The grumpy thread

[auntiemaryscanary]

6 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Currently attempting to declutter and sort through things that can be binned/sold

Whatever I do seems to be making the mess 10 times worse 

I've got a bin bag and filled it up with stuff that can go in the bin but it's barely scratched the surface 

Wherever I look there is something that needs to be put away, used, or binned. 

Extremely frustrating 

Motivation is rapidly depleting

Any tips gratefully received!!

I'm always the same. Piles of shit everywhere. BUT you get to a point and start putting things back and then, bang, before you know it job done. 

Have a break, then get back at it even if it's another day. You'll get there and then be chuffed it's done.

For standardised storage I bought 20 of these 3 years ago when we moved house https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264350362601?itmmeta=01HY92WMAYEE2QJ5HXWDG6KC2E&hash=item3d8c826be9:g:yJEAAOSwFyRlw8kq (of course they were cheaper then).

For owt small that can fall through the holes I lined with old cardboard. They take some weight. Course when they are 5 high what you want is always at the bottom. I now never have more than 2 high on the racking, heaviest on the floor etc. 

Label all 4 sides so you know where the "decorating" stuff is to amaze the wife when you return to the house in 2 mins with everything required for the job at hand.

[goosey]

Went down to Worle today to do some small jobs on my in laws static caravan and have some beach time with the wife and kids as it was sunny. Was coming out the bedroom and think I maybe blacked out or something but I stubbed my toe on the door frame which sent me flying into the open bathroom door which the handle ripped off as it dug into my side fell then fell into the other wall and hit my head breaking my glasses. Extremely pissed off as I now have to repair/replace the bathroom door and fix the trim on the bottom of the floor where I hit my head all because of me being a clumsy twat 

[myglaren]

24 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

I'm always the same. Piles of shit everywhere. BUT you get to a point and start putting things back and then, bang, before you know it job done. 

Have a break, then get back at it even if it's another day. You'll get there and then be chuffed it's done.

For standardised storage I bought 20 of these 3 years ago when we moved house https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264350362601?itmmeta=01HY92WMAYEE2QJ5HXWDG6KC2E&hash=item3d8c826be9:g:yJEAAOSwFyRlw8kq (of course they were cheaper then).

For owt small that can fall through the holes I lined with old cardboard. They take some weight. Course when they are 5 high what you want is always at the bottom. I now never have more than 2 high on the racking, heaviest on the floor etc. 

Label all 4 sides so you know where the "decorating" stuff is to amaze the wife when you return to the house in 2 mins with everything required for the job at hand.

And then unable to find anything you need,

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, goosey said:

Went down to Worle today to do some small jobs on my in laws static caravan and have some beach time with the wife and kids as it was sunny. Was coming out the bedroom and think I maybe blacked out or something but I stubbed my toe on the door frame which sent me flying into the open bathroom door which the handle ripped off as it dug into my side fell then fell into the other wall and hit my head breaking my glasses. Extremely pissed off as I now have to repair/replace the bathroom door and fix the trim on the bottom of the floor where I hit my head all because of me being a clumsy twat 

Proof that caravans are evil 😀

[beko1987]

I broke my windscreen last week. Got it booked in for repair and thought I had booked home fitting, but it seems I clicked off that seeing which depot had the earliest availability (assuming it meant the van from said depot) so I'm now going to Oxford at lunchtime and wandering around an industrial estate for an hour... 

Hopefully it means they won't mill around and ask too many questions when I arrive and get straight on with it

[MikeR]

18 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Currently attempting to declutter and sort through things that can be binned/sold

Whatever I do seems to be making the mess 10 times worse 

I've got a bin bag and filled it up with stuff that can go in the bin but it's barely scratched the surface 

Wherever I look there is something that needs to be put away, used, or binned. 

Extremely frustrating 

Motivation is rapidly depleting

Any tips gratefully received!!

I put stuff by the inside of the garage door . if its still there when I have tripped over it 3 times , it goes a little bit further into the car / bin for its last trip

[Zelandeth]

We had a supposedly smart water meter installed about a month ago.  Got a letter recently from Anglican water claiming they think we have a leak.

After much faffing around managed to get set up with their godawful app so we could view hourly usage.  Take home message after reviewing a few days worth of data?  Pretty sure their meter is glitching.  Apparently last night between 3 and 4 am we used nearly 200 litres of water.  There are similar random usage spikes every day or two at completely random times.  

