The grumpy thread

[Zelandeth]

Not particularly grumpy about this as it's something I'd probably never use anyway - but this made me roll my eyes.

This arrived in this morning's post.

Junk from Screwfix.  With a voucher attached which expired three weeks ago.

Not sure if they've sent it out like that or if it's been lost in the mail system for a month.  No other date on it anywhere so no way to tell.

Only usually use them if Toolstation don't have what I need these days, so that voucher was very unlikely to get used anyway.

[dave j]

21 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Cheers for the kind thoughts and suggestions about the busted glasses, folks.

I do have a copy of my prescription - but my eyes are pretty terrible in about three different ways, and have been since I was a kid, so it's a fairly complex prescription. I'm not sure it's something that www.bargainspex.com or similar will be able to knock out for £20, much as I'd like it - though I'll have a look online.

The optician I used to go to was great, but sadly he retired in 2006 - and I've had some extremely variable experiences since then. Boots Opticians were ok, but then they closed down all their stores near me so that was no good.

I tried Specsavers about ten years ago, but they still cost me nearly £200 and were absolutely terrible. I went back about eight times explaining that I still couldn't see a damn thing and they were really snotty about it. May have just been a bad attitude by whoever was running the place - their Ann Street store shut down not long after - but it was a total waste of money and I just ended up having to go somewhere else anyway.

My current place is good, they're an independent opthalmic optician outfit run by the same family for over 100 years, very helpful and pretty thorough; but not all that cheap. I guess it's just the way it is.

The frames were only £49, so not designer by any stretch - but I had a look online there and they're apparently no longer in production.  Most of the cost is in the lenses. though.

As it is, I've superglued the frame back together and it's solid enough but looks pretty rubbish. Both lenses are scuffed from their contretemps with the tarmac though, and so it looks like there are smeary fingerprints all over the front - and as such I'm finding it quite difficult to focus on the laptop screen today.

I went up to the attic yesterday to find my last-but-one pair which I'd kept as a spare set, thinking they may be better than the damaged ones - but had forgotten that one leg had broken off a few days before I got my current set, so it turns out they're not really wearable either.

I'll have to make an appointment with the optician.

Bollocks.

I broke my glasses frame not long after buying them so I found a second hand pair the same on eBay and swapped the lenses over. Cost me about 30 quid instead of about 200

[maxxo]

grrrrr

[fairkens]

10 hours ago, Wack said:

What does this even mean , they might've been speeding but we couldn't prosecute so we gave them a section 59 , or they overtook someone in sight of a PCSO on a bike  who didn't like it.

I'd be stopping them to tell him that's the best micra I've ever seen 

Probably judging others by my own standards but I read that as them having passed the plastic plod too closely, probably on purpose

[Wack]

14 minutes ago, fairkens said:

Probably judging others by my own standards but I read that as them having passed the plastic plod too closely, probably on purpose

I dont think it is that , they have bodycams , people have been convicted of driving without due care off dashcam footage for getting too close so if they had bodycam footage it'd definitely be more than a section 59 

I think he thought they were speeding but had no evidence 

[sheffcortinacentre]

So more cracking down on the real menaces to society!  Great way to boost police relations.

[EyesWeldedShut]

3 hours ago, Wack said:

I dont think it is that , they have bodycams , people have been convicted of driving without due care off dashcam footage for getting too close so if they had bodycam footage it'd definitely be more than a section 59 

I think he thought they were speeding but had no evidence 

It's Twatter - it's not real life. Everybody thinks it is a really, really important piece of society as they tweet into the abyss that is their personal echo chamber.

That includes the Old Bill. MPs. My Boss. Her Boss. Her Cat,

Why bother?

</grump>

[EyesWeldedShut]

Crap!
Come back here some* minutes later and I'm in my own echo chamber? Anyways, thought I'd skim the news before locking up for the night but - wtf? This is the front 'page' of news.bbc.co.uk - they're actually joining in on the media frenzy of something that is really not that important? Is that cannibalism?

[Wibble]

My sympathies. My wife has chronic ITP and they now want to take a bone marrow biopsy to test for leukaemia. Ain’t life great🫤

[New POD]

Posts deleted due to an escalation this morning, which is totally and utterly beyond my belief.  This is the grumpy thread nit the catatonic with rage thread, after all. 

[Rust Collector]

3 minutes ago, New POD said:

Posts deleted due to an escalation this morning, which is totally and utterly beyond my belief.  This is the grumpy thread nit the catatonic with rage thread, after all. 

