The grumpy thread

[Mash]

Bloody new cars. My boss has just had a Passat hire car dropped off and the guy had to give him a tutorial in how to start the bloody thing, something to do with an LED display and electronic handbrake and a load of other shit that some bored Wolfsburg employee thought would be a good idea.My boss quipped "so it hasn't got a choke then?" and the guy just looked blank at him - I think he was older than me too which just proves how much people have forgotten how we used to live!

[Mr Lobster]

Bloody new cars. My boss has just had a Passat hire car dropped off

New Passat. Over complicated pain in the bloody arse. Get In.Press start engine button.Nothing happens.Read LED display.Apply foot to brake pedal.Press start button.Engine starts.Press Handbrake release.Bonging noise and flashing LED display but otherwise nothing happens.Press and hold foot brake (again)Now press handbrake.Now, finally we can set off.Why oh why oh why does it need to be this complicated?

[Pillock]

Garages.Twats.Saxo went in for a clutch, well the clutch seems OK but the release bearing is griding like a mofo and the biting point is buried deep in what little pile the carpet has. So in it went.Booked it in last week so 7 days to, oooh, I dunno, order a part. Dropped it off at 8.15 this morning, 15 minutes before they officially open. Autodata reckons 3.5 hours to complete the work.I phone at 1pm to get a vague idea of when I should be thinking of picking it up, guy reckons to phone back at 4pm for a better idea. To my mind, that means they've not even started it yet! WHY? It was hardly a frickin' surprise that I was going to turn up!I wouldn't mind but they did it before for the cambelt, four hours after we dropped it off it was still in bits.

[Father Ted]

2 things:1) Road tax from 2010 - I was looking at buying a 4WD to replace the Micra with, the Fronterror fell through so have been looking at RAV4's - early ones are in my grasp. Only next year the road tax for cars with a CC of more than 1549 skyrockets to £205, whereas sub 1549cc goes up by a fiver to £125 Fcnucking Rubbing Brastuds.So, that narows it down to a frigging early Jimny or a Justy then - only the Justy doesnt have the height. Frinking gussetbucket.2) How the fcknucking hell do the great unwashed who come to see me get away with it - one of them (who has NEVER worked and seems proud of this fact)is fcnuking off on a surfer holidayl for 3 weeks. I mean how the arsingbarglebags can they afford to do that? Simple, by being an unwashed layabout in a fcnuking hat they manage to get housing benefit, council robbingbastardtax benefit and a whole host of other things that make their day watching Ricky Lake a piece of psis.Stop benefits, fcnucking stop them all now and instead give out food and clothing vouchers and a bus pass. Homeless beggers in the street, got a dog on a piece of string? Simply kill it and eat it thus providing a valuable source of energy giving protien and saving you money having to buy Aldi Polish dog food.

[Negative Creep]

Royal Mail. Waiting all morning for a package but nothing arrived. Went downstairs later on to find the red "sorry you were out" slip. No I wasn't out, I've been in all morning and you did not bother to ring my bell. Now I'll have to drive to the sorting office tomorrow. FFS.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

2 things:1) Road tax from 2010 - I was looking at buying a 4WD to replace the Micra with, the Fronterror fell through so have been looking at RAV4's - early ones are in my grasp. Only next year the road tax for cars with a CC of more than 1549 skyrockets to £205, whereas sub 1549cc goes up by a fiver to £125 Fcnucking Rubbing Brastuds.So, that narows it down to a frigging early Jimny or a Justy then - only the Justy doesnt have the height. Frinking gussetbucket.

Eh, how much is tax for these cars now? £190 I think. Is an additional £15 in 2010 going to make or break the deal? Non valid grumble i'm afraid.

[Milford Cubicle]

How about a Daihatsu Terios FT?I'd like to whinge and moan about road tax, I really resent paying for it, but echoing bo11ox, £200-odd spread over the year it doesn't amount to much really, especially compared with other costs.

[Guest]

I have this evening experienced an event reinforcing my resentment of modern cars, riding bike back from work a new BMW 5**d estate comes up behind me at moderate pace (30 zone), I hear it ease off slightly to let an oncoming car clear then the driver HOOFS it past until up to probably about 60mph, leaving me breathing a cloud of catalysed diesel particulates, wanker. Hope it later crashed into the back of a scaffold truck or something.

[pogweasel]

2 things:1) Road tax from 2010 - I was looking at buying a 4WD to replace the Micra with, the Fronterror fell through so have been looking at RAV4's - early ones are in my grasp. Only next year the road tax for cars with a CC of more than 1549 skyrockets to £205, whereas sub 1549cc goes up by a fiver to £125 Fcnucking Rubbing Brastuds.So, that narows it down to a frigging early Jimny or a Justy then - only the Justy doesnt have the height. Frinking gussetbucket.2) How the fcknucking hell do the great unwashed who come to see me get away with it - one of them (who has NEVER worked and seems proud of this fact)is fcnuking off on a surfer holidayl for 3 weeks. I mean how the arsingbarglebags can they afford to do that? Simple, by being an unwashed layabout in a fcnuking hat they manage to get housing benefit, council robbingbastardtax benefit and a whole host of other things that make their day watching Ricky Lake a piece of psis.

