The grumpy thread

[MikeR]

son is a bit pissed over his PS4 , he saved up for a console , with  a bit more help we got one , we set it all up , had fun doing the accounts etc , but it worked well ...

then he wanted multiplayer .....  

err no , age restricted ,  ok then use my account ..

still no ... you need a package of so much a squid a month ..

err what ???

we now understand why there are so many PS4s on the CEX shelves  ..

Now looking out for a 2nd controller for local play ..

[captain_70s]

I don't think any console has free online multiplayer anymore.

[horriblemercedes]

Is there a mode of transport that is worse than trains? 

 

I haven't been on one for years and today is reminding me why

[chadders]

24 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Is there a mode of transport that is worse than trains? 

 

I haven't been on one for years and today is reminding me why

[barefoot]

Is that displayed on one of those old Airfix bases to make it look like it's flying?

[chadders]

Probably underbody lift generated at 82mph, like Mark Webbers Porsche at LeMans.

[Metal Guru]

4 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Is there a mode of transport that is worse than trains? 

 

I haven't been on one for years and today is reminding me why

Buses. At least trains  have their own track buses get stuck in traffic like cars.

Bicycles or even motorbikes when it’s raining. Cycling on a road - you might as well get in touch with Dignitas . Ditto mountain biking.

Ships if the sea is rough , planes in bad weather. Planes in general,( unless you can travel business class or 1st),  more cramped than trains and you’re generally on them longer.

Dog sled. Shit flying into your face.

Any form of horse transport. 

Hot air balloons . No control over where you’re going.

Badly constructed mini subs (too soon?) 

Any form of sliding on snow or ice. Accident waiting to happen.

 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

5 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Is there a mode of transport that is worse than trains? 

 

I haven't been on one for years and today is reminding me why

The car.  If my Mum's driving.  I've never been more terrified at 24MPH.

[EyesWeldedShut]

34 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Badly constructed mini subs (too soon?) 

Nope

Buses get my vote - Ayrton Senna wannabe at the wheel, every.single.other.f*cker on board is engrossed in their phone. I'm watching (trainee) Senna flinging this thing around the countryside whilst grappling for my seatbelt.
Nobody else is using theirs?
My first time on a cross country bus (quite recently) in maybe 15 years was 100 years too soon.

37 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Any form of horse transport. 

Depends on the horse and your trust  (most horsey people pretend it's some degree of competence but, at the end of the day - it's teamwork)

Worse than trains - skiing. Why would you do THAT?

 

 

[Metal Guru]

5 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Nope

Buses get my vote - Ayrton Senna wannabe at the wheel, every.single.other.f*cker on board is engrossed in their phone. I'm watching (trainee) Senna flinging this thing around the countryside whilst grappling for my seatbelt.
Nobody else is using theirs?
My first time on a cross country bus (quite recently) in maybe 15 years was 100 years too soon.

Depends on the horse and your trust  (most horsey people pretend it's some degree of competence but, at the end of the day - it's teamwork)

Worse than trains - skiing. Why would you do THAT?

 

 

Do buses actually have any springs? The ones round here seem to have a rigid link between the body any the wheels. The whole bus shakes at every bump or pot hole , so every 50 m. Also are bus drivers told not to ease off the brake under any circumstances. ( you know the jolting  stop when you leave your foot planted on the brake pedal.) They ALL do that ffs!

 

[paulplom]

20 hours ago, MikeR said:

son is a bit pissed over his PS4 , he saved up for a console , with  a bit more help we got one , we set it all up , had fun doing the accounts etc , but it worked well ...

then he wanted multiplayer .....  

err no , age restricted ,  ok then use my account ..

still no ... you need a package of so much a squid a month ..

err what ???

we now understand why there are so many PS4s on the CEX shelves  ..

Now looking out for a 2nd controller for local play ..

PS Plus is only just over £2 a week and you get access to hundreds of games for free too. Including online play.

