The grumpy thread

[somewhatfoolish]

Houses are bastards, there's always something crumbling, falling off, breaking or trying to set itself on fire.

[High Jetter]

Mine moves, too. When I get back from the pub it's not quite in the same place I left it. In the morning? Back to where it should be.

[myglaren]

On 16/01/2022 at 16:52, Jamie said:

The fucking state of this today at the services on m61 😢

It seems to be around those prices around here now.

Had my car for the first time in a fortnight to get new tyres fitted and passed a couple of petrol stations and clocked the prices.  Driving of course so can't be certain of exact prices but near enough.

May have been less at my usual Sainsburys but I didn't need any so didn't go that way.

Won't need any for a month so hopefully the prices will have fallen by then.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

It seems to be around those prices around here now.

Had my car for the first time in a fortnight to get new tyres fitted and passed a couple of petrol stations and clocked the prices.  Driving of course so can't be certain of exact prices but near enough.

May have been less at my usual Sainsburys but I didn't need any so didn't go that way.

Won't need any for a month so hopefully the prices will have fallen by then.

£2 / litre can’t be far away at rip off services somewhere on the motorways.

[Pieman]

Went to visit a friend in Coventry yesterday and I'm 99% sure that I drove down a bus lane by mistake on the way there - was making sure I'd gone the right way from a junction and didn't notice til it was too late.  Daft mistake on my part - if I get done I get done, shit happens.

[Spurious]

59 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Went to visit a friend in Coventry yesterday and I'm 99% sure that I drove down a bus lane by mistake on the way there - was making sure I'd gone the right way from a junction and didn't notice til it was too late.  Daft mistake on my part - if I get done I get done, shit happens.

I'm pretty sure it's a council fine if you did get caught. 

I got caught in Oldham, £30, no points as it wasnt the police doing the enforcement. 

[New POD]

7 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Houses are bastards, there's always something crumbling, falling off, breaking or trying to set itself on fire.

If they didn't go up in price faster than inflation, nobody would bother buying one...or repairing or improving them. 

I reckon that we've spent £60k on our £50k house over the last 24 years. And I reckon that it needs £5k spending on it over the next 3 years.  If we'd done nothing it would be worth £50k less. 

[Zelandeth]

19 hours ago, Yoss said:

That is very very wrong. I'll fully admit that I am more helpful to some people than others but they have to have been a miserable git to me in the first place. I always try quite hard to get rid of the packets because filling the form out is a pain in the arse. I'll try a neighbour if I think they'll be in or try and hide it somewhere. The latter is not official policy but as all the couriers do it our management have sort of accepted it as that is what we are up against. I almost take it as a challenge now to find a hiding place. I'll try the side gate and if it's locked, stick my hand over the top to see if it's just a sliding bolt. One I was particularly pleased with recently, someone left a lawnmower in the front garden so I took the grass box off it, put the packet it in and put it back on again. Then put a card in to tell them obviously as they'd never find it there. 

But as I say, I know some neighbours don't get on and it's usually obvious which one is the protagonist (it takes a while to gain this info but once you've been on a delivery long enough you pick these things up) so I won't try as hard for them but I'd still knock the door and politely hand it over (it's actually quite satisfying being nice and polite to miserable people). 

But I don't see any reason to behave like the guy above. We have a few idiots at our office, though probably no more than any other workplace of the same size, but I don't think any of them would behave like that. I would definitely complain, he doesn't sound like he should be a postman. 

This is the same guy who a few years ago never even took the parcel out of the van.  Literally got out of the van, card already in hand and popped it in the letter box.

Away in a world of his own, he totally missed the fact that I was standing ten feet away on the driveway working on the car so saw this first hand.  He was not amused when called out on the nonsense.  Wouldn't hand over the parcel though..."Once it's logged has to go back t'dlvery office!" Cue van door slammed and him disappearing bouncing his Vauxhall Combo off the rev limiter.

