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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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I took all this crap to the tip, of which was the 82yo neighbours tree, hes still well up for manual labour , anyhow it was shedding needles like mad so I though blimey rather than spread it all over the ground at the tip, the trailer got decoupled and pushed over to the tip wall to unload directly into the skip ,,success thinks us both till the guy who we had saved a job tells us in the shitteiest tone possible that we broke the rules doing it that way and they would be getting a load of guff from the council about it,,fuck sake the place was empty!20201004_172647.thumb.jpg.503fc234f26061f8423092ceb18997c4.jpg

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This week is already killing me. I'm the manager of the hygiene section in a small hospital (5 wards + A&E + operating block + fairly large outpatient department) and as of today 7 out of 29 of my staff are quarantined. If even one more person becomes unavailable I'm afraid that keeping up the required 24/7 coverage will become pretty much impossible. I'm already working my staff very hard and calling in favours from them (all above board and within legal limits of course) but I doubt we can keep this up for much longer.

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FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

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2 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake

That deserves a complaint.  She is there to assess your driving, not to comment on your car or it's condition.

The 1983 Micra 1.0 I took my test in was a)Fucked, b)Filthy and c)a decade old.  It didn't affect my ability to drive, nor should it have any effect on the outcome of your test.

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2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

That deserves a complaint.  She is there to assess your driving, not to comment on your car or it's condition.

The 1983 Micra 1.0 I took my test in was a)Fucked, b)Filthy and c)a decade old.  It didn't affect my ability to drive, nor should it have any effect on the outcome of your test.

Perhaps so, but fair's fair. I failed on valid grounds and I don't think the DVSA would give two fucks about the tester's preconceptions about the vehicle. I think if I was driving a 13 year-old Toyota Aygo, things may have been different. I certainly wouldn't have failed the emergency stop! Anyway, retest booked for December 8th. If I have that bint again, I think I know what the outcome from that will be!

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22 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

sorry to hear that but best of luck for the next test :) 

if it helps im waiting for my 2nd test on the 13th of October and I actually have a driving lesson later today :) 

but yeah its one of the things im worried about for my next test

the lady I had for my first test (that I failed) was a nice lady, and im worried next examiner I get will be a total arse or something...

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49 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

The cow that failed my first and second test was also awful. First time was fair as I made a major error (didn’t wait long enough at a stop sign) but the second time I still don’t understand. She had no interest in explaining what happened, just handed me the fail slip and buggered off. Both times she was less than impressed with my car (30 year old Jaguar XJ) as it needed a bit of coaxing to start and apparently had “very tired suspension that really needs looking at”. Yeah right, I think you’ll find that’s how it’s supposed to be love, the shocks and springs were practically new!

For my third test I used a different test centre and got a lovely young lady who was quite taken by the old Jag, passed with flying colours.

I’m not sure what the lesson is here, try and hit it off with the tester? Probably not.

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2 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

The cow that failed my first and second test was also awful. First time was fair as I made a major error (didn’t wait long enough at a stop sign) but the second time I still don’t understand. She had no interest in explaining what happened, just handed me the fail slip and buggered off. Both times she was less than impressed with my car (30 year old Jaguar XJ) as it needed a bit of coaxing to start and apparently had “very tired suspension that really needs looking at”. Yeah right, I think you’ll find that’s how it’s supposed to be love, the shocks and springs were practically new!

For my third test I used a different test centre and got a lovely young lady who was quite taken by the old Jag, passed with flying colours.

I’m not sure what the lesson is here, try and hit it off with the tester? Probably not.

Perhaps so. She wasn't very happy at all when she first looked at my car- you could see her shoulders sink. Weirdly enough, all the other testers were happy, jovial and were making their candidates feel right at home. I think I'll get a different tester next time, hopefully. I know that several of the testers in town are very nice people; my friends passed their tests with them!

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20 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

She wasn't very happy at all when she first looked at my car- you could see her shoulders sink.

So had a pre-conceived expectation regarding your driving based on your car.  Certainly sounds like it. 

Maybe you'd have still failed, but possibly on one major not four. 

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2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

So had a pre-conceived expectation regarding your driving based on your car.  Certainly sounds like it. 

Maybe you'd have still failed, but possibly on one major not four. 

