The grumpy thread

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

So saying “ surely driving at 35mph keeping my eyes on the road, is safer than driving at 25mph looking constantly at the speedo?” , doesn’t go down well?

It doesn't.  Despite similar comments from at least one cheif police officer in the past, any comment you make that tries to justify your speed above the limit will be met with as much enthusiasm as a fart in a lift.

As people have said above.. listen, nod, answer questions if you know the answer, but otherwise the best course of action is to be fairly invisible.

[chadders]

In my experience everybody, including the lecturers as I think they're paid a fixed amount per course, wants the course to finish as soon as possible so the fewer questions asked the better.

[Yoss]

I've only had to go on one speed awareness course. I got caught doing 37 in a 30 zone on the A30 in Somerset. The letter had a list of locations you could attend. Somerset police had agreement with other police forces so you could attend one nearer home, but Hampshire police were not on the list so I had to go back to Somerset.

Looked at the list and one of the locations was the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton. That looked interesting. All the rest were at hotel conference rooms. That's OK then, I'll make a day of it, thought I. Took the ZT-T 190 (got the fine in the humble Felicia) for a blast, had breakfast at a cafe in Wincanton and turned up bang on time. 

Turns out the museum was shut, we just had a conference room at the back. But we had to walk right through the museum to get to it which was in semi darkness but enough to see stuff. We were given tea and biscuits and had a half time break. To get to the toilets you also had to walk across half the museum. We were told not to look at anything on the way. Yeah right. 

So maybe not quite worth £90 but a good day out anyway. 

[horriblemercedes]

Anyone seen Avoidance with Romesh Ranganathan? I found it really funny and Ranganathan's character in that works as a speed awareness course person

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

We were told not to look at anything on the way.

Ok, I'll keep my eyes shut.  Oh dear, how did I wander off into the exhibits?  How could that possibly have happe.... ooh!  look at that!

The best time for doing a speed awareness course was when they were being done over zoom.  The locations were still shown as geographic, but you could just pick any location you fancy and join, hence you choose the cheapest one.. Saved at least £20 doing that on mine.

The entire premise of the one I did was completely flawed IMO... it was a national limit dual carriageway which then has a 60mph restriction on it.  The restriction was put in place for an at-grade junction, and to ensure people had got down to 60 by the junction, there's a speed camera just before it.  What isn't in the spirit of safety is putting a scamera van just by the speed camera pole pointing back up the road to where the 60 limit starts, and pinging people about 50M past the sign, well before the junction which is the whole reason for the limit change.

I suspect they pinged hundreds of people that day.  I got something like 71 in a 60, slowing from the 70+vat I'd been doing beforehand.  Was it breaking the law?  Absolutely.  Was it in any way dangerous?  Not even slightly.  Hence my comment to the woman running it that I was quite aware of my speed, and was allowing it to bleed away before the actual hazard.  Had I gone just a few MPH slower, I'd have been ignored.  Plus I had some bellend right on my bumper who would have been doing 20mph more than me.  He soon backed off when he saw the scamera van.. I just hope he was pinged too.  IMO he was a far greater danger than I was.  Still peeved about that.

[Wack]

All this talk of going to court reminded me of the time I was talking to a truck driver

He'd been done for speeding again and was due for a ban under totting up so they had him in court to hear his mitigating circumstances 

Need a licence to feed my kittens etc 

They listened but decided to ban him anyway 

When does this ban start 

Now 

Right, well that's going to be a problem then, I've come in the truck and it's completey blocking your car park, he gave them the keys and went home on the bus 

[Yoss]

7 hours ago, Talbot said:

Ok, I'll keep my eyes shut.  Oh dear, how did I wander off into the exhibits?  How could that possibly have happe.... ooh!  look at that!

 

Yeah that was pretty much how it was. To be honest I don't think they were expecting us not to look at stuff but they had to say it to cover themselves as the museum only had the emergency lighting on but it was enough to see by and gave the place a nice cosy atmosphere. 

