The grumpy thread

[fairkens]

3 hours ago, Jazoli said:

Because no one really cares other than the French affected.

UK news is generally UK centric for obvious reasons.

Except if something is happening in the US, in which case we have to hear about it in microscopic detail

[Yoss]

I once had a puncture on my ZT-T. I got the space saver out and it wouldn't fit because being a 190 they had fitted bigger front brakes. As we were only two miles from home I put the flat back on and drove very carefully home. 

When I looked in the handbook if you have a front puncture you are expected to put the space saver on the rear then put the rear on the front. Typical half arsed job from Rover. 

[Pieman]

1 hour ago, fairkens said:

Except if something is happening in the US, in which case we have to hear about it in microscopic detail

I said that the other day - if ever there's a hurricane anywhere else in the world, even the Caribbean islands, it barely gets a mention here, yet the second it makes landfall in the US....

[myglaren]

Oddly enough I frequently find that the Swedish news sites (Dagens Nyheter principally) often report UK news ahead of UK sites.  And are way ahead globally.

[reb]

I have a sore head.

It may have something to do with this text last night:

[warch]

The last time I was properly sick (last year's Cricket Christmas dinner) was down to er downing tequila). 

What's pissed me off this morning is flood water driving dramatics. 

There is absolutely no need to carefully pick your way up the exact centre of the road (blocking it off for oncoming traffic) unless the road has a very pronounced camber. Especially if you've just seen a 308 drive through unscathed and you're driving a Landcruiser. 

[Remspoor]

3 hours ago, myglaren said:

Oddly enough I frequently find that the Swedish news sites (Dagens Nyheter principally) often report UK news ahead of UK sites.  And are way ahead globally.

Dutch news sites are the same.

[New POD]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

I once had a puncture on my ZT-T. I got the space saver out and it wouldn't fit because being a 190 they had fitted bigger front brakes. As we were only two miles from home I put the flat back on and drove very carefully home. 

When I looked in the handbook if you have a front puncture you are expected to put the space saver on the rear then put the rear on the front. Typical half arsed job from Rover. 

I had that issue on a 1.6 mk2 cavalier with 14 inch SRi Alloys and mk3 cavalier Gsi front brakes. Only issue was that one of the alloys was from an mk2 astra GTe  and the casting was thicker so it wouldn't fit on the front. So I'd have to remember to swap the alloy off the other one on the back, for the 13 inch spare.  Not good when your tyres are one direction of rotation only.  But hey. If it gets you home.  But I'm not a major player in the automotive world, just an idiot that wanted better brakes on my car. 

[myglaren]

3 a.m. the phone burped.  Presuming it was one of the kids in difficulty  took a look.

Bloody Google saying it has improved location accuracy

 

And from me excursion to the doctor's today, it bloody hasn't.

[richardmorris]

Just cleaned the windows. Now the sun is on them, they look worse!

 

[myglaren]

^ I'm in good company then.  Mine are usually worse after I clean them.  I should stop bothering.

[richardmorris]

On 18/10/2024 at 12:42, horriblemercedes said:

The spare tyre isn't tested on MOT

I have a historic* 1988 spare in the x1/9. It’s like polished coal. And never been on the road.

[Stinkwheel]

Exploding pressure brake bleeder (yes I only put in the allowed pressure) and brake fluid in the eyes and all over my bloody garage makes me very grumpy indeed. I nearly put a hammer through the bloody windscreen because the car was obviously doing it on purpose - bastard!!!! 
 

and breathe. 

[reb]

I ordered an armchair from amazon, delivered by DPD. It's just been delivered... to someone else! You can even see in the picture that it's not even the right number on the door!

[reb]

3 minutes ago, reb said:

I ordered an armchair from amazon, delivered by DPD. It's just been delivered... to someone else! You can even see in the picture that it's not even the right number on the door!

Amazon support is fucking useless. I click through the options for "I didn't get this" which eventually says "contact 3rd party seller" which gives me a different chatbot, which then tells me "contact amazon" then dumps me back to the first chatbot. Rinse and repeat.

[New POD]

9 minutes ago, reb said:

I ordered an armchair from amazon, delivered by DPD. It's just been delivered... to someone else! You can even see in the picture that it's not even the right number on the door!

My brother in law once ordered a 3 piece suite and a different one arrived.  As he didn't have any seating, he took delivery and kept it in the packaging whilst he spoke to the company.  Eventually his wife, decided to check out the retail price for what they had been delivered. Twice the price.  And it was so much nicer too. So they decided to stop phoning the company, who never got back in touch to rearrange delivery of their chosen suite and take that one back.  They went out of business 4 months later. 

[reb]

I figured out how to speak to a human, who immediately gave me a refund.

Obviously I'd rather they'd just delivered my fucking chair though!

[richardmorris]

10 minutes ago, reb said:

Amazon support is fucking useless. I click through the options for "I didn't get this" which eventually says "contact 3rd party seller" which gives me a different chatbot, which then tells me "contact amazon" then dumps me back to the first chatbot. Rinse and repeat.