Indeed, perhaps I would have still failed if I was unlucky enough to have still got an emergency stop to do, but oh well. Experience nonetheless. I'll hopefully get someone else instead, but being a test in December at 8:18AM, I might have icy roads to contend with as well. Perhaps a good thing coming out of this is that I will have sorted the rear brakes by then during the half term, making me feel a whole lot safer driving in those conditions!

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1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

 Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately.

I wonder if an instructor used to post 2010 cars would actually even register an emergency stop in a car with tiny discs, narrow tyres or all wheel drums.

My mates have taken my Dolly and Acclaim for a spin and vocalised about the comparative lack of braking compared to their newer cars and suggested they're in bad condition. In reality both had recent brake work and were operating pretty much perfectly, they're just old designs and it takes less braking force to lock up the wheels on tyres half the width of modern cars.

I took my test in my instructors modernish Proton Savvy. 

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4 hours ago, Fumbler said:

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

Been there done that! As soon as the car behind beeped at me 12 minutes into my first test I'd failed (would have failed by mounting the kerb to get past the van to my right too so I was fucked anyway) 

Then it snowed for 3 months (2010) and it took ages to get a retest! 

I know it's not autoshite or cool etc but can't you just smash the test out in your instructors modern? Mine changed his car 3 days before my test too (another excuse I used)! Went from a 57 plate fiesta to the new blobby shape 10 plate, everything was a fuck ton lighter with less feedback and toss visibility. Had the 4 miles to Wycombe to get used to it! 

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I thought I had failed my driving test, maybe 100 yards out of the test center.

I took my test in a "sad face" N reg Fiesta na diesel. The thing was dog slow.

The road from the test center went flat for a while then into a slight hill start onto a dual carriageway flyover.  I approached the give way, and there were 2 cars at the bottom of the flyover headed my way, one in each lane. I was waiting so I didn't have to rag it but the examiner said "why are you waiting? Go." So, I did. Lumpy bumpy jerk but didn't stall, pulled out into the right lane when told we'd be going right. 

I worried the whole time that was a fail. But, it got marked as a minor for not being smooth, but it wasn't considered a dangerous maneuver because I did not endanger myself or any other road users. 

So, the grumpy examiners who fail for either no reason (no, give me a good damn reason) or pile the faults on when it's not really a big issue need to be questioned as to their reasoning.

No, they are not gods, no, most of them can't drive for toffee themselves and yes, you've paid them, you should get a comprehensive reason(s) for failure.

 

 

In other news, there's another hurricane coming, due Friday. Not looking forward to that, most particularly because it will cancel Saturday's car show.

 

Phil

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On 10/4/2020 at 1:52 PM, clayts450 said:

Two consecutive days of having to leave home at 0230 to pick up goods and deliver, yesterday to that London (just round the corner from RobT funnily enough), today to Newcastle. That's not the grump to be fair.

No the grump came when I had to fill up this morning at an Esso station. Real old skool pumps, had to wait for the pump jockey to wake up and press the dispense button from the sales booth. Said pump then delivered fuel at a rate of 1 ml per second. Bearing in mind the van needed 40+ litres it took forever. To cap it off, the dribble of diesel from the pump was so pathetic it failed to register that the van's tank was full. Being half asleep, I then pumped what seemed like about 100 litres of diesel all over my shoes, my clothes, the forecourt and the side of the van. Yeah, wasn't dribbling then, was it, the fucker ?

Fucked my fuel economy figures right up. Plummetted from 53.6 to 41.6

Fuelly over a cliff

 

fuelup.png

What a difference a day makes. More or less same amount of fuel went in this afternoon, last tank covered trip up to Newcastle and back, trip today down to Weston Super Mare (501 mile, plus still 14 litres left). This time the fuel stayed in the van's fuel tank, rather than drenching me, net result +7 mpg.

better.png.00e54fedcacff26011b0882e3cfb51e8.png

 

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34 minutes ago, PhilA said:

I took my test in a "sad face" N reg Fiesta na diesel. The thing was dog slow.

Me too, It was a red N reg one, almost new at the time with all wheel trims removed for resale value.

Dog slow is absolutely right. It even made my Mini 1000 feel quick. Very hard to stall though.

For one lesson we went to a NSL dual carriage way I was instructed to floor it but we ran out of road before it got to 70 😀

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2 hours ago, beko1987 said:

I know it's not autoshite or cool etc but can't you just smash the test out in your instructors modern?