Bad day at the office, dear?Yes I agree that the tax is a bit irksome. I have got to renew the tax on my BMW at the end of the month, I've only done 1500 miles in the last 6 months, not a good 'ppm' value, and it'll be even worse now that I am bombing about in my shitty little renner during the week and only using the BMW 'for best'.As for state benefits, christ on a bike. I reckon they should put benefit claiming/fiddling on the national curriculum, it's nearly a full time job farting about with all that. But you are right, it's totally biased in favour of the sick lame & lazy. I went down the jobshop when I was laid off, they gave me £60 a week. If I lived in a rented gaff, and not paid top-dollar tax for the last few years I'd have got £100+ a week , and council tax benefit and £500 a month hosuing benefit, and a load more cash thrown at me. Totally fucked up system. Plus entering a job centre is one of the single most demeaning and unpleasant experiences you can have in life.

[Father Ted]

Went off on one a bit.

Bad day at the office, dear?.

Yeah, though today Im feeling too bloody apathetic to get worked up about anthing, been for another spectacular failure job interview this morning, and the worst thing is I wont find out "officicially" til Friday that I muffed it up. Honestly you would think that watching every episode of Porridge at least twice would count as experience for working in a Prison wouldnt you? But ohhh noooo, I need to know about procedures, IDTS ( which I did a bit) and so on. Mainly bolloxed the mental health stakholder questions which I hadnt a fecking clue about and so I said as much, then went on about Ronnie Barker - brain made its excuses and left the body to it at that point....Road tax woulnt be quite such a hassle if it could be paid for at £x / month, but for obvious reasons it cant be - and Im just not organised enough to put a twentyer a month away to pay for it.Supposed to be going down the gym tonight, but will probably fook off to KFC instead and drown my sorrows in a Big Daddy Heart Atack Burger.

[Mash]

Polite request:If you are on the dole/sponging benefits/retired/woman with toddler/other non-working layabout would you kindly NOT go out between 12pm and 1pm, especially not to the supermarket.Fuck off out of my way - I'm on my lunch

[outlaw118]

^^^^ Whs!!And stay in on Saturdays an all!

[Justin Case]

Polite request:

 

If you are on the dole/sponging benefits/retired/woman with toddler/other non-working layabout would you kindly NOT go out between 12pm and 1pm, especially not to the supermarket.

 

 

and the post office, and the bank, and the ........

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Last year, during an particularly bleak year of isolation and self employment, I would often go to the bank/supermarket/post office during other people's lunch hour and wonder why it was so busy. I would also occasionally get up some mornings and have absolutely no idea what day it was, whether it was the weekend, Wednesday or whatever. Offices full of people are horrible places, but at least the routine keeps you sane. Loved being able to go out driving at 2am though.

[Father Ted]

Loved being able to go out driving at 2am though.

Babies - all the excuse you need to go on midnight drives - screaming collicy child - put on radio 4 or classic FM and go for a drive.... I once did the whole lenghth of the M65 with Katie at 60mph, got home, carefully crept in and the moment the car seat touched the floor - WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH again.I gave her to the wife at this point and fooked off to bed.

[seth]

Changine the subject a little...Pollen.HAYFEVA JUST KICKED IN Yo!

[M'coli]

and more to the point, if you are retired why the hell do you have to go "somewhere" on a bank holiday, you have all the rest of the year to do it.

Simple - it gives them a reason to "get the car out" or some such other twee phrase.

[trigger]

and more to the point, if you are retired why the hell do you have to go "somewhere" on a bank holiday, you have all the rest of the year to do it.

Simple - it gives them a reason to "get the car out" or some such other twee phrase.

And on that note, Why do old retired people have to go to the post office between 12-2 when your on a lunch break and only have a short time to get your stuff done, They have all bloody day to get there pension!

[M'coli]

and more to the point, if you are retired why the hell do you have to go "somewhere" on a bank holiday, you have all the rest of the year to do it.

Simple - it gives them a reason to "get the car out" or some such other twee phrase.

And on that note, Why do old retired people have to go to the post office between 12-2 when your on a lunch break and only have a short time to get your stuff done, They have all bloody day to get there pension!

They probably set out at 6 in the morning, and have only just reached there.

[pogweasel]

Changine the subject a little...Pollen.HAYFEVA JUST KICKED IN Yo!

Pollen can f*ck right off. I has itchy I's.

