The grumpy thread

[sheffcortinacentre]

Yes, the cashcow motorist is there for this reason.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, cobblers said:

I asked the electrician to put us 4 double sockets in the office, so he puts them all 40cm apart, 125cm off the floor, in the corner where there won't be any desks.

Give me strength

He didn't ask you where you wanted them? I've learned that if you want someone to put/fit/cock-up something you stand a better chance if you use a marker on the wall, or a diagram, or repeat it several times.

[danthecapriman]

I broke a tooth this morning! 
Eating sweets!😆

I was eating one of those fruity soft cable things and noticed some crunchy bits in it. That’s weird I thought. Spat it out and I’ve actually broken a big lump off one back tooth. Doesn’t hurt weirdly. Not very pleasant though. 
Fortunately my sister works in a dental surgery so I’ve managed to get booked in there for a check and repair job. I just hope the tooth is fixable.

 

[Spiny Norman]

People are such utter cunts: vol 264....

Got into work today to find female colleague (middle aged lady) in tears after being threatened by an oxygen thief of a customer while she was on her own in the department. Manager dealing with it and revoked his account but we've still got his address, email, phone number etc on the system.

Revenge is a dish best served cold so we're giving it a week or two....

[PicantoJon]

So last year in a moment of drunken idiocy I dropped my DSLR and borked the internals of the 70-200mm L series lens that was attached to it. Went to the nearest independent camera shop and got it sent off for a repair estimate which came to £320, definitely couldn't afford that so my camera has been sat under my desk sulking ever since. 

Last Wednesday I ordered a replacement off eBay and chose to collect it from the Argos store in town, as I was working all weekend and figured I'd be able to pick it up during one of my shifts. Royal Mail has had other ideas, it's been sat in the delivery office since fecking Saturday "as the business has asked for mail not to be delivered that day. We aim to deliver it the next working day". 

Now I don't want to sound impatient and I  appreciate that the grunts in the delivery office work their arses off, but since Saturday there has been two bastarding working days and I still don't have my fecking lens! 

[warch]

11 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Fucking VED increases

Instead of the usual £5 increase per band, they've decided to make it a rolling increase. 

Meaning band G is going up by £20, band H is going up by £25. All the way up to band M by £65 to £695 !!! 

Band H was £230 in 2017. Now it's going to be £290... Piss take 

Band G was £205 in 2019. Now it's going to be £240

And the pre 2001 rate is going to be £200 and £325. Wasn't it £135 for the below 1549cc not too long ago? 

Should I just have my entire wages made payable to HM Govt?!!

The problem is that most people now pay their VED via direct debit so aren't really noticing the price increase. Nice little* earner for the Treasury. 

Imagine popping to the post office nowadays with a cheque for nearly 700 quid every year, you'd soon question the wisdom of owning that big engined car built after 2006. 

[iainrcz]

Had a power cut in the night. We only knew about it as this phone charger made a loud bang, blew its top off and let out a stink.

Hopefully that's all that's fucked. We've been getting updates apparently about predicted times when it'll be back on. Hopefully  before the freezers defrost and bollocks all the grub.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

12 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Fucking VED increases

Instead of the usual £5 increase per band, they've decided to make it a rolling increase. 

Meaning band G is going up by £20, band H is going up by £25. All the way up to band M by £65 to £695 !!! 

Band H was £230 in 2017. Now it's going to be £290... Piss take 

Band G was £205 in 2019. Now it's going to be £240

And the pre 2001 rate is going to be £200 and £325. Wasn't it £135 for the below 1549cc not too long ago? 

Should I just have my entire wages made payable to HM Govt?!!

Wow. I've recently sold my red 'spares' MR2 and have just checked online that the V5  is showing as updated. I see pothole tax is now £290 per annum which seems crazy for what it is. As you say, £230 in 2017 seemed a relative barg compared to today's rip-off prices. I'm not in a rush to tax my long-term silver MR2 after its winter lay up to be honest. 

9 minutes ago, warch said:

The problem is that most people now pay their VED via direct debit so aren't really noticing the price increase. Nice little* earner for the Treasury.

 Very much this. I looked twice when I spotted the hike to £290. 

[iainrcz]

It's killed the boiler 🙄

[cobblers]

38 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

It's killed the boiler 🙄

Bugger. What boiler is it? Often there's a replaceable fuse on the circuit board internally (or even a 3a one in the fused spur supplying it)

[iainrcz]

Just now, cobblers said:

Bugger. What boiler is it? Often there's a replaceable fuse on the circuit board internally (or even a 3a one in the fused spur supplying it)

It's a modern Alpha one. I've not checked anything on it, other than the 15amp supply on the fuse board.

