The grumpy thread

[High Jetter]

37 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Try an Echo.

Not sure a smart speaker would cut it...

[Dyslexic Viking]

41 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Try an Echo.

Thanks and see that have 2 dealers nearby so it's something we can look at.

[Low ontime]

5 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Curtain twitching neighbours that abuse me and my dad and threaten violence simply for working on cars have a very badly trained Jack Russell, it does my head in. Been having issues with hypersensitivity lately due to medication, and the dog sets my anxiety off terribly because it barks at anything that moves, and the unexpected sudden noise makes me panic.

There's another dog walker that passes by that lets her dog shit and piss on people's lawns. She cleans up the shit, but we're having to take preventative measures - I've had to tell her to stop her dog pissing on my cars before and she responded 'don't park it in the street then'.

Recently noticed on a hot day that she'd let it do it again, and also that her dog was significantly dehydrated.

Headphones in ear,  Even if not plugged into anything and ignorance works my end 

as long as it’s not the dead of night what’s the problem, it’s a hobby! 

you could always take the trolley Jack for walks at midnight to give them something to moan about 

 

[Ghosty]

Just now, Low ontime said:

you could always take the trolley Jack for walks at midnight to give them something to moan about

Ignorance isn't really possible with my somewhat neurodiverse head.

I've had two cars flatbedded home in the middle of the night in the past week, though 😆

[IronStar]

It’s been confirmed today that Hotel Jugoslavija, one of the symbols of Belgrade, will be demolished to make way for 44 and 32 floor high glass monstrosities. It’s, obviously, purchased by the company directly linked to the ruling mafia cl…sorry, party. Same guys that are about to demolish another landmark - Belgrade’s Fairgrounds, to extend Aliexpress Dubai - Belgrade Waterfront. The same company is also responsible for bulldozing quite a few other landmark buildings. They’re not the only ones doing it either, fuck the culture, fuck the architectural heritage, there’s money to be made erecting fucking eysore towers.

I can’t take this anymore. This place has lost all the identity, and is actively being made worse every single day. Belgrade is one of the most polluted cities in Europe. The prices are insane, and it’s more expensive to live in than infinitely nicer places. The lithium mine is just around the corner and about to irreversibly fuck up what little we didn’t fuck up already. 
 

Fuck this place, fuck my stupid passport that makes it very complicated to move as we’re not EU member state. I can’t keep living here. I want out. 

[Metal Guru]

22 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

So you disagree with me wanting air-con or that I said the UK isn't exactly the place for air-con?

My whole argument is for having air-con. I want air-con in my car, but my luck says otherwise. As I said before, we're now almost in the middle of summer and yet this still hasn't been sorted.

Saying U.K. isn’t the place for aIr-con. I was in the same situation last summer. My MOT was due in Sept and I didn’t want to spend money on it if it was going to fail otherwise.

[Slartibartfast]

We've recently moved house. I have (as ever) found myself cleaning the bloody oven at 3am the day of handover of the old place

[Lord Sterling]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

Saying U.K. isn’t the place for aIr-con. I was in the same situation last summer. My MOT was due in Sept and I didn’t want to spend money on it if it was going to fail otherwise.

Personally I feel it is a place that now needs air-con. I said that because I felt others might be coming back with the "just open a window then" or what originally said. 

But as Jazoli said, I needn't justify myself. I want a basic thing, that is for my air-con to actually work but it's fallen into a farce that wasn't needed.

[Lord Sterling]

2 hours ago, IronStar said:

It’s been confirmed today that Hotel Jugoslavia, one of the symbols of Belgrade, will be demolished to make way for 44 and 32 floor high glass monstrosities. It’s, obviously, purchased by the company directly linked to the ruling mafia cl…sorry, party. Same guys that are about to demolish another landmark - Belgrad’s Fairgrounds, to extend Aliexpress Dubai - Belgrade Waterfront. The same company is also responsible for bulldozing quite a few other landmark buildings. They’re not the only ones doing it either, fuck the culture, fuck the architectural heritage, there’s money to be made erecting fucking eysore towers.