[Guest]

I'm applying for a new job and amazingly I've landed an interview. However, they've sent me a health screening questionaire which is all a bit mad, asking all kinds of stuff I couldn't possibly know.For example, it asks me to say "yes" or "no" to if I've had the following injections - TB skin test, TB, Rubella, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis B Booster, Hepatitis B Titre Level, Typhoid. How the hell am I meant to know? It's a bloody office job, I'm hardly going to go round biting people and give them rabies. Anyway I just guessed TB and left all the others.Also I've got to prove I'm not an illegal immigrant, I will do this by arriving at the interview by French-registered lorry and pretending to be Benjamin from Short Circuit.

[pogweasel]

ROFL. That's about right for 'office work arse covering' these days, H1r5t. When I worked for a huge engineering consultant, the 'risk assessment' for office work ran to about 9 full binders. For going out working where you could be variously killed in many exciting ways including stabbing,, being run over by a train and getting hideously electricuted, the assessment ran to 3 sides of A4. At a push. Maybe you should just answer totally at random, then if you get the job deliberately impale yourself with some staples and see what their reaction is. Then you can gauge how serious each of those items is, and whether you answered correctly or not.

[pompei]

House names. Especially those cleverly made up from the occupants' monikers. Dorisid. But particularly those using 3mm script on a plaque hidden by weeds on a house set back 50 yards from the road. And then you wonder why I can't find you.

[155V6]

House names. Especially those cleverly made up from the occupants' monikers. Dorisid. But particularly those using 3mm script on a plaque hidden by weeds on a house set back 50 yards from the road. And then you wonder why I can't find you.

That's one of mine,& when you do find them after having driven up & down the road 5 or 6 times,they're not in

[pogweasel]

Do you know what knobs me off? Seats in cars. Like the new ones. They have had years to make it better. It just gets worse. OK so all cars are now filled with super lovely gizmos, but you're still in agaony after a couple of hours. In the old days, even MAJOR LEAGUE CHOD you sat IN rather than ON. Think of an old allegro for instance. The seat was designed to fit you to sit in. Now it seems all seats are designed so that irritable mummies, colostomy bagged pensioners and car-seated children to access and egress, with little regard to the time actually in the chair. How comes I can sit comfortably for hours in an old Marina with nasty faux-velour trim, but my Renner Kangoo give me pain in my back / knee after 50 minutes. It's madness. And why can't I have a twisty thing for the back-rest any more. GHEY. Even 'Er Indoors Focus which has up & down, fore & aft + back rest adjustment as well as a moveable steering wheel, you still can't get it -quite- right. Close, but not close enough. I want to sit another inch lower. Thanks. All new stuff seems to be like this. BMW's alright though. Despite the rock hard seats & bone-jarring ride, the driving position is so perfect I would happily hop in now and drive to land's end non-stop.

[M'coli]

Re risk assessments. We had a tyrannical health & safety officer for a while, who would have had us risk-assess wiping your nose with paper towel.So I tried to goad her into writing one for driving around the car park - it has a 10mph limit, but I would scream around in reverse because the speedo didn't register in reverse. The cow got Compulsory Redundancy shortly after. Arse.

[pompei]

With you on the seats one. Mrs P has had a succession of Mazdas which appear to have had their seats designed for the paraplegic, they're that uncomfortable. I have driven a Fiat 500 to Italy and back and can honestly say that I have had more back and leg pain in a modern after 20 miles.

[Father Ted]

For example, it asks me to say "yes" or "no" to if I've had the following injections - TB skin test, TB, Rubella, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis B Booster, Hepatitis B Titre Level, Typhoid. How the hell am I meant to know? .

Depending n your age and whether you were at school (high school) in the 1980's then you shoud have had TB (circular scarr on your deltoid?), Polio, Tetanus -(( rubella (german measles) was only routinely given to girls, though I had to have this before working in obstetrics as a student nurse.))Hep A & B are things only certain jobs routinely require you to have (anything ( there is no vaccine against Hep C) where you ill be encountering boddily fluids) or if you go abroad say to Mexico or Turkey etc. HBV Titre is just a blood test to see if you have sufficient antibodies folowing the course of 3 injections.I now put on job applicatiions that I am Bisexual and amazingly get interviews for everything i apply for. Sadly though dont get the jobs, perhaps they are worried Im going to go round and bum everyone at work?

[Guest]

I remember getting that six needles thing, but there was meant to be some kind of follow-up injection a few weeks after which I didn't get because I was skiving or something. What was that all about?

[Father Ted]

6 needles is Heaf test, that shows whether you have antibodies to TB, most people dont, so it doesnt come up all red and blotchy and stays normal looking, so the follow up with the big fook off needle is the TB jab.Every fricking time I change job the Occy |Health do a frigging Heaf on me, and take my blood for HBV - I also have been tested for HIV and HCV thanks to getting bitten by a mad twat in A&E once. So, No looks like you havent had the TB jab - get it done, its not painful (much)((( )))