Apparently there were over 700 houses affected. We've just got a letter "excess voltage generated on the network"

It's also killed the poe injector for my camera and my pc speakers.

[cobblers]

1 minute ago, iainrcz said:

It's a modern Alpha one. I've not checked anything on it, other than the 15amp supply on the fuse board.

Apparently there were over 700 houses affected. We've just got a letter "excess voltage generated on the network"

It's also killed the poe injector for my camera and my pc speakers.

Start with the fused spur, hopefully that's copped for it first. I wonder if there's any hope of national grid helping out if it's a widespread and known fault?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Get the fault from the electricity board in a recordable format.  If you're insured you might be able to use it to claim...

[omegod]

2 hours ago, iainrcz said:

It's killed the boiler 🙄

Some years ago I came home from a nightshift and was about to go to bed when the light went very bright and I smelt summat smokey, the TV in the living room was on fire as there had been a massive power surge, had I gone to bed 10 mins earlier I may have had a crispy end !  

IIRC the leccy company paid a local electrical engineer to repair/replace everything in the street that was damaged, I guess he made a fortune out of it !

 

[wuvvum]

16 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Fucking VED increases

Instead of the usual £5 increase per band, they've decided to make it a rolling increase. 

Meaning band G is going up by £20, band H is going up by £25. All the way up to band M by £65 to £695 !!! 

Band H was £230 in 2017. Now it's going to be £290... Piss take 

Band G was £205 in 2019. Now it's going to be £240

And the pre 2001 rate is going to be £200 and £325. Wasn't it £135 for the below 1549cc not too long ago? 

Should I just have my entire wages made payable to HM Govt?!!

Yes, I think I'm going to be SORNing more of the fleet this coming year.  Although on the plus side the Visa becomes tax exempt next week so that'll offset things slightly.

[stephen01]

17 hours ago, cobblers said:

I asked the electrician to put us 4 double sockets in the office, so he puts them all 40cm apart, 125cm off the floor, in the corner where there won't be any desks.

Give me strength

Did you tell him where you wanted them? 

I gave a mate of a mate a hand doing a rewire last year, no plans or owt and the customer was not on hand to ask where they wanted sockets, switches etc.  It was a bit of a fuck up really,  small bedroom - 'two sockets, 1 light switch' 

[cobblers]

25 minutes ago, stephen01 said:

Did you tell him where you wanted them? 

Nope, I didn't have any specific requirements, just wanted a few sockets in there like what you'd do in any normal room and presumed the electrician, being an experienced professional would use his initiative and spread them about a bit.

 

[stephen01]

15 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Nope, I didn't have any specific requirements, just wanted a few sockets in there like what you'd do in any normal room and presumed the electrician, being an experienced professional would use his initiative and spread them about a bit.

 

You'd hope, but he's taken the lazy approach,  4 sockets fitted , minimal cable used and zero time spent = max profits.  

[MikeR]

Years ago my daughter bought me a little drone , being kack handed I kept crashing it and shelved it ... Pulled it out today for a good looking at and noticed 2 props had letters on B and A , and they were opposite threads !! , Then I noticed the 2 middle props were swapped over so instead of lifting , they were pushing down ....  Let's have another try ...

[RoverFolkUs]

On 3/15/2023 at 6:26 PM, RoverFolkUs said:

An elderly couple that I know has just had a double whammy of catalytic converter thefts from their Honda's in one go last night 

One is a MK1 CR-V petrol and the other is an old MK7 Civic petrol that's done less than 20k miles. Both of which owned from new, unharmed in all that time 

I'm going to advise him to go through insurance, buy them back and then I'll offer to sort out some replacement cats for him as I feel so gutted for them. I expect the Civic payout could be £2-3k given the mileage. I think it's an Automatic from memory. Both utterly dependable cars that would cost an absolute fortune to replace in the current market

Fucking scrotes

The worst bit is that it's a quiet dead end road so it must have been predetermined. A neighbour has CCTV which will go to the police in the hope it may reveal some of the culprits identity. Not that it's going to get them back as I suspect the getaway vehicle is probably unlicenced, stolen, cloned, fake number plates or whatever 

Perhaps a slight positive twist on this, insurance have miraculously agreed to repair the Civic despite being 17 years old but they've considered the mileage and have taken it already to be repaired. So he's very happy with the quick turnaround and he's only down on the excess at the moment.