We complained then, and on a couple of other occasions when they've done things to just be obstinate seemingly for the sake of it, he's still on the round though...so doesn't seem to do anything!

Drives like an absolute lunatic as well.  

Think there are three or four regulars we see on our run here and we've had zero issues with any of the others, just the one guy who seems to be a miserable git who just enjoys making people's lives difficult.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

This is the same guy who a few years ago never even took the parcel out of the van.  Literally got out of the van, card already in hand and popped it in the letter box.

Away in a world of his own, he totally missed the fact that I was standing ten feet away on the driveway working on the car so saw this first hand.  He was not amused when called out on the nonsense.  Wouldn't hand over the parcel though..."Once it's logged has to go back t'dlvery office!" Cue van door slammed and him disappearing bouncing his Vauxhall Combo off the rev limiter.

We complained then, and on a couple of other occasions when they've done things to just be obstinate seemingly for the sake of it, he's still on the round though...so doesn't seem to do anything!

Drives like an absolute lunatic as well.  

Think there are three or four regulars we see on our run here and we've had zero issues with any of the others, just the one guy who seems to be a miserable git who just enjoys making people's lives difficult.

Not had this problem often, if I do, it’s mostly DPD.

[Zelandeth]

You ever get the impression that a job just doesn't want to get done?

Having sourced a pressure washer, finally went out to get the Merc washed up.  Found the detergent I'd thoroughly buried, dug out the hose from the back of the garage, found the adaptor for the tap that I'd "borrowed" while back, hooked everything up, went inside to get warm water, just as I walk back outside I get to see the hosepipe go "Whooomp" as it self destructs.

Great.  Another fscking delay while I go pick up a new one...after packing everything away again...to take it all back out again in half an hour.

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Wouldn't hand over the parcel though..."Once it's logged has to go back t'dlvery office!" 

 

That's complete bollocks for a start. Sounds like he is just trying to make other people's lives more difficult. But also his own which makes no sense. It takes longer to write the form out than to just give the packet to someone assuming they answer in reasonable time. If he's writing the forms out before even attempting delivery it would waste huge amounts of time. Though that might be his plan. Sounds like you just have a shit postman. I don't know what you can do about that. 

[Zelandeth]

28 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That's complete bollocks for a start. Sounds like he is just trying to make other people's lives more difficult. But also his own which makes no sense. It takes longer to write the form out than to just give the packet to someone assuming they answer in reasonable time. If he's writing the forms out before even attempting delivery it would waste huge amounts of time. Though that might be his plan. Sounds like you just have a shit postman. I don't know what you can do about that. 

I think you've hit the nail on the head...they just seem to be specifically out to make everyone's life difficult.  The rest of them we have are all fine, just the one bad egg.

Got back with a replacement hose and reel (nobody had one of the same type of hose we had before in stock, so had to make do with a standard one), then spent about half an hour faffing about clipping, unravelling and screwing the damned thing together, after fishing all the multitude of plastic fittings and connectors out of the middle of it.  What a faff...aaaaaaand now I'm ready to go it's school kick out time so I can't start the job.  Because my front garden, driveway and surrounding area are now basically a public waiting area for the parents collecting their hellspawn...sorry...little angels...from the school just round the corner.

If I ever even consider buying a house withing five miles of a school in future, someone please come and club me over the back of the head with something heavy.  We definitely wouldn't have bought this place if we'd twigged how close we were to one...however that's what we get for buying a house we'd only seen in the dark during the school holidays!  If I ever suggest *that* nonsense again, please deliver the same treatment I just suggested too...

[Pieman]

Do it anyway and if any of them get in your way, spray 'em with the hose.

[Zelandeth]

I give up.

Water absolutely pissing out from somewhere internally.  My guess (as I know this had been sitting around for a while) is it's been frozen and has cracked the pump.  Will pull it apart shortly to find out for certain...but that's a LOT of water.

