Jump to content

The grumpy thread


outlaw118

Recommended Posts

£176 for an off-peak return train ticket to London leaving at 4:30am. 

Took me an hour to get to the station including a 30min walk through Glasgow. No trivial feat at 3:30am with all the pissheads and junkies.

The woman checking the tickets sends me and a Chinese student away for having off-peak tickets 10mins before the train is due to set off. I have to bring up the website on my phone and argue with her that Friday is not peak. She refuses to budge. I even have a seat reservation for this very train...

I have to force her to read her company page which she reads incorrectly and says "no, you'll need to wait for the next train". Her colleague radios in and says we're good to go 3mins before departure. What a donkey. No sign of the Chinese guy who is probably waiting for the 5:33am "off-peak" train.

If your job for the day is checking tickets, make sure you know how to check tickets. 

Screenshot_20231013-043606.thumb.png.725bff2d15f4a69912cbde9b3fd308c5.png

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/10/2023 at 18:55, Pieman said:

I will admit, in a situation like that I just do 70 along lane 1 and undertake the lot of them.  I'm past caring these days.

Nothing illegal continuing driving along that lane if you were already in it iirc. Thats filtering through traffic rather than undertaking.

Undertaking would be in the middle/outside lane and moving into that lane, then accelerating past all the traffic and pulling in further up. Thats frowned upon/illegal by the police (driving dangerously/without due care iirc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, SiC said:

Nothing illegal continuing driving along that lane if you were already in it iirc. Thats filtering through traffic rather than undertaking.

Undertaking would be in the middle/outside lane and moving into that lane, then accelerating past all the traffic and pulling in further up.

Yep, undertaking and continuing in lane are different things and just as you describe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, SiC said:

Nothing illegal continuing driving along that lane if you were already in it iirc. Thats filtering through traffic rather than undertaking.

Undertaking would be in the middle/outside lane and moving into that lane, then accelerating past all the traffic and pulling in further up. Thats frowned upon/illegal by the police (driving dangerously/without due care iirc).

It would be nice to see plod actually enforcing the law occasionally then….. it never seems to happen 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well fuck.

Merc-o-barge has broken down.   Alternator failed on the M54 near Telford.  Went from charging fine to dead in about 20 miles.  Premium paid for emergency breakdown cover, as 99% of the time I don't have it and don't need it.

Called around a load of local motor factors, and nothing on the shelf.  Tomorrow is the soonest they can do.

Couldn't have failed near home could it?  No, of course fucking not.

Cock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/10/2023 at 12:16, horriblemercedes said:

I need to buy a new washer/dryer. £500 rough budget. I'm absolutely bewildered by the range of stuff on sale and no idea which features I do or don't want, which retailer to choose and which brands are good and bad.

 

This must be what it's like for people to choose a new car if they have no interest in them!

 

On 12/10/2023 at 14:56, cobblers said:

Sort by price, scroll down til you see an brand you've heard of. Unless you spend a fortune then they're pretty much all made in the same few factories in turkey anyway. Don't get a Beko dryer with "Anti crease" because the fucking thing will kick on and run for a few seconds every 15 minutes, all day and night after it's finished a load of washing and there's no way to disable it. 

Under the cover of Covid when we could not really get out we purchased a Candy drier via the junglesite.  It was on ultra special low price offer. so lack of shops open and this price meant we bought it. The Drier does the job, just. Sometimes the water tank needs emptying halfway through a cycle. Or the filter gets blocked and need cleaning. Avoid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Yep, undertaking and continuing in lane are different things and just as you describe

TBH I can’t be arsed with lane 1 and 2. Too many HGV swerving out without warning and the 65mph middle lane hoggers. I tend to keep in lane 3. @80-85 mph , move over if anything faster comes up behind. I actually have time to check my mirrors because I’m not avoiding Lithuanian lorry drivers trying to kill me.

Never hold anyone up or get in the way of anyone wanting to go faster though no doubt people will criticise me for driving like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/10/2023 at 11:16, horriblemercedes said:

I need to buy a new washer/dryer. £500 rough budget. I'm absolutely bewildered by the range of stuff on sale and no idea which features I do or don't want, which retailer to choose and which brands are good and bad.