[Zelandeth]

Oh for the love of...

I am so, so, so, so fed up of the ever growing number of suppliers both in the electronics and automotive sectors who despite shipping othrwise worldwide are now choosing not to ship to the UK.

I fully understand why, but man it's bloody frustrating.  Especially when you can't find alternative suppliers.

[omegod]

I think presenting zoom speeding courses would be the best possible gig if you wanted to live abroad and work a couple of days a week, decent internet link and your away 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 20/12/2022 at 21:16, Noel Tidybeard said:

spoke to the mother earlier and found out they killed their Nissan Leaf with a fiat 500 on the way to Southampton to catch the cruise tommoz😨

they've had it a month😲

nice police lady took them home so they can rest and get taxi in the morning

insewerants have said new for old cos it was 6 weeks old- but might be May before one lands in UK!

the mother was black & blue with bruises s/f was coughing so bad from airbag dust/powder it strained his hernia a touch- but they're happy to have walked away so easily

 

there was seemingly 3 accidents at different junctions to the same island/roundabout

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Oh for the love of...

I am so, so, so, so fed up of the ever growing number of suppliers both in the electronics and automotive sectors who despite shipping othrwise worldwide are now choosing not to ship to the UK.

I fully understand why, but man it's bloody frustrating.  Especially when you can't find alternative suppliers.

"Oooh Modern construction style, European Hungarian made GE 1000W Sodium lamp from 2007 would go nicely with my earlier 1999 example"

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154189331909

*checks shipping options*

well Fuck you too! 

[artdjones]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

"Oooh Modern construction style, European Hungarian made GE 1000W Sodium lamp from 2007 would go nicely with my earlier 1999 example"

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154189331909

*checks shipping options*

well Fuck you too! 

How is it allowed on eBay UK? If they won't ship there.

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

"Oooh Modern construction style, European Hungarian made GE 1000W Sodium lamp from 2007 would go nicely with my earlier 1999 example"

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154189331909

*checks shipping options*

well Fuck you too! 

Eventually found a solution, though it wound up costing me the best part of £200 more.  

Can't say I blame the sellers though.  With the VAT charging arrangements that have been implemented for imports if I was a business seller, especially a smaller one there's no way in hell I'd even consider shipping here nowadays.  Just not worth the staff time for what is realistically a pretty small market.

Still a pain in the rear as a customer based here though!  I'd rather not have to repeat the game from last summer of getting car parts shipped to me from Germany via the USA...

[Three Speed]

On 12/01/2023 at 22:10, New POD said:

8 til 10:45.  Actually sat down at 8:05, and left at 10:40. 

Reminds me of the Traffic School course I did in 2002 in the USofA. 15 of us criminals around table with the instructor. The criterion to get the certificate and hence avoid points was to attend  400 minute of instruction. This was in a conference room in the San Ramon Country Club which did not have a clock. The instructor had no watch and phones were not allowed. So the instructor had to borrow a watch off one of us criminals. We had 3 breaks during the day and the watch owner took his watch back for each one - and wound it on by about 20 minutes each time. Certificates were duly received and we all arrived home about 20 minutes before the class was due to end. 

Actually it was very interesting and I enjoyed the day. We all had to introduce ourselves, say where we were caught, doing what and in what. Most were speeding but some rolling stop violations. Only 2 of us admitted to our crime - me and a guy caught doing 90 in a Ryder truck. He got a round of applause for that - even from the instructor. Everyone else said they didn't do it, were fitted up or some other excuse. I was actually going faster then the cop wrote on my ticket - I was doing 95 on the freeway but he said I could do Traffic School if he wrote it up as 80 and then neither of us would have to go to court.  Not sure how true any of that was but it seemed like a good deal to me. 

[High Jetter]

22 minutes ago, Three Speed said:

and wound it on by about 20 minutes each time.

Brillinat, not enough to be that noticeable, but enough to shorten the day by an hour.

