me thinking LED bulbs were energy efficient 😮

I noticed that the other day. 

[Lacquer Peel]

5 minutes ago, New POD said:

Without boasting, 37 years ago I got D, E and an O level pass in subjects I'd got As in at O level, so god knows what I did for 2 years. (Drinking and Fixing motorbikes mainly)

Didn't stop me getting into Polytechnic, or becoming a Chartered Engineer. 

Life has been easy for you eh. 

[New POD]

1 minute ago, Lacquer Peel said:

Life has been easy for you eh. 

Kind of easy.  In that I just had to turn up. 

Kind of not. In that I had to actually do some work, once I turned up. 

Doing shit in my A levels, kick started my paranoia about failing, so I've tried to do the best job in most things, and make sure I'm open to potential opportunities. 

I am.intrinsically lazy, so everyday, I have to have words with myself. 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

44 minutes ago, New POD said:

so everyday, I have to have words with myself. 

I tried doing this, but apparently it can make the other shoppers in Tesco quite concerned.

[New POD]

30 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I tried doing this, but apparently it can make the other shoppers in Tesco quite concerned.

Are you me? 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, New POD said:

Are you me? 

[Metal Guru]

5 hours ago, New POD said:

Without boasting, 37 years ago I got D, E and an O level pass in subjects I'd got As in at O level, so god knows what I did for 2 years. (Drinking and Fixing motorbikes mainly)

Didn't stop me getting into Polytechnic, or becoming a Chartered Engineer. 

D,E and O at A level would be worth at least A,B and a C today. Would get you into Oxbridge with a suitable sob story.

[New POD]

2 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

D,E and O at A level would be worth at least A,B and a C today. Would get you into Oxbridge with a suitable sob story.

😂

Given the amount of work my kids did to get As and A*s  I'd suggest more like C, D and E. 

 

[artdjones]

Just out of interest, here's the O level paper 2, set by the University of London in 1976. I took the Welsh equivalent the year before with grade B. No calculators or tables were allowed, and you were explicitly told that anything below a C was a fail.

fdocuments.in_o-level-mathematics-paper-2-june-76.pdf

[Metal Guru]

25 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Just out of interest, here's the O level paper 2, set by the University of London in 1976. I took the Welsh equivalent the year before with grade B. No calculators or tables were allowed, and you were explicitly told that anything below a C was a fail.

fdocuments.in_o-level-mathematics-paper-2-june-76.pdf 2.68 MB · 3 downloads

I took the same exam in 1977. I think calculators were allowed the year after. I got a fancy scientific one for passing my O levels. A couple of years before that , a basic 4 function calculator cost about £30, equivalent to about £230 today taking inflation although it would also have bought 100 pints of beer or 200 litres of petrol, 

[chadders]

7 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

D,E and O at A level would be worth at least A,B and a C today. Would get you into Oxbridge with a suitable sob story.

Do you have kids?

I have a pretty good idea how bright mine are and can therefore compare their results to my own A level results some 40+ years ago and totally disagree with your theory.

 

 

[Bren]

Clusters of blisters on my feet despite wearing same shoes. Also a couple on my head. The ones on my head disappeared after some steroids. Prior to this my skin had been itchy.

I let my consultant know. I have a feeling that my high eosiniphils are now on the move.

I think vasculitis is on the horizon.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

Do you have kids?

I have a pretty good idea how bright mine are and can therefore compare their results to my own A level results some 40+ years ago and totally disagree with your theory.

 

 

OK , I exaggerated a bit , but how  do you equate that from 1993 to 2021 nearly all subjects had nearly double the number of A grades awarded.? Kids didn’t get twice as clever in 20 years , teaching certainly hasn’t improved, ( yes I know work load , extra curricula blah blah). A* didn’t even exist, they had to add it because A was no longer anything special. 

I see on the news kids getting 15A* GCSEs from a not very highly rated school in Carlisle. How do you even properly study 15 subjects ?  With other time table constraints, that’s less than an hour a week.

My son took his school exams 10 years ago but in Scotland so I can’t compare his results directly. Scottish results have been steadily rising year on year but not to the same extent as the English.

Im sure you’re kids are very bright. Many who get A and A* would have got them back then, but at least half wouldn’t have.

[inconsistant]

21 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Without boasting too much but I took my A levels 40 years ago. I was in the top 6 in my year at one of the best academic state schools in the county. I got AAB. Nowadays half are getting 5 A* at crappy comps. 

But you've still ended up here with us.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, inconsistant said:

But you've still ended up here with us.

Haven’t I joined an elite group of highly intelligent car enthusiasts?  ( well compared to Pistonheads anyway).

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, artdjones said:

Just out of interest, here's the O level paper 2, set by the University of London in 1976. I took the Welsh equivalent the year before with grade B. No calculators or tables were allowed, and you were explicitly told that anything below a C was a fail.

fdocuments.in_o-level-mathematics-paper-2-june-76.pdf 2.68 MB · 13 downloads

You know I'm going to have to waste spend time attempting that? Do you know how long was allowed in that exam?

[barefoot]

At A level I got 2 D's, 2 E's & a U and I am a fucking world class genious, particularly at spelling. Ask anyone.

[mitsisigma01]

Barefoot for prime minister, can't do any worse than the other twats ....

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

You know I'm going to have to waste spend time attempting that? Do you know how long was allowed in that exam?

I think 2 hours. It's the middle paper of three. I hadn't realised, but before 1975 there was no grading other than pass or fail. And that year the WJEC started looking at the feasibility of combining O level and CSE in a combined exam. So I have a top grade CSE as well as a grade B O Level. We also took the exam after only one years study instead of two. So we were guinea pigs all round.

[HillmanImp]

33 minutes ago, artdjones said:

A grade B O Level. 

That stinks 

[Zelandeth]

Why do we own so much junk!?!

[Dobloseven]

Agricultural College. 9 Hoe Levels and 3 Hay Levels. 

[Broadsword]

The current craze for new cars to be specced in Primer Grey. Why do it? They are so ugly it's distracting. I'm not kidding those block colour battleship grey cars being genuinely look like they have been left in primer to my eye!

[Fumbler]

I've just received the new PAS pump for the Volvo... Well, what I ordered was a NOS pump. What I received was a different pump from a different listing. It's still for an 850, luckily, and it certainly looks new, but it's covered in fluid and comes with an additional reservoir which I didn't ask for either.

I've waited so long for it that I might as well fit it. It's preventing me from using the car otherwise.

 

[New POD]

9 hours ago, chadders said:

Do you have kids?

I have a pretty good idea how bright mine are and can therefore compare their results to my own A level results some 40+ years ago and totally disagree with your theory.

 

 

I think what he said was in jest.  From.what I've seen, kids work harder these days 

 

[Back_For_More]

This...... Who the f*** designed this or thought it was a smart move. 

I don't want a lesson in Origami and don't intend flossing my backside...  Not to mention when it doesn't pull through the next sheet...... 

Arseholes..... pardon the pun. 

Just a pointless and fucking stupid implementation altogether. 

[Remspoor]

It is not only banger racers that destroy what look to be salvageable cars. They could certainty be able to donate spares.

 

 

[cobblers]

Fitting our new unit out at work. We need to build some enclosed office space because it's going to be impossible to heat the whole industrial unit.

Since we're building offices, we might as well make the roof of them accessible storage space? 

Nope! The extra space would take the convoluted and imaginary "rateable value" of the unit from ~£12163 to £15780. Both totally arbitrary numbers, it's still the same unit, with the same people in it, but with a bit more usable space, but this extra bit of flooring would cost us an extra ~£600 per month in business rates.