His CR-V has predictably been written off, he's been offered £1200 and he's currently negotiating a buy back salvage value and then he'll decide if it's worth it, depending on his excess. 

If he can increase their offer which I've encouraged him to do, hopefully he'll get a healthy payout while keeping the car to cover the cost of an aftermarket cat on the CRV and perhaps the change from that will cover the Civic excess! 

All a lot of hassle he could have done without but it doesn't sound like he's going to be too badly out of pocket and the fact they've repaired the Civic is really good because finding another just as good would have been near impossible and the payout may not have matched to do so anyway. He's not overly bothered about the CR-V because it's had a good life and he's had it from nearly new and he's not sure if he really needs it anymore so I hope whatever the outcome is that it's the best thing for him! 

[MikeR]

2 hours ago, MikeR said:

Years ago my daughter bought me a little drone , being kack handed I kept crashing it and shelved it ... Pulled it out today for a good looking at and noticed 2 props had letters on B and A , and they were opposite threads !! , Then I noticed the 2 middle props were swapped over so instead of lifting , they were pushing down ....  Let's have another try ...

It's back on the shelf , it even spun a prop off doing a static thrust test ......

Can these things even fly ?????

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, MikeR said:

Can these things even fly ?????

I'd guess not very far, if you're leaving it plugged in. 🤣

[wuvvum]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:15 PM, Stanky said:

Several people I know, from friends to work colleagues to distant aquaintances have mentioned without prompting that they just can't find any joy in life since Covid. Most recently was a work colleague who loves his shiny things - he'd just traded up his 5 series BMW for an 8 series, something he'd previously be over the moon about. He said about 3 weeks after buying it that while it was a good car, it brought him no enjoyment whatsoever.

I've heard similar from many others, which is a huge shame. I'm not sure what the answer is, only confirming its definitely widespread.

I've been thinking about this a lot this week.  I feel exactly the same - ever since Covid I'm unable to get excited about anything really.  I found the first lockdown incredibly hard and I think it's had a permanent (or at least long-lasting) effect on my mental health.  I still enjoy (to an extent) window-shopping for cars on eBay (and elsewhere), but while previously I would have thought nothing of getting on a bus to the other end of the country and driving home to a pre-booked MOT in some neglected shitheap, now just the thought of that fills me with dread, and I just sit there listing in my head all the things that could go wrong.  Even picking the MG up from near Oxford is something I was dreading, and that was MOT'd and running fine (and in the event turned out to be a perfectly OK experience).

It's not just cars either.  I have a work trip to India coming up at some point this year - the old me would have been excited about it, but while I am quite looking forward to seeing India, I'm mainly dreading being away from home for two weeks.  It's the same when visiting my parents - I always look forward to seeing them, but when I'm there I'm constantly counting down the days until I come home again.  And it's not like home is particularly exciting either - it's just me rattling around in the house on my own, spending too much time on the computer and occasionally going for a bike ride or attempting to fix the cars.  

I don't think the state of the country is helping much either.  I have never had much time for leftie liberal Guardianista types, but these days I'm finding myself identifying less and less with those on the political right too - everyone seems to have become extreme in their views, there's no attempt to find agreement or compromise anymore, and I detest the current government, so I feel ideologically homeless.

Obviously things aren't completely negative - getting the Visa and the Volvo back on the road and driving them properly for the first time cheered me up for a while, the same with getting the Mobylette road registered and usable last year, and it was nice to get a decent pay rise this year for the first time in a very long while.  Generally though I just feel "meh".  I don't think it's depression as such, just a general feeling of apathy and meaninglessness.  As I put it in a recent one to one with my manager, "I'm not about to top myself, but if a doctor told me I had six months to live I wouldn't be overly bothered".

I came across a blog the other day by a German chap about my age who's basically said "fuck it", bought a secondhand coachbuilt Transit camper, had it remapped and buggered off into the sunset with his son and their dog.  They're heading to Morocco to start with, but he has no firm plan in mind, he's just going to see where the road takes them.  He's a bit of a neo-hippy type and has some weird ideas about some things, but I admire him for actually having the bottle to do it, and the idea of living in a camper and driving aimlessly around Europe (and north Africa) is quite appealing.  Interestingly he cited the effect of Covid lockdowns as one of the things that's influenced him.  I think if and when I have to move out of my current house for whatever reason I'm going to give van life a go - I might not have a choice anyway as I probably won't be able to find a house to rent at a price I can afford by then, with the way prices are going.