I think we would have noticed that much water going somewhere.  That's not a dripping tap or slow weep from something...that's essentially something wide open for 20 minutes or so.

I'll obviously check anything I can see and continue to monitor it...but I'm seriously doubting the meter at this point.

[jakebullet]

Think I've worked out why cannabis is called dope. Workshy wanker next door was stinking the place up smoking that shit. He then got the lawnmower out and went round and round and round for a bit over 2 hours. He's got 10 minutes worth of grass to cut.

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

The price of genuine Suzuki crankshaft rear main seal !

 

I do not fancy gambling on a £5 ebay job  After all the hassle of removing transfer box and gearbox from sj 410. Just got to find the time and enthusiasm to do the job.

[beko1987]

4 hours ago, jakebullet said:

Think I've worked out why cannabis is called dope. Workshy wanker next door was stinking the place up smoking that shit. He then got the lawnmower out and went round and round and round for a bit over 2 hours. He's got 10 minutes worth of grass to cut.

Bet his grass looks 👌 though? 

[MikeR]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

We had a supposedly smart water meter installed about a month ago.  Got a letter recently from Anglican water claiming they think we have a leak.

After much faffing around managed to get set up with their godawful app so we could view hourly usage.  Take home message after reviewing a few days worth of data?  Pretty sure their meter is glitching.  Apparently last night between 3 and 4 am we used nearly 200 litres of water.  There are similar random usage spikes every day or two at completely random times.  

I think we would have noticed that much water going somewhere.  That's not a dripping tap or slow weep from something...that's essentially something wide open for 20 minutes or so.

I'll obviously check anything I can see and continue to monitor it...but I'm seriously doubting the meter at this point.

do check very carefully , I have had contacts who have had leaking pipes on the house side of the meter releasing lots of water , to the extent they had the best lawn in the road , anyway lots of digging up and pipe replacing went on ...

[Remspoor]

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

We had a supposedly smart water meter installed about a month ago.  Got a letter recently from Anglican water claiming they think we have a leak.

After much faffing around managed to get set up with their godawful app so we could view hourly usage.  Take home message after reviewing a few days worth of data?  Pretty sure their meter is glitching.  Apparently last night between 3 and 4 am we used nearly 200 litres of water.  There are similar random usage spikes every day or two at completely random times.  

I think we would have noticed that much water going somewhere.  That's not a dripping tap or slow weep from something...that's essentially something wide open for 20 minutes or so.

I'll obviously check anything I can see and continue to monitor it...but I'm seriously doubting the meter at this point.

The way to investigate if you have a leak.

Find the meter or stopcock.  Ensure you have all the taps turned off. Use a listening stick. https://www.hwmglobal.com/st20-listening-stick/

You do not need anything so fancy. These are the sort of thing I used when i worked in the water industry. I have used in my own hose a large screw driver with a wooden bulbs head. It just means you have to get on your hands and knees to use it. Plastic heads do not carry the sound so well.

If you have a leak then you will hear a a sound.   If you have never done this before. Get someone to open tap whilst you listen. It will be the same sound. The tap does not ned to be opened mush to hear it. 

Smart meters are not great bits of kit. In fact water meters are not always that reliable. When you open a tap you should see the meter counting the usage. If it does not work then it is certainly not working correctly.

Good luck lets us know how you get on.

[Zelandeth]

23 hours ago, Remspoor said:

The way to investigate if you have a leak.

Find the meter or stopcock.  Ensure you have all the taps turned off. Use a listening stick. https://www.hwmglobal.com/st20-listening-stick/

You do not need anything so fancy. These are the sort of thing I used when i worked in the water industry. I have used in my own hose a large screw driver with a wooden bulbs head. It just means you have to get on your hands and knees to use it. Plastic heads do not carry the sound so well.

If you have a leak then you will hear a a sound.   If you have never done this before. Get someone to open tap whilst you listen. It will be the same sound. The tap does not ned to be opened mush to hear it. 

Smart meters are not great bits of kit. In fact water meters are not always that reliable. When you open a tap you should see the meter counting the usage. If it does not work then it is certainly not working correctly.

Good luck lets us know how you get on.

