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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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17 minutes ago, Wilko220 said:

the fuckers!

I had heard rumblings they might, but I had really hoped they would not :( 

 

I also feel bad, as I have not had the chance to ride on one in many years now, and Had hoped to rectify that at some point and see who was still there

Mandy the driver and big paul the conductor are 2 people who where very nice to me and put up with me, as I would hop on and then spend the next 6 hours chatting away with Paul (and mandy at rest stops)

then ride back to the garage with them with my hi-vis donned :) and I feel bad for just vanishing one day to never return!

I do hope they are well! the Garage staff at Both Bow and West Ham where also very nice, the main manager at West ham even gave me a bit of a guided tour once :) (I must have pulled quite the face going by his reaction when I saw a Modern at the time Enviro 200 wearing a Routemaster plate VLT14! I was not very pleased about that, thankfully VLT14 has since been reunited with the Routemaster it was stolen from)

 

it is also very sad to see Routemaster operation come to an end in London in general :( 

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19 hours ago, R1152 said:

Because. 

I mean, was it really necessary for some pubs and shops to open at 00.01 this morning? 

Was it necessary for the council to give the pubs temporary all night licence, or did they not bother to ask permission? 

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29 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

had heard rumblings they might, but I had really hoped they would not :( 

 

I also feel bad, as I have not had the chance to ride on one in many years now, and Had hoped to rectify that at some point

Yeah same - ages since I’ve been on a Routemaster.

The last exciting bus I travelled on in London was during the Tube strike  a few years ago - they wheeled out all these classic buses (from god knows where) to lay on extra services, and I managed to get a ride on a 1970s Mk1 MCW Metrobus.
It was going in a completely different direction to where I needed to go so I ended up being late for work, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!

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7 minutes ago, Wilko220 said:

Yeah same - ages since I’ve been on a Routemaster.

The last exciting bus I travelled on in London was during the Tube strike  a few years ago - they wheeled out all these classic buses (from god knows where) to lay on extra services, and I managed to get a ride on a 1970s Mk1 MCW Metrobus! 
It was going in a completely different direction to where I needed to go so I ended up being late for work, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!

Yeah! im one of the few Londoners who actually look forward to tube strikes for exactly this reason

as when they need extra services they almost always bring out all the old RMs RTs and the such like :) (at least 1 person at TfL must be an enthusiast like us!)

I have sadly never been able to ride on one during a tube strike, but its fun seeing the pictures especially of them on Routes that have not normally seen Routemasters/RTs etc for many years and its fun seeing how people react to it on social media :) 

 

I did once ran across one on Route 8 once during a driving lesson and got told off by my instructor for waving at the conductor on the back :) 

(both hands on the wheel yada yada, bet they would hate to see a Tiller control invacar!)

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A few years ago I took my boys on the Routemaster service from Trafalgar Square to the Tower.  They didn't really 'get it' but I really enjoyed myself.

Sad to see the end of this.  Apparently passenger numbers were low but how well was it advertised?  Plenty of other tourist buses ripping off the gullible seem to do all right...

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1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

but how well was it advertised?  Plenty of other tourist buses ripping off the gullible seem to do all right...

thats the thing, apart from adverts on the side of the last Routemasters in normal service during 2005

I have never seen it advertised anywhere, the nearest thing to an advert you would see is on the bus stops that the routes served it would say "Heritage route 15 from such and such time"

even I only found out about them after a chance encounter in 2006!

 

so yeah a lot of us do wonder if they actually advertised the fact they exist, if they would have done better!

 

I also hate the excuses they give, especially the not accessible part, one of the stipulations for when the 2 Routes where setup was that they simply ran along part of the same Route as regular buses did

so no one would be disadvantaged sitting a wheel chair at a bus stop where only Routemasters served (ie they never went anywhere a regular bus of the same route number did not go)

so I feel that excuse is a bit moot! since there will always be regular buses serving the same route so no ones at a disadvantage 

 

and then the Emissions things, well all the heritage RMs where sadly Dartmaster-ed examples with horrible Cummings engines and Hopper windows already so no one would scream bloody murder if they stuck some more modern engines in

which has already been done!

https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/iconic-54-year-old-london-routemaster-joins-cummins-euro-6-clean-bus-lineup-iaa/

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Just now, bobdisk said:

If a text message comes to my land line, BT SMS Text (from 08456021111) asks if you want it read, saved, or deleted.  See here for BTs info on it:

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/set-up-and-use-bt-text

 Sounds like a nice girl!

This I did: but first I had to plug in a tone-dialling phone... (yes, really)

Then the message contained a URL: the posh gel from BT had fun with that one! 🤣

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7 hours ago, Bren said:

I took a load of stuff to the tip. Some of it old oil and coolant.

While pouring away this stuff I realised how horrible it was - the smell, the texture.

I am not one for change - but I am beginning to think the electric revolution is a bit overdue.

Making batteries has an environmental impact too.....

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2 minutes ago, bobdisk said:

Didnt think pulse dial phones worked these days 🤔

They do just fine, as it happens. You can try pulse dialling without a rotary phone by rapidly pressing the hang up switch on a landline phone to dial a number veeeeeery slowly.

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26 minutes ago, bobdisk said:

Didnt think pulse dial phones worked these days 🤔

Depends who your provider is. With BT they work just fine, but when I was encouraged to sign up for TalkTalk it didn't. Their voice service was so shit I dumped them after a year and went back to BT.