This all day long.  I asked my instructor about taking the test in my own car, his advice was that doing that was a 99.9% certain route to a solid fail.  He always strongly, strongly discouraged anyone from using their own car for the test.

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33 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

This all day long.  I asked my instructor about taking the test in my own car, his advice was that doing that was a 99.9% certain route to a solid fail.  He always strongly, strongly discouraged anyone from using their own car for the test.

Something to do with them knowing the instructors car is going to be to a certain standard, and they'll have the dual controls their side. And a big part will be familiarity, if you've done many hours behind the wheel of it one more will be a piece of piss. 

Then that's the test passed and you can enjoy learning to drive for real in an old car! (you'll have to play with the brakes and work out the best pressure for a firm but no skid stop at some point, ideally not at 80mph on the m4 (seems my laguna 2 phase 1 didn't have abs, or if it did it didn't work and the bulb was removed from the dash!) 

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Bollocks 😡 DVD player has decided to give up the ghost. Put in a disc that I have played many times over the years and all I get is an "INVALID REGION" warning and disc won't play. Its actually a multi-region from factory DVD player (Hitachi DVP345) despite settings/resetting thebstettings, putting in codes from DVD hack sites etc... it just doesn't want to know so has now been ripped out from its home ready for the bin.

Best thing is, I can't afford a replacement until I get paid at the end of the month or even until December because: other stuff needs paying for.

I'm not too bothered as I mainly use my Roku box, but my OCD is focussing on that area now and I'm fucking fed up of this random money-needing shit going wrong. ALL.THE.FUCKING.TIME.

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1 hour ago, MrBiscuits said:

Me too, It was a red N reg one, almost new at the time with all wheel trims removed for resale value.

Dog slow is absolutely right. It even made my Mini 1000 feel quick. Very hard to stall though.

For one lesson we went to a NSL dual carriage way I was instructed to floor it but we ran out of road before it got to 70 😀

Mate of mine had the same engine in an Orion, absolutely shocking performance at the time I had a Cavalier 1.7td and another friend had a 309 Grdt, both left it for dead..

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@Fumbler sorry to hear you didn’t pass today. Test examiner shouldn’t have been disparaging about your car and vocally expressing your driving; even if you had passed the remarks about the car would have still been cause to complain. She should have made an allowance for an old car with old brakes and no ABS so if it was your only major I would think grounds to appeal.

On my second test, when my examiner came out my instructor told me when I got back that he’d “never had a pass from that guy” and examiner remarked to my instructor that I was a “boy racer” despite having no faults for unsuitable speed (I failed reverse round corner on observation). I guess some testers are just arseholes.

Lots of people take their test in their own car and the examiner should make allowances for use of an older vehicle which may not have the same features as something modern.

I passed in my own car after 2 fails with the instructor’s vehicle, but I had far more experience behind the wheel of my little Samba than I did with the learning school’s Vitara as I’d be out with mum, dad or granddad at least once a day for 2-3 hours at a time plus every other lesson with the instructor in it.

Speak to your instructor to see what (s)he recommends; if you’re adamant in taking the test in your own vehicle again then you need to take the rest of your paid lessons in it, if you’re not doing so already. A good instructor will know how to do an emergency stop in a non-ABS car (inc in poor weather) and how to do XYZ in your particular car which may be done a bit different from his school car. If your instructor won’t do lessons in your car you really ought to take the test in his/hers.

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51 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Bollocks 😡 DVD player has decided to give up the ghost. Put in a disc that I have played many times over the years and all I get is an "INVALID REGION" warning and disc won't play. Its actually a multi-region from factory DVD player (Hitachi DVP345) despite settings/resetting thebstettings, putting in codes from DVD hack sites etc... it just doesn't want to know so has now been ripped out from its home ready for the bin.

Best thing is, I can't afford a replacement until I get paid at the end of the month or even until December because: other stuff needs paying for.

I'm not too bothered as I mainly use my Roku box, but my OCD is focussing on that area now and I'm fucking fed up of this random money-needing shit going wrong. ALL.THE.FUCKING.TIME.

May not be viable for you but you can download and install Linux Mint free and it is easy to do.

I discovered after having to buy a region 1 player that Mint (that I had on three computers at the time) plays them with no problems, possibly other regions too.

Will dual-boot with Windows.