I can’t take this anymore. This place has lost all the identity, and is actively being made worse every single day. Belgrade is one of the most polluted cities in Europe. The prices are insane, and it’s more expensive to live in than infinitely nicer places. The lithium mine is just around the corner and about to irreversibly fuck up what little we didn’t fuck up already. 

Fuck this place, fuck my stupid passport that makes it very complicated to move as we’re not EU member state. I can’t keep living here. I want out. 

To be fair, the knocking down of older,  more characterful buildings happens here too. Where there is money to be made, the developers will be there.

Shame about how you feel living there. Do you have other options in terms of where to move to? Personally I'm trying Belgium simply for the fact I have family there, but the stipulation is I can't move there without having a job first which is fair enough.l, it gives me time to tie up loose ends.

[95 quid Peugeot]

On 23/07/2024 at 14:57, wuvvum said:

 

 

I assume that means I'm not going to receive my 10 litres of 20W50 and two cans of engine flush for £14.87 then?  Sigh.

i had ordered the same as above for myself,  received a refund,  for the 20w50 and other things ordered at same time

As I'm not desperate i subsequently ordered two bog standard 20L 5w30 as discounted.....guess what, they haven't arrived, however still in stock at a much higher price.

Seems they tempt you in with a really low discounted price, then fuck you off, hoping you buy at full price.   Or monster cash flow issues

[wuvvum]

To be fair, 10 litres of oil for under 15 quid is ludicrously underpriced these days, without counting the two cans of engine flush they were supposedly throwing in.

I've bought 5l of 20W50 for 18 quid from another supplier - still cheap enough.

[IronStar]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

To be fair, the knocking down of older,  more characterful buildings happens here too. Where there is money to be made, the developers will be there.

Shame about how you feel living there. Do you have other options in terms of where to move to? Personally I'm trying Belgium simply for the fact I have family there, but the stipulation is I can't move there without having a job first which is fair enough.l, it gives me time to tie up loose ends.

This is akin to someone knocking down Keats House to make way for some flats. This is supposed to be protected architectural heritage, but anything flies here. 🙄

I hate it for years now. It was never an amazing place to live, but it’s taken a turn for significantly worse in the past 10 or so years, and it’s gotten eye-wateringly expensive. Not London expensive, but more-than-Barcelona expensive, for absolutely fuckall quality of life. It was sixth most expensive place to buy in Europe compared to income in 2022, and prices have doubled since. Air quality? Nonexistent. Water quality? I didn’t drink tap water for over 15 years now. They’re illegally building houses and dumping shit in the protected zone where water is pumped. Need to go to see a doctor? I’m paying for a mandatory national health insurance, but it’s so understaffed and underfunded that if you need anything, get your wallet ready. Fuel? Most expensive in the region. Surely, taxes are low then? Some 50% of my salary goes to taxes, plus 20% VAT on everything. Corruption is rampant. Ruling party are involved in all sorta of criminal imaginable. There’s so much dirty money floating around it’s gotten ridiculous. 
 

We’re thinking something like Portugal. Whilst not perfect, climate is nice, and it’s much better than here. Also cheaper. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

5 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Personally I feel it is a place that now needs air-con. I said that because I felt others might be coming back with the "just open a window then" or what originally said. 

But as Jazoli said, I needn't justify myself. I want a basic thing, that is for my air-con to actually work but it's fallen into a farce that wasn't needed.

I daily an 09 J10 Qashqai which has aircon that has never worked. I bit the bullet a while back when one of the local chains had a decent deal on aircon refills/ if it doesn't work you get your money back type offer and bit the bullet. The fella pulled me into the workshop 10 minutes after I drove the car in and demonstrated how as soon as he connects up the machine, it audibly pisses out of my aircon system. 

My car cost me just under £2k 18 months ago - it's a cheap runabout and I decided there and then it's not worth throwing money at trying to find and fix the aircon leak - proper can of worms I reckon. If it was our family car which we use for longer journeys, I may well have felt differently. 

Window down it is!

[IronStar]

My lament summed up in by the operators of Yugoverse, Belgrade-in-Zastavas tour operators and defacto biggest Zastava owners club in Serbia. 