Going to be a while until the coast is clear, given there's currently a 15m tri-axle double decker coach just arriving back from a school trip - currently reversing around the roundabout (no idea why they persist in using this rear entrance rather than the one you know...with a dedicated bus parking bay they can drive straight into by the main entrance).

He's currently stuffed because of where one parked car is means he can't swing round without either clipping a tree, grounding out the arse end of the coach (see also, tiny residential side street) and he's already smacked a streetlight with his mirror.  Again.

This happens pretty much every time they have an excursion.  So it's probably going to be well past four before I get my front yard back.

The roundabout is small enough that the only way to get anything bigger than a shortish 7.5 tonne wagon round it is to basically do a three point turn in the roundabout, reversing into the school yard.  No bloody way should we have buses on it.

...This coming from the guy who used to do the road safety assessments for public transport routes in his old job, for eight years.  If anyone had asked me if they could use this as a pickup/alighting point for school bus trips it would have been a hard no, no don't look at me like that, I really, really mean it.  It's only a matter of time until a kid walks behind the bus and gets themselves knocked over.

[Borsuq]

Been stuck at home with an ear infection for the past couple of days. Came out today to quickly run an errand and noticed this on the bonnet of my car:

No clue what that is but kind of looks like someone had decided to assault it with sandpaper. Paint wasn’t brilliant on this car to begin with, but this really doesn’t help.

[Zelandeth]

Yep.  It's dead.

Not frost damage though, my initial guess was wrong.

Hairline crack all the way along the output stub.  Given there's a chunk missing out of the end of the threads I reckon it's been dropped/thrown and landed that side down.

I can stop that fountain (with just the mains behind it anyway!) by putting my finger there, as I did wonder if it was coming from the hose connection itself, but it's definitely coming through the metal.  Only in that spot now, but the crack runs all the way down to that step so it's not something that can realistically be fixed.  If it were just on the threaded bit I'd be tempted to find a nut with the right thread pitch and stick it over the offending spot after gooping epoxy over the crack.

This is exactly the same spot my last one failed in (different model, still Nilfisk though), so looks to be a weak spot anyway.

Guess the hunt for another pressure washer is back on!

[EspenO]

I’ve got one of those tiny Nilfisks. Hateful thing. Although it’s never stopped leaking from the inlet for long enough to develop internal leaks.

[MikeR]

My driver's window can now be lifted with a piece of cord and tied off ... A bump stop on the window rail stops all of the window dropping into the door  !!! 

A fine bodge 😁

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Going to be a while until the coast is clear, given there's currently a 15m tri-axle double decker coach just arriving back from a school trip - currently reversing around the roundabout (no idea why they persist in using this rear entrance rather than the one you know...with a dedicated bus parking bay they can drive straight into by the main entrance).

He's currently stuffed because of where one parked car is means he can't swing round without either clipping a tree, grounding out the arse end of the coach (see also, tiny residential side street) and he's already smacked a streetlight with his mirror.  Again.

This happens pretty much every time they have an excursion.  So it's probably going to be well past four before I get my front yard back.

The roundabout is small enough that the only way to get anything bigger than a shortish 7.5 tonne wagon round it is to basically do a three point turn in the roundabout, reversing into the school yard.  No bloody way should we have buses on it.

...This coming from the guy who used to do the road safety assessments for public transport routes in his old job, for eight years.  If anyone had asked me if they could use this as a pickup/alighting point for school bus trips it would have been a hard no, no don't look at me like that, I really, really mean it.  It's only a matter of time until a kid walks behind the bus and gets themselves knocked over.

Worth complaining to the council if there's a proper bus area that's not being used, also the bus operator and then the traffic commissioner if you don't get a satisfactory answer.

[Zelandeth]

36 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Worth complaining to the council if there's a proper bus area that's not being used, also the bus operator and then the traffic commissioner if you don't get a satisfactory answer.

Bus operator hates it.  I've spoken to the drivers on more than one occasion (especially when they were millimetres away from pranging my cars - in my driveway).  They've been told to use that area by the council who hold the purse strings on the contract.