 

This must be what it's like for people to choose a new car if they have no interest in them!

If you want to avoid a company that sold dangerous appliances and then refused to refund owners, instead making them wait months for a repair or replacement, avoid Whirlpool!

They also make Hotpoint and Indesit branded products. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/01/whirlpool-condemned-for-silencing-customers-over-tumble-dryer-fires

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

If you want to avoid a company that sold dangerous appliances and then refused to refund owners, instead making them wait months for a repair or replacement, avoid Whirlpool!

They also make Hotpoint and Indesit branded products. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/01/whirlpool-condemned-for-silencing-customers-over-tumble-dryer-fires

We had one of the affected units replaced under the recall.

The only way I could see for lint to get into the hot area on the drier was if the drum bearings failed, allowing it to drop and compromise the front seal.  Otherwise there's no reason for it to happen...it pulls cool air in from out the back, blows it through a heater and into the drum. 

When the bearing fails, the front of the drum drops, opening up a gap around it which will let air exiting the drum vent into the case rather than going out the exhaust duct.

This theory was supported by the fact that the drum bearing design was biblically cheap and nasty, and I'd already replaced it twice.  When I looked inside our machine (as they were estimating several months to get a replacement to us under the recall) it was near spotless, despite being seven ot eight years old.

New machine was identical to the old one.  What had they done to "address the issue?"

Changed the load rating down by 1kg.  That's it...the machine was otherwise identical inside and out, and the same poxy bearing failed again after less than two years in exactly the same way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the premium paid for AA turned out to be worse than useless, the lady selling me the product essentially lied on the phone.  Utter cretins.

So got a hire car instead.  A petrol focus estate.  About 1/8th the cost I was quoted to get home!

Now I have to go and recover the car.  Bollocks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Well, the premium paid for AA turned out to be worse than useless, the lady selling me the product essentially lied on the phone.  Utter cretins.

So got a hire car instead.  A petrol focus estate.  About 1/8th the cost I was quoted to get home!

Now I have to go and recover the car.  Bollocks.

If I can help shout up, I'm fairly local, welcome to fix it here if you want, I'll be driving up from Crawley Tue PM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Talbot said:

Well, the premium paid for AA turned out to be worse than useless, the lady selling me the product essentially lied on the phone.  Utter cretins.

So got a hire car instead.  A petrol focus estate.  About 1/8th the cost I was quoted to get home!

Now I have to go and recover the car.  Bollocks.

you’ll be towing your own car home with the hire car, i presume ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/10/2023 at 18:07, Burnside said:

 That's a shame to hear Vauxhall don't have the interchangeability of previous generations, but then I suppose it's the same with most manufactures now.

 

 

All on the Delta II platform pparently.

Even the PCD on the wheels are different from GTC to 5 door. 

The GTC is essentially a coupe version of the Cascada.  Which interestingly* can be obtained as a Buick in the USA.

*something I realised watch the series Get Shorty" with that Irish actor from The IT crowd. Christopher O'Dowd 

 

Screenshot_20231014-082420_Chrome.thumb.jpg.d8445f3ae83c8e8ab045b1171242b7d5.jpg

 

Screenshot_20231014-082433_Chrome.thumb.jpg.dd0a5223314fd2496c110685fefea6bc.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, MikeR said:

Bottle of wine , film sorted, food on the go .....

Now panic .. !!! 

Were the f are the wine glasses , the Mrs has had a clear up ..

Took me 5 mins to find them .

That was scary ...

Wine cups and mugs available in the absence of glasses.  Pint glasses work well too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

A widowmaker; anything else bent?

Luckily just popped the sill trim out and bent the wing bracket, both of which I’ve managed to repair, also had to order a new jacking point.  My own fault as i was rushing and just wanted to quickly throw the spare wheel on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Letter from Nationwide building society. “We’re owned by the members, we do everything for the members, profits go back to the members (after the board award themselves footballer salaries), and all that BS”.

Expected it to be a rise in saving rates but no, for no good reason other than to waste money, we’re changing our logo. They forgot to add “we were going to give savers another 1/2%, but we’ve spent it on a new logo that’s very similar to the old one except from a distance it looks like a bird and not a house”.