 

More about the place that’s getting demolished in case someone cares

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6m_NlMsRC/?igsh=MTgwbWZmY3FreTJtbw==

[Yoss]

30 minutes ago, IronStar said:

This is akin to someone knocking down Keats House to make way for some flats. This is supposed to be protected architectural heritage, but anything flies here. 🙄

I hate it for years now. It was never an amazing place to live, but it’s taken a turn for significantly worse in the past 10 or so years, and it’s gotten eye-wateringly expensive. Not London expensive, but more-than-Barcelona expensive, for absolutely fuckall quality of life. It was sixth most expensive place to buy in Europe compared to income in 2022, and prices have doubled since. Air quality? Nonexistent. Water quality? I didn’t drink tap water for over 15 years now. They’re illegally building houses and dumping shit in the protected zone where water is pumped. Need to go to see a doctor? I’m paying for a mandatory national health insurance, but it’s so understaffed and underfunded that if you need anything, get your wallet ready. Fuel? Most expensive in the region. Surely, taxes are low then? Some 50% of my salary goes to taxes, plus 20% VAT on everything. Corruption is rampant. Ruling party are involved in all sorta of criminal imaginable. There’s so much dirty money floating around it’s gotten ridiculous. 
 

We’re thinking something like Portugal. Whilst not perfect, climate is nice, and it’s much better than here. Also cheaper. 

Aren't there nicer places within Serbia that are cheaper/nicer and easier to move to. I'll admit I know next to nothing about Serbia. I've been to most of your neighbouring countries but rail links between those countries and Serbia seem almost non existent. Unless you want to go from Belgrade to Novi Sad there doesn't seem to be much of a network and those are modern units. I go to eastern Europe to travel on the old trains and Serbia doesn't seem to have many. 

I've just googled Hotel Jugoslavija and it looks quite like Hotel International in Brno. I stayed there in January and they have just finished doing it up. The inside is just like all modern hotels now but it looks original on the outside which seems like the way to do it. 

[IronStar]

1 minute ago, Yoss said:

Aren't there nicer places within Serbia that are cheaper/nicer and easier to move to. I'll admit I know next to nothing about Serbia. I've been to most of your neighbouring countries but rail links between those countries and Serbia seem almost non existent. Unless you want to go from Belgrade to Novi Sad there doesn't seem to be much of a network and those are modern units. I go to eastern Europe to travel on the old trains and Serbia doesn't seem to have many. 

I've just googled Hotel Jugoslavija and it looks quite like Hotel International in Brno. I stayed there in January and they have just finished doing it up. The inside is just like all modern hotels now but it looks original on the outside which seems like the way to do it. 

Not really. Everyone and everything is in Belgrade and Novi Sad, which is same shit as Belgrade, except lead developer is owned by Milorad Dodik (Galens) and not Vucic brothers (Millenium Team). Big part of the reason why Belgrade is so shit is that there’s nothing else left, and everyone moved here. Those people don’t want to be here, so they’re treating entire city as disposable, and leaving trail of ruin.
There’s some (ridiculously slow) trains left, but infrastructure is very decayed and there’s next no investment in public infrastructure, other than linking Belgrade and Novi Sad, and building a highway for transit. 
 

I’ve linked to a story about the hotel. You could redo it, but then you can’t launder money through building and selling residential and office space. They’re building all those fucking towers for a reason. This is possibly the last place in Europe that’s so money-laundering friendly, and that’s a huge part of the reason why there are no sanctions on Russia - all low-mid level Russian dickwads are now here to launder, on top of entire Balkans and more. 

[Burnside]

We lost my Grandad this morning to Dementia, passed away at 11:27am in Hospital with my Mum and Aunty by his side.  

Should be feeling sadness but just have alot anger in me towards some people/ events leading up to it, which I won't talk about on here.

Wherever you are now Grandad I hope your at piece., thanks for all your words of encouragement etc over the years. Was and always will be appreciated. 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, IronStar said:

Some 50% of my salary goes to taxes

Fuck that.

[IronStar]

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Fuck that.

