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outlaw118

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Once again lamenting the loss of Maplin.

In the middle of a project and discovered I need two bog standard 1N4007 diodes.  Do I have any in stock?  Do I hell.  Do I have anything else in stock that will do?  No. 

So now I have to pause, put everything back together and move on to something else while I wait for them to be sodding delivered...from Amazon because I refuse to pay six times the price of the goods I need from RS/Farnell for the shipping. 

If you're an electronics hobbiest and need random components like that at short notice unless you're lucky enough to have an RS trade account and live in a city with a trade counter you're screwed these days as there really is no alternative.

Of course last week I took several things which had been sitting in the corner for weeks to the E-waste bin at the tip...most of which probably contained appropriate diodes that I could have cannibalised them for.  Oh well...

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12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Once again lamenting the loss of Maplin.

In the middle of a project and discovered I need two bog standard 1N4007 diodes.  Do I have any in stock?  Do I hell.  Do I have anything else in stock that will do?  No. 

So now I have to pause, put everything back together and move on to something else while I wait for them to be sodding delivered...from Amazon because I refuse to pay six times the price of the goods I need from RS/Farnell for the shipping. 

If you're an electronics hobbiest and need random components like that at short notice unless you're lucky enough to have an RS trade account and live in a city with a trade counter you're screwed these days as there really is no alternative.

Of course last week I took several things which had been sitting in the corner for weeks to the E-waste bin at the tip...most of which probably contained appropriate diodes that I could have cannibalised them for.  Oh well...

How many do you need?  I have a few here going spare, happy to put them in the post.

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46 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

How many do you need?  I have a few here going spare, happy to put them in the post.

No worries, they will be here in the morning anyway.  It's just annoying that running out of something daft like that used to mean an hour's interruption to progress while I ran out and grabbed some whereas now I literally have no option but to wait for delivery.  It irks me.

Especially as I had already taken the subject machine apart and set everything up for soldering in the necessary parts...then foiled by two bloody diodes!

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9 hours ago, leafsprung said:

Found a nail in one of the Volvo's tyres yesterday afternoon, approximately 5 mins after the local tyre place closed at midday. With a 250 mile drive this afternoon and a space saver spare I'd rather not chance it. My only option open today was a 15 mile drive to the city branch of the local company as all of their other smaller branches are closed on Sundays. I was there as the doors opened at 9am but was told no chance of having it done as they were 'all booked up M8'. 

Of course, you can book just about anything online with them, MOT, tyres, brakes etc etc. But not puncture repair. 

There is literally no other option anywhere locally. Do people only get punctures in weekday office hours now? 

Yes or they pre-book the puncture

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More “hacks” to save money!

Sun says “one clever women does a years washing for £18 due to B&M£8.99 purchase!” 
She buys the biggest pack of washing powder.

Martin Lewis says “ put a bowl of water in your freezer to save hundreds of pounds a year”. I was thinking “ does it make it freeze quicker or something ?” Can’t see how but I’ll read on.

Turns out you out your credit card in it so you can’t use it and get into debt, ffs!

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Apparently there is a new depth to how shit something can be and Halfords still put their name to.

IMG_20230123_165123.jpg

Produced for them even?

IMG_20230123_165140.jpg

Yeah right, it's the cheapest piece of garbage they could find.   Literally useless.

Which makes me exceptionally grumpy as it means I'm still 5 minutes away from being able to finish the same job I was five minutes away from being able to finish two hours ago because I need to remove one bloody circlip.  Plus I'll need to go out again tomorrow to buy another set of circlip pliers!

Won't be from Halfords this time.  So much for saving time because I was passing by there.

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1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Apparently there is a new depth to how shit something can be and Halfords still put their name to.

IMG_20230123_165123.jpg

Produced for them even?

IMG_20230123_165140.jpg

Yeah right, it's the cheapest piece of garbage they could find.   Literally useless.

Which makes me exceptionally grumpy as it means I'm still 5 minutes away from being able to finish the same job I was five minutes away from being able to finish two hours ago because I need to remove one bloody circlip.  Plus I'll need to go out again tomorrow to buy another set of circlip pliers!

Won't be from Halfords this time.  So much for saving time because I was passing by there.

Needed some on site for work, these £15 ones from Screwfix got me out the shit and have been ok so far 

4D299F58-5824-4A5D-B7FE-4C53DC23242B.png

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5 hours ago, Bren said:

Once driven forever smitten.

Dougie's red top cavalier more than likely written off on the M40 after hitting debris on the carriageway.

Good job a biker didn't hit it.

Is that Dougie Rankin ? Scottish Cavalier hero? He owes me a favour. 

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7 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

More “hacks” to save money!

Sun says “one clever women does a years washing for £18 due to B&M£8.99 purchase!” 
She buys the biggest pack of washing powder.

Martin Lewis says “ put a bowl of water in your freezer to save hundreds of pounds a year”. I was thinking “ does it make it freeze quicker or something ?” Can’t see how but I’ll read on.

Turns out you out your credit card in it so you can’t use it and get into debt, ffs!

The credit card in an ice pack has always been a good way of not impulse buying. 

Also. Once the ice is frozen, it takes up space and means that you aren't letting too much warm air in, when you open the door. 

I've bought the biggest own brand washing liquid from Costco, for £8. 12 months ago. Still not used it all. I do one wash a week, a 30 minute short wash at 30.