Lower case letters throughout including first N. Illiterates.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24/09/2023 at 17:51, gm said:

@DVee8 came round this afternoon and we had a go at diagnosing the bini -

my initial suspicions of the drive shaft were close, the noise was coming from that area, but was not as we thought a ruined cv joint but a rather poorly looking crank pulley dancing around on top of the driveshaft !

how the hell has this happened ? 

IMG_4534.thumb.jpeg.64879d1b6252dfd0d0c0ea5aa0894758.jpeg

IMG_4533.thumb.jpeg.a4d48a75696f5ecb22237b1799700bb7.jpeg

the pulley is 6 months old and was only fitted last month ! IMG_4535.thumb.jpeg.84854655a6399b1e8794cdff81bb57ee.jpeg

i was so astonished at finding this i forgot to examine the cv joints :( but there’s enough of the pulley still fitted that the car still drives - which makes it much simpler to get it to a garage tomorrow :) 

 

On 28/09/2023 at 12:43, gm said:

tuesday morning the postie left me a red card of doom, this time i had to collect my parcel from the local post office instead of the usual depot in town. 

as the girl was handing it over, she commented on how heavy it was - i said something like “it’s bits to fix my engine” and ended up chatting to her colleague for ten minutes about the lotus esprit he is restoring - not sure the queue behind me appreciated it :) 

Fragile ? well, yes, the old one certainly was

IMG_4592.thumb.jpeg.bc7378596c1cbac006bf8e7f2f3b167f.jpeg

my problem here is the threaded holes for removing the pulley are part of the bit already off the car :( 

IMG_4594.thumb.jpeg.e56340abf92681fe273f5986aaef67db.jpeg

i tried a few tentative grinder cuts then set about making a puller. i drilled and tapped threads in the remains of the pulley and got stuck in 

IMG_4596.thumb.jpeg.28e4174c28160d3cd8627a37825b7462.jpeg

nope - that pulley is only coming off in pieces

which it did

IMG_4597.thumb.jpeg.e252aad0801641ec3ca2ca2cfe2b4d00.jpeg

IMG_4598.thumb.jpeg.fdb3bdd2abcbc733cdba1e03447495a2.jpeg

IMG_4599.thumb.jpeg.730c3acbdf2069d67141c94c91aa4d17.jpeg

IMG_4601.thumb.jpeg.e3efb261abe45b7d31a7313960ef1378.jpeg

being extra careful not to damage the end of the crank

well, i did my best

IMG_4604.thumb.jpeg.6c64b344ba74b2b193238c6a66dc9570.jpeg

i wonder if the supplier will want this sent back ?

IMG_4605.thumb.jpeg.a69c98e511a840213e432a58816f2857.jpeg

now to get the new one on and that belt fitted

IMG_4606.jpeg.ffff516f5494297b6f66ac2b8bc36ac2.jpeg

all done :) 

IMG_4608.thumb.jpeg.f12b6e8352979a8ad5a0f627dfa1abbe.jpeg

and to celebrate, the number plate fell off again 

IMG_4610.thumb.jpeg.aa1ee33dae82a61386f5f6df2474ccd4.jpeg

all seems to be well so far, on the test drive i heard a clonk from under the car - i bet that’s the 16mm socket i dropped earlier 

IMG_4613.thumb.jpeg.f5e90c28c19c2fea5c3958a0fff51d5a.jpeg

aye, that’s the one

IMG_4611.thumb.jpeg.b2f40cd2e1870428d55f71ec67896909.jpeg

this lot can go in the bin 

IMG_4614.thumb.jpeg.b5b05c0e2bd6ea2056a78a78effa69e8.jpeg

definitely a job i should have taken to a garage but it’s done now - let’s hope this one lasts a bit longer :) 

 

un-be-fucking-lievable ! 

IMG_4789.thumb.jpeg.08bf922ab8939dcb6c4a390baec1ac27.jpeg

yes, that is the replacement one that i fitted two weeks ago !

IMG_4783.thumb.jpeg.43f1eb4ad17a4acc020bc02aaf5b6fd3.jpeg

a stroppy email will be sent to the supplier - it failed in exactly the same way as the previous one  

IMG_4790.thumb.jpeg.c6146f85e7cd96d891eac113c1fb9350.jpeg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...