[gm]

had a busy day at work, stopped off to collect a curry and a couple of beers, ready to put my feet up and relax in front of the telly and…..

that’ll be that plan fucked then ! 

[gm]

fortunately i keep a spare at my sisters, very fortunately there is a front and a back door key on that bunch ! 

unfortunately, there is half a kit car piled into the front porch as i never use the front door 

that was fun* hopefully i haven’t scratched it too much.

now I'm in the house, i got to the garage, grabbed some tools and extracted the tragic remains of the key

now it’s time for a beer  

 

[Remspoor]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

"Oooh Modern construction style, European Hungarian made GE 1000W Sodium lamp from 2007 would go nicely with my earlier 1999 example"

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154189331909

*checks shipping options*

well Fuck you too! 

So if they posted to one of us in Spain we could forward on to you. There maybe  a importation cost and personally I would have no idea  what forms are needed or even if a bulb would be ok because of some sort of element in the bulb which maybe be prohibited.

I have the same issue with spares for the Westminster.

So now I will say Fuck the 20MPH zones, the Tories and Brexit.

[D.E]

14 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

So if they posted to one of us in Spain we could forward on to you. There maybe  a importation cost and personally I would have no idea  what forms are needed or even if a bulb would be ok because of some sort of element in the bulb which maybe be prohibited.

I have the same issue with spares for the Westminster.

So now I will say Fuck the 20MPH zones, the Tories and Brexit.

In my experience, the buyer will have to pay import taxes, I have to fill in and sign some declaration forms for customs, and (but this may not apply to other European countries) postage costs to Britain have risen since Brexit. A mild inconvenience, but certainly not something that causes me to discontinue selling to customers in the UK.

[MikeR]

Bit of a sad world when things get trashed in city centers ,

then on our trip out ,the Arnside pier had a wooden box with a led light on it just placed on the floor to light the flag staff , and it's not been touched ..

[Wack]

I only put E5 in my cars, just stopped at BP, £143.9 for E10 

Pulled the E5, handle £174.9 

Robbing cunts 

[andyberg]

40 minutes ago, Wack said:

I only put E5 in my cars, just stopped at BP, £143.9 for E10 

Pulled the E5, handle £174.9 

Robbing cunts 

Yeah I have noticed this too. E5 seems to be going up in price. Is it because more people are using it instead of that ' more environmentally friendly ' E10?

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Wack said:

I only put E5 in my cars, just stopped at BP, £143.9 for E10 

Pulled the E5, handle £174.9 

Robbing cunts 

I would have seriously considered putting the handle back and going somewhere else. Depends how desperate you were for petrol I guess.

The Sainsburys up the road is only 10p difference between the two. 147.9 to 157.9. There can be no justification for a 31p difference. 

[myglaren]

Will be visiting them later, when I get my car back.

[Wack]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I would have seriously considered putting the handle back and going somewhere else. Depends how desperate you were for petrol I guess.

The Sainsburys up the road is only 10p difference between the two. 147.9 to 157.9. There can be no justification for a 31p difference. 

I did, not paying that 

[Bren]

Struggling after covid. My whole body aches - especially where the lymph nodes appear to be. At hospital tomorrow to start new drug - I will let the staff know as they may decide to do bloods again.

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

Will be visiting them later, when I get my car back.

  No idea why, but in my part of the world fuel's significantly cheaper than anywhere else at the moment. Sainsbury's is less than Costco even!

[RoverFolkUs]

Still 150-155 ish for E10 my way 🤔

[Wack]

Last time I was in Costco E10 was 137.9. E5 was 10P more IIRC 

[Zelandeth]

Weather. 

Started job, cool but clear skies.  Forecast said no precipitation due in my area until 2 hours from now.

Cue torrential rain which then turned to sleet right about the point of no return in the job.

Now finished, back inside soaked to the skin and absolutely bloody frozen.

Oh, and have achieved absolutely nothing.

Edit: I've also realised that in my rush to get done before I froze to death I forgot to reconnect a connector...so will definitely need to repeat 85% of the work!