Sorry to hear about the grief mate. I find the best thing you can do with family is focus on your own (yourself, your partner, your kids and your pets) and leave everyone else related to you to get on with their own thing - if it aligns with what you're doing then great, if it's a pain in the arse then they can get on with it by themselves.

My partner struggles in the same way, in that she feels obliged to do certain things due to being related to people and they normally end up detracting from her for the benefit of others who would never do anything for us. It causes some rucks between me and the mrs sometimes, but she normally comes round to my 'fuck em' point of view albeit at a slower pace.

[Wibble]

6 hours ago, New POD said:

Posts deleted due to an escalation this morning, which is totally and utterly beyond my belief.  This is the grumpy thread nit the catatonic with rage thread, after all. 

Well I’ll never know what you quoted me for now as haven’t seen this thread since last night but tend to agree with @Rust Collector

[Metal Guru]

Latest driving hack. Read carefully you really need to know this.

Daily Mirror reveals a trick that stops you getting dazzled by following car especially those with LEDs (doesn’t mention motorbike dicks using full beam all the time).

Apparently there’s a “secret” switch  on the mirror than can divert the glare away from you. Who knew? 
Internet awash with , “wow , great to know”, “ never knew that, it’s a life saver!” etc etc

FFS , I’ve been driving since 1978 ( no wonder I’m tired), and every car I’ve driven had a dipping rear view mirror. 
 

I’m waiting for “ no need to get into your car Dukes of Hazard style with this secret door handle hack”, next.

[EyesWeldedShut]

16 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

“ no need to get into your car Dukes of Hazard style with this secret door handle hack”, next.

Fuck me - I've been carrying a step ladder everywhere to get in and out of the Boxer (peugeot not porsche)
Thank you! I never knew what that bit of trim actually did something.
 

Trustpilot 5* Review fir Metal Guru.

[vulgalour]

That's another dead fan switch in the Maestro.  The fan switch was dead when I got it, it took three attempts to buy a new one that actually worked, and the current one hasn't managed to last more than about 2,000 miles.  Super.  I reckon I'm going to just going to go Full Giffer and wire a toggle switch in on the dash.

[High Jetter]

Something must be killing them. Not sure if there should have been a relay on those, maybe wire one in anyway?

[vulgalour]

Yeah see I'd agree with that if it weren't for a couple of them being DOA when bought new.  Personally, I think it's shit parts.

[High Jetter]

Have you tried opening one up to see if it's fixable? Can be fiddly, but I've had success in the past on other vehicles.

[vulgalour]

They're the sort that push fit into the radiator so I don't really know how I'd seal it up again after reliably given the temperature changes.  It'll just be a bimetallic switch inside the brass casing, built as cheaply as they can get away with, like condensers.

[High Jetter]

Apologies, I thought you meant the heater fan switch.

[andyberg]

Just had a email from Bath council. They are proposing to introduce various charges for their car parks in Bath depending how polluting* (old) your car is. Standard charge for 2 hours is currently £3.40. under the new proposal my 75 would cost £4.50 for the same time, because it is a dirty diesel😡😡 only cars with CO² of less than 130 would be exempt from an increase of variable degrees. Cars before 2001 would see a charge based on the engine capacity.

Makes my piss boil, the stealth taxing cnuts😡😡 

[RoverFolkUs]

31 minutes ago, andyberg said:

Just had a email from Bath council. They are proposing to introduce various charges for their car parks in Bath depending how polluting* (old) your car is. Standard charge for 2 hours is currently £3.40. under the new proposal my 75 would cost £4.50 for the same time, because it is a dirty diesel😡😡 only cars with CO² of less than 130 would be exempt from an increase of variable degrees. Cars before 2001 would see a charge based on the engine capacity.

Makes my piss boil, the stealth taxing cnuts😡😡 

It's almost like new cars take up less space... Oh wait 🤣

[Rustybullethole]

3 hours ago, vulgalour said:

That's another dead fan switch in the Maestro.  The fan switch was dead when I got it, it took three attempts to buy a new one that actually worked, and the current one hasn't managed to last more than about 2,000 miles.  Super.  I reckon I'm going to just going to go Full Giffer and wire a toggle switch in on the dash.

very much liked for giffer toggle switch. 

[GMcD]

Some absolute cock in work has handed over my contact details (including my personal number) to some salesteam who has then passed it across to about 10 other (that I know off) dodgy sales fuckers (I've been registered with TPS for years to cut this shit out). They phone my work landline, work mobile and personal mobile about 3 or 4 times a day and never leave a message. I answer and I can hardly understand a word they are saying as their accent is like pea soup (which is hilariously pointless if they are trying to flog me something or scam me).