46.8% of my very hard earned Dinars every month goes to whatever the fuck they’re doing with it. That includes tax, pension (capped to 1400€ at best), next to useless healthcare and unemployment insurance (capped at around 300€ / month, and you need to meet requirements to get any). 

[Wibble]

2 hours ago, Burnside said:

We lost my Grandad this morning to Dementia, passed away at 11:27am in Hospital with my Mum and Aunty by his side.  

Should be feeling sadness but just have alot anger in me towards some people/ events leading up to it, which I won't talk about on here.

Wherever you are now Grandad I hope your at piece., thanks for all your words of encouragement etc over the years. Was and always will be appreciated. 

Sorry for you loss.

[108]

2 hours ago, Burnside said:

We lost my Grandad this morning to Dementia, passed away at 11:27am in Hospital with my Mum and Aunty by his side.  

Should be feeling sadness but just have alot anger in me towards some people/ events leading up to it, which I won't talk about on here.

Wherever you are now Grandad I hope your at piece., thanks for all your words of encouragement etc over the years. Was and always will be appreciated. 

Very sad to hear of your loss. 
 

The next few weeks will be difficult but there are brighter days ahead. Forget the recent issues and remember the good days. 
 

From a fellow traveller. 

[Metal Guru]

I know food prices have gone through the roof, but the top brands are really taking the piss.

Sample from my shopping yesterday.

Heinz salad cream £3.75 Lidl’s own (Batts?) 89p. Same size more or less.

Coleman’s mustard £1.99 Lidl 59p ( slightly bigger jar too)

Kellogg’s rice crispies £2.49 Lidl £1.09 ( but for twice as much.

Now if you’re a snob or can generally tell the difference , it’s your money, go ahead and stick to brands.

What really gets me, is it’s often old people who stick to the brands they know , ( we know what we like, and we like what we know brigade), and they’re often the ones who can least afford it.

 

 

 

[myglaren]

In the main I agree and usually prefer Lidl's products but I find that their soup is quite insipid and watery.

Other than that though I don't go for big name brands.

[myglaren]

Have been fitting ground anchors in my son's garage, he was recently broken in to and two mountain bikes and a motorbike were stolen.
He has had a high security roller shutter put in place of the up-and-over door but as added security wanted to chain his other motorbike and the two replacement mountain bikes to these ground anchors.
An SDS drill would have been a better prospect but used the DeWalt.
Quite disappointing. The bits kept coming free in the chuck, vibrations loosening it presumably.
It is a keyed chuck, another strike against it, and it seems unpossible to tighten it up enough to prevent it coming loose.
Then my son suggested using his cheap Ryobi drill that may other son gave him. Keyless chuck.
Sad to say it was far better than the DeWalt.

[reb]

Whenever my granny visits me she brings me a huge jar of nescafe. I don't really drink instant coffee, but it's handy to have so I'm not complaining, however of all of the instant coffees red nescafe is easily the worst. It is on par with the asda stuff that costs £4.50 for 500g or whatever it is now.

Of course I would never mention this to her, because in her mind Nescafe is exactly how coffee should be. I have nothing to gain from shattering this illusion for her.

[EyesWeldedShut]

34 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

I know food prices have gone through the roof, but the top brands are really taking the piss.

 

Saw some Heinz the other day - bloody hell...

[SunnySouth]

Well I’m fucking glad that survived Southport’s finest… Looks like it nearly didn’t 😮

[SunnySouth]

48 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

 

Saw some Heinz the other day - bloody hell...

Been buying own brand? Feel cheap now, dontcha?!  

[EyesWeldedShut]

7 minutes ago, SunnySouth said:

Been buying own brand? Feel cheap now, dontcha?!  

Nah - female of the species in this house has a total 'meh' about any sort of baked beans - can't even watch them being consumed by another.
So, I am beanless until she pops off on a trip (four weeks time, cue beans, black pudding, fried eggs etc etc).

My Scottish monetary prudence would point me towards the own brands though  

[myglaren]

I prefer many 'own brands'.

Heenz Beenz are too sweet.  As are their sauces.