It seems to be tracking reasonably most of the time.  There are plenty of periods where there's no usage (when you'd expect, middle of the night etc), there are just hours where there's random huge spikes in usage, including at times where it makes absolutely zero sense - like between 4 and 5 this morning again, apparently we used another 200 odd litres.  It's those spikes that just make no sense rather than a slow continuous leak.  That's not the sort of leak which would come and go!

It's not something daft like a cistern overflowing - they all dump into the pan if they overflow so it would be really obvious.

Our main stop cock is pretty noisy when there's a large usage going on as well, so running water when there shouldn't be is something I'd be likely to pick up on.

[maxxo]

Ah don’t we love living with your partner

got a parcel for a neighbour, I said “oh I’ll pop it round now” but oh no she says that’s apparently way too late (7pm at night) and apparently needs a minute etc etc and in a right mood with me now

sick to shit of this

ill run the parcel to the neighbour tomorrow, she will hate that as I’ll be speaking to a female without her there

cant be arsed anymore

wish we never met

[Remspoor]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

It seems to be tracking reasonably most of the time.  There are plenty of periods where there's no usage (when you'd expect, middle of the night etc), there are just hours where there's random huge spikes in usage, including at times where it makes absolutely zero sense - like between 4 and 5 this morning again, apparently we used another 200 odd litres.  It's those spikes that just make no sense rather than a slow continuous leak.  That's not the sort of leak which would come and go!

It's not something daft like a cistern overflowing - they all dump into the pan if they overflow so it would be really obvious.

Our main stop cock is pretty noisy when there's a large usage going on as well, so running water when there shouldn't be is something I'd be likely to pick up on.

You are going to have to convince the water company the meter is faulty.

[chaseracer]

On 20/05/2024 at 17:49, beko1987 said:

Bet his grass looks 👌 though? 

Unless he's smoking that too... 🤪

[RoverFolkUs]

56 minutes ago, maxxo said:

Ah don’t we love living with your partner

got a parcel for a neighbour, I said “oh I’ll pop it round now” but oh no she says that’s apparently way too late (7pm at night) and apparently needs a minute etc etc and in a right mood with me now

sick to shit of this

ill run the parcel to the neighbour tomorrow, she will hate that as I’ll be speaking to a female without her there

cant be arsed anymore

wish we never met

Sorry but it sounds like you need to get out of that situation as soon as you can, if you can, that sort of behaviour is irrational and borderline coercive. Don't forget men can be victims of domestic abuse as well

[Pieman]

17 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Sorry but it sounds like you need to get out of that situation as soon as you can, if you can, that sort of behaviour is irrational and borderline coercive. Don't forget men can be victims of domestic abuse as well

Exactly this.  Just because in the eyes of the media men can't be victims of anything, doesn't mean that view is true.  As for "speaking to a female without her there" she needs to be told to get to fuck just for that, if it was you telling her she wasn't allowed to talk to another male she'd probably have you arrested just for saying it!

[Rust Collector]

11 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Exactly this.  Just because in the eyes of the media men can't be victims of anything, doesn't mean that view is true.  As for "speaking to a female without her there" she needs to be told to get to fuck just for that, if it was you telling her she wasn't allowed to talk to another male she'd probably have you arrested just for saying it!

I agree with the sentiment that society holds men and women to different standards when it comes to domestic abuse, but for the sake of anyone worried that they won’t be taken seriously, then I’d just like to say that I had dealings with the police on more than one occasion where I was a victim of domestic abuse as a man and I’m pleased to report that they were really supportive and helpful. It’s possibly the only positive interaction that I’ve ever had with the police, all the rest have been shitty experiences sadly.

[Pieman]

According to some, in today's society most of the time men may as well be rounded up and got rid of!

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, maxxo said:

Ah don’t we love living with your partner

got a parcel for a neighbour, I said “oh I’ll pop it round now” but oh no she says that’s apparently way too late (7pm at night) and apparently needs a minute etc etc and in a right mood with me now

sick to shit of this

ill run the parcel to the neighbour tomorrow, she will hate that as I’ll be speaking to a female without her there

cant be arsed anymore

wish we never met

Can't she pop it round?

[maxxo]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Can't she pop it round?