Never wash the sheets. 

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On 20/01/2023 at 19:32, barefoot said:

Fuck me, that's shite. 

No, that's the post brexit, post covid, NHS, run by conservatives who typically  fail to mention £24 fucking million to the HMRC by being a little careless. 

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5 hours ago, Bren said:

Once driven forever smitten.

Dougie's red top cavalier more than likely written off on the M40 after hitting debris on the carriageway.

Good job a biker didn't hit it.

That Advert always makes me laugh. ‘Once Driven Forever Smitten’ didn’t quite equate to an Astra Merit. A bit like Ford ‘Everything we do is driven by the accountants’

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21 minutes ago, New POD said:

The credit card in an ice pack has always been a good way of not impulse buying. 

Also. Once the ice is frozen, it takes up space and means that you aren't letting too much warm air in, when you open the door. 

I've bought the biggest own brand washing liquid from Costco, for £8. 12 months ago. Still not used it all. I do one wash a week, a 30 minute short wash at 30.

Never wash the sheets. 

Or just have a bit of discipline about yourself and cut the fucker up! 🤣

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2 hours ago, MikeR said:

new comet in the night sky , does that mean 100 % cloud cover until it is gone ????

I also learned how to properly collimate my astro binoculars and perfected my parallelogram mount too.  So we're definitely going to have 100% cloud cover for the next month.  Sorry.

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3 hours ago, New POD said:

No, that's the post brexit, post covid, NHS, run by conservatives who typically  fail to mention £24 fucking million to the HMRC by being a little careless. 

What's the beef? Is anyone who has been penalised by HMRC a criminal now? They're a shower of shite but this is thin gruel, much like the pant-wetting hysteria about the PM being fined for not wearing a seat belt. Oh noes! He got fined by HMRC, along with probably thousands of others.

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2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Or just have a bit of discipline about yourself and cut the fucker up! 🤣

That’s what I was going to say, I’m an adult , if I can have a credit card , I will use it properly. “A big boy made me do it” isn’t a valid excuse once you are over 12.

As for never washing sheets, mmm, nice.

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10 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

What's the beef? Is anyone who has been penalised by HMRC a criminal now? They're a shower of shite but this is thin gruel, much like the pant-wetting hysteria about the PM being fined for not wearing a seat belt. Oh noes! He got fined by HMRC, along with probably thousands of others.

None of whom were Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, nor Chair of the Tory party now...

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My boss casually mentioned to me today that overtime is being stopped because apparently we don't need it anymore.  I've been kind of relying on overtime pay for the last several years to make ends meet.  With the cost of everything continuing to go up (my rent hasn't yet but I'm fully expecting it to at any time), unless I get a hefty pay rise this year I'm going to be in trouble.  There's an outside chance that I'll get a decent rise as I had a promotion last year and I haven't had my pay adjusted for that yet, but all the noises senior management have been making about "difficult economic times" and all that bollocks don't bode well.

I'm OK for a few months - I'll be getting December's overtime pay in this month's pay packet, then I have a few "easy" months as I don't pay council tax in Feb and March and I don't pay car insurance in April and May - but the upshot is that if I don't get a decent raise I'm going to have to find a new job.  Which I really don't want to do as 1. I like my current job and the people I work with and 2. I fucking hate job interviews.  Plus I've been in the industry I currently work in for 20 years and unless I find a job based in London but working remotely I'm never going to be rich, but then again I don't really want to start again from scratch at my time of life...

I'm just getting rather tired of the fact that every time I start to get a little bit of financial security life comes along and pulls the rug out.  It's surprisingly difficult to maintain a decent standard of living as a single person on an average wage these days.  Maybe I need to become an IT consultant - they always seem to be on decent money.  I know naff all about IT but I'm quite good at talking bollocks so I might be able to wing it...

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20 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

What...??!

 

I had an "extra" mid-year payrise the year before (Sept 2021) so when April 2022 came around and I got my promotion, I didn't get the payrise because I'd already had one within the last year.  My manager did make noises about me getting another mid-year rise this year, but that never happened.  She did give me a rather chunkier-than-normal bonus last April to try and make up for it but, nice as a bonus is, it doesn't carry forward into the next year.

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8 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

What's the beef? Is anyone who has been penalised by HMRC a criminal now? They're a shower of shite but this is thin gruel, much like the pant-wetting hysteria about the PM being fined for not wearing a seat belt. Oh noes! He got fined by HMRC, along with probably thousands of others.

I would google and read the Dan Neidle blogs on this if I were you. He lied about having outstanding tax and then negotiated his 'settlement' whilst he was in charge of HMRC at the exchequer.  The level of fine shows how culpable he was. One for the politics section I guess 

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3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I received my renewal quote for the red 93. Literally nothing has changed since last year!

827457994_Screenshot_20230124-072918_YahooMail.thumb.jpg.70cbd17cb4116973480873f167fcd057.jpg

They can get fucked with that!!

Worth a phone call, sometimes they will give you a much better quote. I had the same with my wife’s car, up by about £50 with Direct Line . One call and the reduced it by about £40. Admiral on the other hand put mine up by £75 despite being with them for 11 years , no claims, and the best they could offer was £10’lower.  Renewed with eSure , lower than last year with Admiral.

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