Anyway, sorry for the verbal diarrhœa, but this is after all the place to vent, and if I vented to people I know IRL they'd probably start worrying about me, which is the last thing I want.

[vulgalour]

Sometimes we need a good vent about things, it's healthy.  The fall out from the pandemic hasn't been relief and optimism that we can go forwards with our lives, it seems to be this creeping nihilism because everything has got so much harder.  It's worse when you're someone who 'followed the rules' and still suffered losses because you wonder what the point of any of it was.  To also see those who were supposed to be our leaders, the ones the help us all through this, behaving like petulant brats certainly doesn't help.  Throw in some natural disasters, a couple of wars, the reversal of human rights at home and abroad, the callous disregard for natural beauty and wellbeing by councils and water companies alike, the rising cost of living juxtaposed against the reporting of record profits... yeah.  It's going to be pretty difficult to find joy in anything.  This isn't something you can just Marie Kondo your way out of.

You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other really.  The little moments of joy will start to reappear, it just takes a while.

[artdjones]

I feel like many people are suffering from something akin to agoraphobia. Also, the pandemic seems to have telescoped 10 or 15 years of aging into 3years of actual time.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Welcome back to the 80's just replace stockbrokers with utility companies &  industry with healthcare.

Wicked witch of Westminster with Wally's of Westminster.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Staying home and not going out is my natural order so - not going to lie - I quite 'liked' lockdown.  Didn't miss going out and still work from home full-time even now.  I'll still go out and visit places and people but I've never been particularly inclined to or particularly sociable.

Must have been difficult if you're the gregarious sort.

[wuvvum]

4 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Staying home and not going out is my natural order so - not going to lie - I quite 'liked' lockdown.  Didn't miss going out and still work from home full-time even now.  I'll still go out and visit places and people but I've never been particularly inclined to so or particularly sociable.

Must have been difficult if you're the gregarious sort.

I'm not gregarious at all, but I do like human contact from time to time, and living on my own the only contact I got (apart from the occasional socially distanced "hi" to the neighbours when I was out for my daily exercise) was via the intermediary of electronics, which just isn't the same.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

The past 2 weeks have been a blur of being either quite unwell or quite unwell and trying to fix the reliable* modern daily, oh and some other fun.

[RoverFolkUs]

On that subject,  I feel the same and what I think is one contributor is with the high street dying, I could have easily spent an afternoon there 10 years ago but now I only visit if I need to get something and spend as minimal time as possible because there's nothing left to browse. Far fewer shops as well, they just close down and turn into a vape shop or some sort of overpriced quirky coffee shop that preaches about it's almond milk or bamboo straws or coffee beans sourced from outer timbucktoo that's £6 a cup 

Take these photos of Poundland as one example: 

I went into that very branch the other day and it was so sparse, and so many shelves were completely empty. It's been that way for a couple of years now and so has many other branches I've visited

Now I know most of that is a result of everything that's turning to shit at the moment but I think it's one contributor to the nation's depression. Recreational shopping is a big part of a lot of people's lives and for the high street to become so sparse and lifeless that's one less thing for people to enjoy. 

Adding something to a basket online and getting it in a box on your doorstep the next day just doesn't have the same vibe to it as walking through the high street, bumping into regulars, smiles with friendly strangers and smelling nice food or coffee from one of the neighbouring shops. Or going into an independent coffee shop and the person serving remembers your regular order 😁

Now what's more likely is that you will go to town, not be able to find what you want, return to your car to find the catalytic converter stolen and spend the rest of that afternoon on the phone to your insurance company and ordering whatever you wanted online anyway 😂

I don't get the same enjoyment from going out to eat any more, I've been served some shit food from most of my favourite outlets now so that's put me off from bothering. And the price has gone up for the privilege of course. 

Fewer friends and family seem to put the effort in to meeting up, obviously part of that is on me as I need to keep in touch just as much as they may do, which I try to, although I'm thankful for the fairly wide group of mates that I have and we've stuck together even if we don't quite see eachother as often. 

Christmas cards, anybody else's getting fewer and far between each year? I counted approx 1/4 this year of what I would have received 10 years ago

Or I've just been an arsehole that's pissed everyone off 🤣 - oh well! 

My car ownership enjoyment has turned to shit since the used car chaos came about. I fucked the Rover off when readily available parts was becoming a problem and bought a MK2 Focus, I've been thinking of changing back to something more interesting but I find more enjoyment out of running something boringly reliable that doesn't cause me a headache than something I can continually maintain and improve. 

That's my 2 cents..