Strangely, this is one service operated by BT that doesn't offer a voice control function - some BT services say "press 1, or say 1" for example.

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27 minutes ago, R1152 said:

Depends who your provider is. With BT they work just fine, but when I was encouraged to sign up for TalkTalk it didn't. Their voice service was so shit I dumped them after a year and went back to BT.

Strangely, this is one service operated by BT that doesn't offer a voice control function - some BT services say "press 1, or say 1" for example.

Talktalk are indeed rubbish. I'm on PlusNet, and as they're a BT Subsidiary my 706L & 722 Trimphone dial out fine. Need a tone warbler for the trimphone.

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Why do people send text messages to landlines? 
We used to do it to one of the office phones at work to pass the time. Obviously they contained childish things.

I'm pretty sure the voice that read them was Tom Baker.

I'll admit, I used to think it was most amusing.


Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

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9 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Talktalk are indeed rubbish. I'm on PlusNet, and as they're a BT Subsidiary my 706L & 722 Trimphone dial out fine. Need a tone warbler for the trimphone.

Here there's a very early 706 with metal dial but the main phones are a 746 and an 8746. (The Panasonic cordless is hidden and the 150 will have to wait). I'm hoping to get a Trimphone up and running for my bedroom in due course.

I take it you've seen this? http://www.samhallas.co.uk/collection/bits_trimphone.htm

If it goes ahead this year, RetroTechUK has lots of telephone dealers and they might be able to help you with a warbler.

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2 minutes ago, R1152 said:

Here there's a very early 706 with metal dial but the main phones are a 746 and an 8746. (The Panasonic cordless is hidden and the 150 will have to wait). I'm hoping to get a Trimphone up and running for my bedroom in due course.

I take it you've seen this? http://www.samhallas.co.uk/collection/bits_trimphone.htm

If it goes ahead this year, RetroTechUK has lots of telephone dealers and they might be able to help you with a warbler.

I need to take it apart to see what part of the warbler circuit is missing; it certainly has the volume dial but what else is there I'm not sure. I'm hoping it's just a strap or discrete component I can substitute with some crap out my electronics spares.

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1 hour ago, iainrcz said:

We used to do it to one of the office phones at work to pass the time. Obviously they contained childish things.

I'm pretty sure the voice that read them was Tom Baker.

I'll admit, I used to think it was most amusing.


Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk
 

Used to take great pleasure in texting Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes to my mates landline (when ebaumsworld was king) until one day one of my texts dissapeared into thin air... only for it to reappear the next day at 4 in the morning.

His mum was not amused either by the disruption or picking up the phone to hear "get to the chopper!" 

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Applying to renew my driving licence online (which I now have to do every five years due to being epileptic) I had to "prove my identity" by registering an online account with a Gov.uk approved company.  Choice was given as either Post Office or Digidentity, so I went with Post Office.  Put my details in and waited for the email with the access code to come through...nothing happened.  Application had to be completed within an hour of starting or would time out, so I went back and did it through Digidentity and that worked.

That was at about 1pm on Monday.  The confirmation email from Post Office arrived with me at 7:30pm on Tuesday. 🤦‍♂️

And now I've got to wait to see if the DVLA are going to actually do any work in the next two months.  Given that everything in the rest of my life is probably going to be cancelled, I think it might be easier just to give up driving.

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6 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

Used to take great pleasure in texting Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes to my mates landline (when ebaumsworld was king) until one day one of my texts dissapeared into thin air... only for it to reappear the next day at 4 in the morning.

His mum was not amused either by the disruption or picking up the phone to hear "get to the chopper!" 

There was a comedian we went to see about 10 years ago. Support act to someone else. 

Told a long winded joke. Basically they were running late and were due to pick up granny. Daughter is given the job of letting her know they are coming for her.  When.they arrive at grannies house they can't find her.  Eventually they find her in an orange puffs jacket hidding behind the hot water tank. Which is wearing a similar jacket.

The reason? Daughter doesn't ring her (cause that generation doesn't), she texts "we are coming to take you, be ready in 10 minutes to leave straight away. Have your bag ready with everything you need" texted to a land line to a 90 year old.  

Imagine the robot voice? 

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9 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

Used to take great pleasure in texting Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes to my mates landline (when ebaumsworld was king) until one day one of my texts dissapeared into thin air... only for it to reappear the next day at 4 in the morning.

His mum was not amused either by the disruption or picking up the phone to hear "get to the chopper!" 

Ebaumsworld. There's a blast from the past! Still going I see, although mainly filled with clickbait rubbish now. https://www.ebaumsworld.com/soundboards/arnold-schwarzenegger-soundboard-1/1876/

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I wake up this morning to:

  • News my grandmother's toaster has broken
  • Her Rav4 has literally no oil in it. I knew it was burning oil massively but my brother spied the low oil light on and found the dipstick dry. She says she will keep it for just one more year, that is, if the engine lasts
  • Father's cyst on his back (very painfully) burst when he got to his office this morning. The local minor injuries unit couldn't help him, he cannot see a doctor or nurse until the end of the week and his antibiotics haven't worked. All of this because the doctor he saw last week didn't note down that immediate treatment was required.

This might be a long day.

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2 minutes ago, outlaw118 said:

About 5 minutes ago i knocked half a pint of water off the desk onto my crotch. 

2 minutes ago a courier rings me to say he's in the foyer with some kit i ordered, and needs a signature.

FFS

Pour water all over all of the rest of your trousers so the wet bit doesn't show.

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