That wound up happening

of course more bickering as I answered the door

just feeling down today

[Rave]

@maxxo Life's too short to be doing with a shitty relationship mate. I gather you're pretty young; I had a real dire patch and didn't manage to even snog a woman between the age of 18 1/2 and 22, so I was damned keen on the first couple of women who showed an interest in me after that, and I arguably rushed into getting married aged 24. Fortunately my wife, while a bit of a nightmare in many ways, is at least really kind hearted and not controlling or abusive, but if she ever had been I'd have shown her the door and sacked it off as a bad job. I guess if you really think your partner is worth fixing then fair enough, but that won't happen unless you actually set about it, passive aggression won't cut it. Set boundaries, respectfully tell her how it's going to be from now on, be prepared to walk if it doesn't work.

You only get one life and the absolute worst way to spend it is living in fear of your partner; a single life doing whatever the fuck you want with a daily pornhub wank on your phone is honestly much better, not that there's any shortage of quite decent women out there if you get to 35 in good shape and with an interesting personality.

[jakebullet]

It's the Mrs's birthday today. What has Mad Jean bought her daughter? Er, nothing. Well you got a card? Er, nope. Wrote on your facebook wall? Nah.

But Mrs's brother has wrote on facebook. And so has the DEVIL, that HELEN WALKER!!!!

Mad Jean is curiously absent from facebook today. None of the usual 40 copies of the same praise JEZZZZUS, or whatever is in her head.

Place bets now, my money's on Mad Jean has been SO ILL and the NHS ALMOST LET HER DIE, 'cos nobody cares about the elderly. So that's why the birthday just got missed* in the trauma of it all, and besides you're in league with THE DEVILS for letting them post happy birthday on your wall. So it's GOD'S WILL that you get nothing at all.

TLDR, Mad Jean is a nasty piece of work, and can get to fucking fuck.

[Rave]

I refer you also @jakebullet to my post above

[Pieman]

9 minutes ago, jakebullet said:

It's the Mrs's birthday today. What has Mad Jean bought her daughter? Er, nothing. Well you got a card? Er, nope. Wrote on your facebook wall? Nah.

But Mrs's brother has wrote on facebook. And so has the DEVIL, that HELEN WALKER!!!!

Mad Jean is curiously absent from facebook today. None of the usual 40 copies of the same praise JEZZZZUS, or whatever is in her head.

Place bets now, my money's on Mad Jean has been SO ILL and the NHS ALMOST LET HER DIE, 'cos nobody cares about the elderly. So that's why the birthday just got missed* in the trauma of it all, and besides you're in league with THE DEVILS for letting them post happy birthday on your wall. So it's GOD'S WILL that you get nothing at all.

TLDR, Mad Jean is a nasty piece of work, and can get to fucking fuck.

Seriously, lay off the acid, all of you.  I'm getting genuinely concerned now.

[Rave]

Anyway, let's get to why I opened this thread that I've never posted in before to my knowledge.

My Audi A6's MOT expired 5 days ago; I knew it would fail on the engine light being on, which was due to the post-cat lambda sensor being dead. @DirtyDaily supplied the replacement with the car, I just never got round to it because it ran fine (post-cat lambdas are just there to dob you in to the MOT man) and it looked like a right prick to get to, being buried behind the engine. Anyway I bit the bullet on Sunday and it was actually quite easy, it cracked off no bother with the 4-sided lambda socket I found lying in the road a year or so ago, and obvs I just bunged the replacement in with an adjustable spanner, fuck doing it up tight. While I was in there I also fitted the supplied cam cover gasket, which was a bit more effort, but still not a struggle. But I could hear that it also had an exhaust leak and I know from bitter experience that you've absolutely no chance of passing an MOT with one as they totally screw the CO/lambda reading.

So today I drove it the 50 yards round the corner to the nearest side street onto my ramps, before wriggling under to inspect the exhaust. I found the leak pretty quickly at the joint between the link pipe and the first silencer section. I went to ECP and paid 4 quid for an exhaust bandage kit, and then went back again to pay £3.69 for a 300g tube of gun gum (vs £4 for the 150g tube of amateur shit) when I found my old one had gone rock hard.

By that point it was tipping down with rain so I effected the repair lying on an absolutely piss wet road. Wriggling out from under the car I was quite literally making squelching noises. I figured I'd just leave the car up on the ramps, as although the gun gum says to dry it off with the engine running , the bandage says to leave it 24h and I wasn't that confident that I'd done it up super tight.