Apparently they got moved there because the One Stop (tiny convenience store) complained that when in the bus stop it made it awkward for the wagons delivering to them.  For the ten minutes it's there...once every couple of months.  Sounds about right.

Council, local councillors and parish councils have all (as with every single thing I've tried to contact and/or engage with them about) never bothered to so much as dignify my contact with a response.

MK Council are an absolute bloody disgrace and are precisely the sort of jokes which give local authorities a bad name.  This coming from someone who worked for one for eight years...which is all the more reason it grinds my gears quite so much.

[DavieW]

Coming home from work this evening and the TPMS flashes up NSR tyre at 17psi, 10 seconds late it's 2psi. Shit.

Pull in at the first layby, I know it doesn't have a spare wheel but one of those horrible compressors with a bottle of gloop to pump into the tyre. Dig it out of the spare wheel well, open it up and find an accessory plug that fits a cigarette lighter socket. Brilliant except my car doesn't have a socket, Double shit.

I phone the lease company breakdown number to be told the AA will be out sometime in the next 5 hours. Triple shit. Fortunately he arrives in 45 mins and puts his space saver on and follows me home to get it back. 

Tomorrow I have to wait for another AA patrol to arrive at the house, put his space saver on and follow me to my local Kwik Fit to get his wheel back. I guess the Kwik Fit experience will be as shit as today. 

I feel a drink or 4 coming on tomorrow night.

[somewhatfoolish]

The shop's complaining about a bus stop being used as a bus stop? Riiight. Turn up to your councillor's in-person surgeries if they do them, or council/roads sub committee meetings if not and make a polite nuisance of yourself. Make it so that sorting the bus is easier for them than trying to ignore you. Do any of your neighbours give a shit? Get them to contact the council too. Traffic Commissioner is worth a go; PCVs going where they shouldn't be is arguably in their purview. Have you tried the school itself?

[95 quid Peugeot]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:15 PM, Crackers said:

I recently discovered you can rent a Caterham for a day from Caterham Gatwick. My 21st is approaching in the next couple of months and I thought that might be a cool thing to experience even if only for a day or two; it's not even that expensive in the world of performance car hire as a 2-day hire starts from £199.

 

Minimum driver age?

Predicatble: 25.

Bollocks.

Oooooh how did you find 2 days for 199 please

[Wack]

It's late and I can't be bothered to go to bed , too late to start watching anything meaningful so I started cruising YouTube 

I honestly can't believe how many cunts in this video uploaded footage thinking they were in the right after driving into someone who made a mistake , there's loads of them , WTF is going on , is it drive into them if it looks like it's their fault 

I really hope a lot of insurance companies went 50/50 at least on a lot of these 

 

 

[andy18s]

You can almost hear them chuntering "I've got this on dashcam m8" over and over as they drive down the road.

The Australian are by far the best,so many swear words to be heard

[Crackers]

12 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

Oooooh how did you find 2 days for 199 please

https://www.caterhamcars.com/en/hire

[anonymous user]

I wonder if I would still fit in one?

[Spiny Norman]

2 hours ago, anonymous user said:

I wonder if I would still fit in one?

Getting in's easy enough...

 

[grogee]

Now, I don't want to come across as a lazy shitbag who never does anything around the house. Today I've cycled to school and back twice with the boy Grogee, and attended to some maintenance on Mrs Grogee's Alfa. All while pretending to do my day job and sorting out a plumber for the bloody bathroom leak. 

But...

I was offered a cup of tea at 7.31. It's now 8.03 and I'm still waiting. 

And we've run out of chocolate. 

[Crackers]

Three young pikey shitbags are hanging around in the car park, leaning on a neighbour's car and alarmingly close to mine. 

I need to go get some things out the car, so if you never hear from me ever again, I've probably been stabbed. 

 

Also, it sounds like the electric aerial on the MX5 has stripped its gears as it's just making a grinding noise and not going anywhere. I was going to replace it with a stubby one anyway, but my hand's been forced now I think.