Me and my son both have PS5s and he signed my ps into his account so I get everything free. Everytime I switch my playstation on it logs him out of his mid game or whatever leading to some pretty fierce arguments 🤣

[MikeR]

1 minute ago, paulplom said:

PS Plus is only just over £2 a week and you get access to hundreds of games for free too. Including online play.

Me and my son both have PS5s and he signed my ps into his account so I get everything free. Everytime I switch my playstation on it logs him out of his mid game or whatever leading to some pretty fierce arguments 🤣

he has gone off having on line ownership of games and likes to have the disc in his hand . he is starting to see the console market  as bit of a cash cow .

 

[Jazoli]

Ps plus is well worth the money its 100 quid/yr and gives access to a huge catalogue of games, plenty of AA rated games in there too, xbox is exactly the same for multiplayer and game pass offers similar benefits.

[MikeR]

todays kick in the slats , just had a chance to check the exhaust onthe C1 and its snapped off at the rear box ..

its my fault ..

cant get a new one till Tuesday ...

anyway the old rear box came off ok and just a new clamp needed for the joint ..

[Yoss]

23 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Is there a mode of transport that is worse than trains? 

 

I haven't been on one for years and today is reminding me why

A good train journey is absolutely the best way to travel. Unfortunately there aren't many of those left in this country anymore.

This was a trip from Brno to Prague last year. Even at 5.30 in the morning the restaurant car was open and practically empty. So I had their version of a full English (they were giant baked beans and the sausage was a frankfurter type).

Followed by cake.

With two coffees, all for about £10.

In these surroundings.

What's not to like?

[Yoss]

17 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Do buses actually have any springs? The ones round here seem to have a rigid link between the body any the wheels. The whole bus shakes at every bump or pot hole , so every 50 m. Also are bus drivers told not to ease off the brake under any circumstances. ( you know the jolting  stop when you leave your foot planted on the brake pedal.) They ALL do that ffs!

 

Most modern buses are actually air sprung though I know it doesn't feel like it. That's mainly because the many other joints in the suspension are bolloxed.

Obviously being an ex Routemaster owner I'm biased but they have independent coils on all four corners so ride better than anything else but even they need a decent load to ride properly. They ride far better full than empty. Which makes sense of course. if you set them up to ride well empty then they'd be bouncing off the bump stops when full. When you consider a bus full of passengers will double it's weight it's difficult to find the sweet spot.

[myglaren]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

A good train journey is absolutely the best way to travel. Unfortunately there aren't many of those left in this country anymore.

This was a trip from Brno to Prague last year. Even at 5.30 in the morning the restaurant car was open and practically empty. So I had their version of a full English (they were giant baked beans and the sausage was a frankfurter type).

Followed by cake.

With two coffees, all for about £10.

In these surroundings.

What's not to like?

That all looks remarkably civilised.

[horriblemercedes]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

A good train journey is absolutely the best way to travel. Unfortunately there aren't many of those left in this country anymore.

This was a trip from Brno to Prague last year. Even at 5.30 in the morning the restaurant car was open and practically empty. So I had their version of a full English (they were giant baked beans and the sausage was a frankfurter type).

Followed by cake.

With two coffees, all for about £10.

In these surroundings.

What's not to like?

I don't like the motion for a start - makes me feel queasy

Then just the stations and I just prefer travelling in private 

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, myglaren said:

That all looks remarkably civilised.

Every two hours there is a train from Prague to Budapest via Brno, Břeclav and Bratislava. They use a mix of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian stock. It's all different but all really good quality and you never know what you're going to get (I'm sure somebody knows but I don't). Whatever the stock, it is usually hauled by a Škoda 109E so that's a bonus too.

On the hours in between there is a train from Prague to Vienna and usually on to somewhere else in Austria which runs the same route as far as Břeclav and is formed of Austrian stock and also has a full restaurant car. So you can get restaurant cars from four different countries on the same route. It is very civilised.

[Boycie]

23 hours ago, Yoss said:

A good train journey is absolutely the best way to travel. Unfortunately there aren't many of those left in this country anymore.

This was a trip from Brno to Prague last year. Even at 5.30 in the morning the restaurant car was open and practically empty. So I had their version of a full English (they were giant baked beans and the sausage was a frankfurter type).