Anyway after stripping off my piss wet clothes, having a shower, ringing the MOT station to book the car in for tomorrow, and cooking dinner for my elderly FIL, I fancied some cans to take the edge off so decided to wander to the offy. On my way out I found this:

...some dick has parked <2m from the junction, and 6" from my towbar. I've zero chance of backing the car off the ramps if they don't move.

I'm not actually bothered about them not noticing that they're blocking me on my ramps, I'm an ADHD space cadet who goes through life not noticing shit like that. But the parking <2m from the junction is a dick move and clearly against the highway code. I've left a polite notice under their wiper, hopefully they'll fuck off to work before I need to get the car out tomorrow, and if not I could potentially MOT it Thursday.

If not would the council tow them for being too close to the junction? I really don't want to have to borrow my brother's car for my airport run on Friday.

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

No they won't give a shit, neither will plod.

[DirtyDaily]

Anyway, let's get to why I opened this thread that I've never posted in before to my knowledge.
My Audi A6's MOT expired 5 days ago; I knew it would fail on the engine light being on, which was due to the post-cat lambda sensor being dead. [mention=28666]DirtyDaily[/mention] supplied the replacement with the car, I just never got round to it because it ran fine (post-cat lambdas are just there to dob you in to the MOT man) and it looked like a right prick to get to, being buried behind the engine. Anyway I bit the bullet on Sunday and it was actually quite easy, it cracked off no bother with the 4-sided lambda socket I found lying in the road a year or so ago, and obvs I just bunged the replacement in with an adjustable spanner, fuck doing it up tight. While I was in there I also fitted the supplied cam cover gasket, which was a bit more effort, but still not a struggle. But I could hear that it also had an exhaust leak and I know from bitter experience that you've absolutely no chance of passing an MOT with one as they totally screw the CO/lambda reading.
So today I drove it the 50 yards round the corner to the nearest side street onto my ramps, before wriggling under to inspect the exhaust. I found the leak pretty quickly at the joint between the link pipe and the first silencer section. I went to ECP and paid 4 quid for an exhaust bandage kit, and then went back again to pay £3.69 for a 300g tube of gun gum (vs £4 for the 150g tube of amateur shit) when I found my old one had gone rock hard.
By that point it was tipping down with rain so I effected the repair lying on an absolutely piss wet road. Wriggling out from under the car I was quite literally making squelching noises. I figured I'd just leave the car up on the ramps, as although the gun gum says to dry it off with the engine running , the bandage says to leave it 24h and I wasn't that confident that I'd done it up super tight.
Anyway after stripping off my piss wet clothes, having a shower, ringing the MOT station to book the car in for tomorrow, and cooking dinner for my elderly FIL, I fancied some cans to take the edge off so decided to wander to the offy. On my way out I found this:

...some dick has parked <2m from the junction, and 6" from my towbar. I've zero chance of backing the car off the ramps if they don't move.
I'm not actually bothered about them not noticing that they're blocking me on my ramps, I'm an ADHD space cadet who goes through life not noticing shit like that. But the parking <2m from the junction is a dick move and clearly against the highway code. I've left a polite notice under their wiper, hopefully they'll fuck off to work before I need to get the car out tomorrow, and if not I could potentially MOT it Thursday.
If not would the council tow them for being too close to the junction? I really don't want to have to borrow my brother's car for my airport run on Friday.
 

Some people are severely lacking in the common sense department unfortunately. I suspect they didn't consider any of it when they parked there.
Good luck with the MOT though, was the 90 degree adapter on the secondary O2 sensor still? When I first tried to fix it, I fitted that as I thought maybe the cat was losing its efficiency but it didn't help so got the new O2 sensor but never fitted it? Thought I did but I could be going mad. Either way you can clear the code just beforehand and get it through the MOT without fixing it properly. Looking forward to seeing this get another year of motoring.

[beko1987]

13 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Sorry but it sounds like you need to get out of that situation as soon as you can, if you can, that sort of behaviour is irrational and borderline coercive. Don't forget men can be victims of domestic abuse as well

I look back on my relationship with the ex now after 4+ years and after the fun bits are removed I think the same, now when she starts screaming at me I can hang up on her 👌