I tell them to get fucked (I'm no longer being polite about it!), block them and it's like wack-a-mole. A new number appears a few days later. It's doing my nut in. I'm at the stage I'm going to have to change all my numbers (I've had my mobile number for over 20 years) because these cunts won't fuck off and leave me alone!

 

[RoverFolkUs]

12 minutes ago, GMcD said:

Some absolute cock in work has handed over my contact details (including my personal number) to some salesteam who has then passed it across to about 10 other (that I know off) dodgy sales fuckers (I've been registered with TPS for years to cut this shit out). They phone my work landline, work mobile and personal mobile about 3 or 4 times a day and never leave a message. I answer and I can hardly understand a word they are saying as their accent is like pea soup (which is hilariously pointless if they are trying to flog me something or scam me).

I tell them to get fucked (I'm no longer being polite about it!), block them and it's like wack-a-mole. A new number appears a few days later. It's doing my nut in. I'm at the stage I'm going to have to change all my numbers (I've had my mobile number for over 20 years) because these cunts won't fuck off and leave me alone!

 

There's some sort of energy company that's been pestering the workshop phone for a couple of months now, it's always the same question, something about gas and electricity supply. Numerous times they've been politely fucked off, but the other day was different

He phoned up the first time on that day, same script, same guy, I interrupted him and said that I've already told him before it does not apply and that we're not interested, so please stop calling this number with immediate effect and remove us from their system, as it is wasting our time and holding up the phone line from genuine callers. He hung up. 

An hour later, it rings again, different number, exactly the same fucking bloke reading the same script again. I loudly shouted "fuck off" down the phone and hung up, funnily enough they haven't called back since 🤣🤣

It's never gone this long without a repeat phone call so hopefully that was the last

Similar to your case, it's always been a different number each time and even a mobile number so we have know way of knowing so that we can ignore it

[Noel Tidybeard]

4 hours ago, vulgalour said:

That's another dead fan switch in the Maestro.  The fan switch was dead when I got it, it took three attempts to buy a new one that actually worked, and the current one hasn't managed to last more than about 2,000 miles.  Super.  I reckon I'm going to just going to go Full Giffer and wire a toggle switch in on the dash.

i didn't think it got hot enough for the fan to come on

[myglaren]

31 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

There's some sort of energy company that's been pestering the workshop phone for a couple of months now, it's always the same question, something about gas and electricity supply. Numerous times they've been politely fucked off, but the other day was different

He phoned up the first time on that day, same script, same guy, I interrupted him and said that I've already told him before it does not apply and that we're not interested, so please stop calling this number with immediate effect and remove us from their system, as it is wasting our time and holding up the phone line from genuine callers. He hung up. 

An hour later, it rings again, different number, exactly the same fucking bloke reading the same script again. I loudly shouted "fuck off" down the phone and hung up, funnily enough they haven't called back since 🤣🤣

It's never gone this long without a repeat phone call so hopefully that was the last

Similar to your case, it's always been a different number each time and even a mobile number so we have know way of knowing so that we can ignore it

Isn't there an ombudsman you can contact to get them shut down?

[RoverFolkUs]

5 minutes ago, myglaren said:

Isn't there an ombudsman you can contact to get them shut down?

Maybe, but I don't even know who they are. It's always a generic phone number and they never say clearly who they actually are

[PhilA]

2 hours ago, andyberg said:

Just had a email from Bath council. They are proposing to introduce various charges for their car parks in Bath depending how polluting* (old) your car is. Standard charge for 2 hours is currently £3.40. under the new proposal my 75 would cost £4.50 for the same time, because it is a dirty diesel😡😡 only cars with CO² of less than 130 would be exempt from an increase of variable degrees. Cars before 2001 would see a charge based on the engine capacity.

Makes my piss boil, the stealth taxing cnuts😡😡 

Because why?

It's not like you go and drive there and let the car sit and idle for 2 hours while you go do shopping.

What nonsense 

[EyesWeldedShut]

19 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Because why?

It's not like you go and drive there and let the car sit and idle for 2 hours while you go do shopping.

What nonsense 

Ka-ching - they want money, Bath has an LEZ already but are now thinking of following the likes of Westminster Council  who 'surcharge' dirty diesels to park in their section of town - (so TfL knock you to drive there already then the local council double dip),
LEZ /ULEZz I can relate to but screwing extra out of you to also park just smacks of making money rather than a valid attempt to clean up the air.