Followed by cake.

With two coffees, all for about £10.

In these surroundings.

What's not to like?

Why am I singing the theme tune from From Russia with love ..... 

[PicantoJon]

Found this whilst changing one of the the injector seals.

Arses. 

Edited March 31, 2024 by PicantoJon

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Nyphur said:

 

One of the very few train journeys I'd happily repeat. Not a rail replacement bus service in sight.

The Czechs (and I suspect Eastern Europeans in general) have a much better way of working though possibly not as safe for the workforce but I'm sure it's okay if you're paying attention.

They will just close one section of line at a time and only on one side. And the App shows you exactly where it is.

So I just found this one on the app.

So it says there is a closure between the two places above that I'm not going to type out because it would take about half an hour. So then you swipe left for this. This shows live running, if it's late the actual times appear in a separate column. But you can see where closure is.

But unlike here it's not a complete closure. Like I say, it will only be on one side, so at worst you have to wait while a train coming the other way clears the line, then there will probably be a speed restriction past the works. Usually, at most , it will be about a 15 minute delay and the live portal above will tell you how late it is once it has passed that section. You might be lucky and go straight on to the single section and just lose a couple of minutes in the speed restriction.

But as you say, not a rail replacement bus in sight.

 

Another useful feature of the app is the train formation. Useful if you are a crank, and of no use to 99.9% of the general public but I'm glad it is there. Because you can tell if the train is loco hauled or a multiple unit. This is loco hauled.

But still not as good as the Hungarian Railways app which tells you the exact loco or unit on each train so you can find all the old stuff.

[cobblers]

There's a nice quiet pub that I come to regularly, about half a mile away is a family campsite which is closed over winter... Until now. 

Now the place is full of fucking amateur drinkers, kids and fannies that put bunting all over their mazda bongos. It's as if these people haven't left their house for 6 months and the concept of a pub meal and a pint is just completely alien. For example the couple next to me have just moved their table so it completely blocks the door out of the kitchen... 

[cobblers]

There are some Americans in here now. 

[artdjones]

6 hours ago, PicantoJon said:

Found this whilst changing one of the the injector seals.

Arses. 

1.6HDi?, they can do that without any symptoms, maybe there's been some oil starvation.

[PicantoJon]

3 minutes ago, artdjones said:

1.6HDi?, they can do that without any symptoms, maybe there's been some oil starvation.

That's the one. That was my guess too, annoying seeing how I've been changing oil and filter every 6-7,000 miles. 

[artdjones]

12 minutes ago, PicantoJon said:

That's the one. That was my guess too, annoying seeing how I've been changing oil and filter every 6-7,000 miles. 

The only one I've bought that did that had the oil pressure light come on at idle when I got home. It had run perfectly on test a few days before,but then it started knocking. I was able to get another engine very cheaply, so changed it over, but I couldn't help noticing that the sump on the bad engine had a huge dent in it in the vicinity of the oil pickup. No damage to the pickup, but obviously there hadnt been  enough space for oil to get through at high speed. And all the cam lobes had those deep pits.

[PicantoJon]

12 hours ago, artdjones said:

No damage to the pickup, but obviously there hadnt been  enough space for oil to get through at high speed. And all the cam lobes had those deep pits.

From what I could see it was limited to that particular lobe. Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. 😬

[artdjones]

5 minutes ago, PicantoJon said:

From what I could see it was limited to that particular lobe. Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. 😬

Probably best to just run it with regular oil changes until some symptoms manifest themselves.

Full camshaft and follower kits are available, if the worst happens. Approx £300 on eBay with a cambelt kit on top.

[maxxo]

i work as a van driver at asda

i hate it

i fucking hate it, i start at 3pm today and i'm really tempted to just not turn up

but alas i need the money

completely inept management, bullying culture, fuck sake i take these jobs for low stress and they're perfect for my income needs

apparently i was meant to be in on friday, despite being told the shift was cancelled and i was about 100 miles away on a day

probably going to get the sack today

don't care

i hate it