I went through this with Amazon before. Never arrived despite saying delivered. No proof of delivery though and they did refund. Turned up out of the blue 6 months later, so the brio railway track for my niece was a free Christmas present not a birthday one.

11 minutes ago, reb said:

Amazon support is fucking useless. I click through the options for "I didn't get this" which eventually says "contact 3rd party seller" which gives me a different chatbot, which then tells me "contact amazon" then dumps me back to the first chatbot. Rinse and repeat.

 

[richardmorris]

For anything expensive from Amazon I tend to arrange a local pick-up just in case. It isn’t far in my case just the local coop.

[reb]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

I went through this with Amazon before. Never arrived despite saying delivered. No proof of delivery though and they did refund. Turned up out of the blue 6 months later, so the brio railway track for my niece was a free Christmas present not a birthday one.

 

With any luck whoever it did get delivered to is both honest and knows where my house is and brings it round. Free chair!

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Just cleaned the windows. Now the sun is on them, they look worse!

 

Get a pro in.

[artdjones]

My grump is that most jobs on cars are made more difficulty by the people who have worked on the car before you. I did a timing belt change on a 1.5 DCi Renault today. When the time came to take the crank pulley bolt out, the impact gun wouldn't touch it. So I got a friend to jam a chisel into the fly wheel teeth after removing the starter and attacked it with a socket and a 5ft scaffold pole on my t bar. Result? The 6 point socket split, and I wouldn't even try with my 12 point. I nipped over to a neighbour's and borrowed an old school 6 point Bahco socket from him which moved it, but it was tight enough to need a 2 ft breaker bar for ¾ of the way out. There was some grey stuff on the threads which had turned to powder. I suppose it was some kind of thread lock. Once the hole had been blown out with the compressor, it was possible to screw the bolt in using fingers only. So that wasted quite a bit of time.

[richardmorris]

13 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Get a pro in.

They do the outsides. 

[artdjones]

2 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

They do the outsides. 

They will probably weep next time, then.

Get a cheap squeegee, put a good layer of Fairy Liquid sudsy water( maybe with some vinegar in)on the window, squeegee it off, then use some dry microfibre cloths to carefully polish off any residue.

Never use the squeegee exactly parallel to the window frame, always at a slight angle, and each stoke should slightly overlap the one before.

[Pieman]

47 minutes ago, reb said:

DPD.

That reminds me - I went to my boss's house in Surrey a couple of weeks ago (was going with him to an event so he let me leave my car at his place while we took the same flight).  As I arrived, there were two fairly large cars parked up virtually opposite one another in the cul-de-sac he lives in (there was an entire road they could have parked in, but no, they had to park opposite one another for maximum inconvenience).  That isn't what made me incredulous though.  As I approached, a DPD van pulled up to deliver a parcel, and the driver left the van in the middle of the road directly between the two parked cars.

I am sure he did it deliberately just to piss other road users off - he left the engine running in the van while he made the delivery and I almost got out and shifted the thing myself!

[reb]

1 minute ago, Pieman said:

That reminds me - I went to my boss's house in Surrey a couple of weeks ago (was going with him to an event so he let me leave my car at his place while we took the same flight).  As I arrived, there were two fairly large cars parked up virtually opposite one another in the cul-de-sac he lives in (there was an entire road they could have parked in, but no, they had to park opposite one another for maximum inconvenience).  That isn't what made me incredulous though.  As I approached, a DPD van pulled up to deliver a parcel, and the driver left the van in the middle of the road directly between the two parked cars.

I am sure he did it deliberately just to piss other road users off - he left the engine running in the van while he made the delivery and I almost got out and shifted the thing myself!

Recently I was in town and one of their drivers had left their van fully on the pavement next to the main road, more or less completely blocking it. I may* have bashed/folded the mirror with my shoulder as I passed.

[myglaren]

20 minutes ago, artdjones said:

They will probably weep next time, then.

Get a cheap squeegee, put a good layer of Fairy Liquid sudsy water( maybe with some vinegar in)on the window, squeegee it off, then use some dry microfibre cloths to carefully polish off any residue.

Never use the squeegee exactly parallel to the window frame, always at a slight angle, and each stoke should slightly overlap the one before.

That was what I did.  Looks like impressionist art anyway.

[richardmorris]

16 minutes ago, myglaren said:

That was what I did.  Looks like impressionist art anyway.

This was after window spray and two microfibre cloths.  Ho hum. £17 a month for the outside 5windows

[chaseracer]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

£17 a month for the outside 5windows

HFM??!  We used to pay 13quid for a 3-bed detached; nine windows plus conservatory.

Until the bloke subcontracted to his mate, who was a dick...

[richardmorris]

12 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

HFM??!  We used to pay 13quid for a 3-bed detached; nine windows plus conservatory.

Until the bloke subcontracted to his mate, who was a dick...

It was £15 for ten years.