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18 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

@Fumbler sorry to hear you didn’t pass today. Test examiner shouldn’t have been disparaging about your car and vocally expressing your driving; even if you had passed the remarks about the car would have still been cause to complain. She should have made an allowance for an old car with old brakes and no ABS so if it was your only major I would think grounds to appeal.

On my second test, when my examiner came out my instructor told me when I got back that he’d “never had a pass from that guy” and examiner remarked to my instructor that I was a “boy racer” despite having no faults for unsuitable speed (I failed reverse round corner on observation). I guess some testers are just arseholes.

Lots of people take their test in their own car and the examiner should make allowances for use of an older vehicle which may not have the same features as something modern.

I passed in my own car after 2 fails with the instructor’s vehicle, but I had far more experience behind the wheel of my little Samba than I did with the learning school’s Vitara as I’d be out with mum, dad or granddad at least once a day for 2-3 hours at a time plus every other lesson with the instructor in it.

Speak to your instructor to see what (s)he recommends; if you’re adamant in taking the test in your own vehicle again then you need to take the rest of your paid lessons in it, if you’re not doing so already. A good instructor will know how to do an emergency stop in a non-ABS car (inc in poor weather) and how to do XYZ in your particular car which may be done a bit different from his school car. If your instructor won’t do lessons in your car you really ought to take the test in his/hers.

Instructor loves my car so I've been learning in it for all the time I've been able to drive. It seems I was unlucky in my examiner lottery and got someone who doesn't seem to like pre-05 cars.

4 hours ago, beko1987 said:

I know it's not autoshite or cool etc but can't you just smash the test out in your instructors modern? Mine changed his car 3 days before my test too (another excuse I used)! Went from a 57 plate fiesta to the new blobby shape 10 plate, everything was a fuck ton lighter with less feedback and toss visibility. Had the 4 miles to Wycombe to get used to it! 

It's tempting, yes, for the reasons above. However, my friend (who passed his retest last week) says that the majority of them are nice and sympathetic (and allow for older cars so I'm told) and definitely a lot more enthusiastic than my examiner. As I am now living away from home in Somerset, I'm heavily considering weekend lessons here (instructor's car) and seeing where it takes me, as the more tuition I get, the better, with a trade-off of it not being in my car which I'm familiar with. Not all that bad really! I'm chalking this one up to experience but man do I feel awful! It's been a long day and I need a good sleep.

Thanks everyone for their kind words- it really does help the old brain a bit. I look forward to my retest with a fresh pair of eyes and some more experience under my belt.

 

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34 minutes ago, myglaren said:

May not be viable for you but you can download and install Linux Mint free and it is easy to do.

I discovered after having to buy a region 1 player that Mint (that I had on three computers at the time) plays them with no problems, possibly other regions too.

Will dual-boot with Windows.

Thanks. I am considering it after chatting with another shiter shortly after buying my TV but simplicity is what I'm looking for. The Multi-region players available on eBay is immense at low money (£30 for a black Sony multi-region player which I am heavily considering given that everything else is Sony) but for now I have to wait until payday and keep my OCD in check. 

Until then, if I really need a DVD player I have my Playstation 3.

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4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I asked my instructor about taking the test in my own car, his advice was that doing that was a 99.9% certain route to a solid fail.  He always strongly, strongly discouraged anyone from using their own car for the test.

No surprise, as it means he can then charge you for the use of his car during the test.  The whole thing about failing if you use your own car is demonstrably bollocks:

I taught my wife to drive.  She had zero professional lessons.  We fitted the required additional rear-view mirror to a 1995 ZX N/A Diesel and she went off to do her test.  I found out while waiting at the test centre (from a driving instructor who was waiting there while his pupil was on a test too) that she had gone out with the chief examiner.  Result:  Pass first time,  2 minors.  Chief examiner even spoke to me afterwards as he couldn't work out if I was a driving instructor or not, as he'd not seen me before.  I explained no, I wasn't.  He was complimentary about both her driving and my tuition.  I took that as a win.

I also taught my sister to drive.  She took her test in her own 1993 BX TZD turbo.  First time pass, 1 minor.

I then also taught a friend-of-my-landlords-son (long story) to drive in his own car.  I fail to remember what it was (clearly very noteworthy vehicle) but he also passed first time with just a couple of minors.

At the moment I have a 100% pass rate for pupils I have put in for a driving test.  All 3 of them.  All in their own cars.

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