The grumpy thread

[Lord Sterling]

Could you both move somewhere less strict? I know you have links with Belgium and France, but that's not very helpful at the moment either.

 

Thanks fella. It's certainly something I've considered, but I've landed in quite a great place plus moving to those places for me is very difficult and expensive. There are ways of getting her here but it's just making those links, everyone I seem to ask for advice seem uninterested and the pressure, certainly from her family, is building.

 

I'll find a way.

[chaseracer]

Mrs_Sterling's visa application has been rejected. How quaint...

 

Fuck them, I'll bring her over here, if they want to stop me, they can kill me.

 

And we'll help you - in any way possible.

[Timewaster]

I think F1 should throw the rule book away.

 

Teams should have to adhere to engine capacity, fuel use and overall size limits then be allowed to do whatever they want.

 

Back to mad ideas like 6 wheel Tyrells, fan cars and spoilers on 6ft struts.

 

A proper whacky races line up every other Sunday

[richardmorris]

Do they give you grounds for rejection?

[Lord Sterling]

Do they give you grounds for rejection?

 

Not from what I can make out. I am writing to them to ask them why. I'm certain of this; They'll either ignore my request or come back with some unarguable reason as to why they have rejected it.

 

Ma has said go Schengen Visa route (I used to live in Belgium) but I fear this is going to take too long, lady is getting desperate and those she is staying with are getting a bit fed up, they only other place for her is to go back to Syria.

[chaseracer]

Ma may well have a point...

[Lord Sterling]

True. But it looks like Lady_S won't wait. She is going back to Syria. She can't stay where she is.

 

Grim.

 

I will bring her here though, eventually, for myself and her, but also to kick one in the face of the Government/Immigration and anti-Immigration wasters.

[Inspector Morose]

According to SWMBO (CAB, innit) it's probably to do with your income I'm afraid. It seems to be taken that no matter what guarantees are given, if the figures don't show, visa says no. (She doesn't specialise in immigration matters, just a generalist adviser but gets to see these things every now and again).

[Lord Sterling]

According to SWMBO (CAB, innit) it's probably to do with your income I'm afraid. It seems to be taken that no matter what guarantees are given, if the figures don't show, visa says no. (She doesn't specialise in immigration matters, just a generalist adviser but gets to see these things every now and again).

 

They never asked me for my income though, I was bringing her on a general visitors Visa. Marriage Visa requires that I earn over £18k but visitors Visa doesn't require me to earn any income.

 

I think it was just a knee-jerk reaction. She is Syrian and that's probably enough for rejection (unofficially)

[Inspector Morose]

Ah yes, visitors visa doesn't require income. Give me a few days to see what I can find.

[cort1977]

Sorry to hear this Mo, I read that they set an arbitrary income for spouses of visa applicants of 18600 a year after tax which is roughly half the population.

 

 Edit, just saw your response.   That's just shit.  

[cobblers]

Wank motorfactor parts. 

Daily Ibiza had a lazy stat, worked OK but settled 25c too low at 63c meaning shitty heaters and hopefully lower MPG. VW gauges lie and claim anything 60+ is 90 so I needed diagnostics to find this out, by accident.

The main dealers had the YTS lad on the phone who didn't know how to check what was in stock so just said "3 days shipping" for everything but I wanted to get the job done that morning.

Instead I went to the local massive warehouse motorfactors place. I like to try and support them because they are 400 meters away, but they don't make it easy. I asked them for the absolute best quality thermostat they had. Bearing in mind they have football pitch sized warehouse, The "best" thermostat they had in stock was made by Firstline. I've had Firstline stuff before and it's really only any good for garages to get people out of the door quickly. I bought dozens of things made by them and can't remember anything lasting more than a few thousand miles. I even looked at it and thought "that looks shit" then spent 2.5 hours fitting it (Alternator is in the way of the housing, but the alternator can't come out without removing throttle body. It was cold and windy and wank)

 

Now the car will eventually warm up, but it keeps on warming up. Up to 105c if I let it idle for 10 minutes! I drive 6 miles to work and it'll reach 53c in that time, almost enough for me to feel my fingers. I might as well have replaced it for a tin lid with a nail hole in it.

[Clanger]

They never asked me for my income though, I was bringing her on a general visitors Visa. Marriage Visa requires that I earn over £18k but visitors Visa doesn't require me to earn any income.

 

I think it was just a knee-jerk reaction. She is Syrian and that's probably enough for rejection (unofficially)

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing the best* that the immigration bureaucracy has to offer.

 

I would suggest that you limit your discussion on what is essentially a public forum.  While it is unlikely that anything you say here will come back to bite you in the arse the only way to guarantee it never becomes a problem is not to air these matters on the internet.  I mean no disrespect, to you, or to anyone here, but I cannot tell you how often I have had a client that is faced with comments they made on social media - often said in jest and seemingly innocuous at the time - your hair would turn grey if you saw just how the powers that be are able to take these things out of context.

[Inspector Morose]

True clanger, true words. I think this is the level that details have to stop at. Anything else can be made by PM ( well, okay, I'll pop over when I've got any more info.)

 

Free speech is something to be upheld at all times but when it's a comrades happiness and wellbeing at stake then discretion is the better option.

[RobT]

Work are asking for voluntary redundancies, again. Workforce needs to be cut by a quarter apparently, but this time they are offering an enhanced deal, so I'm wondering whether to take it on the basis that any future offer will never be this good.

 

My working conditions are shit, and job pretty dull overall, but the thought of applying for new jobs makes me shudder a bit. Inertia and a big mortgage to pay have stopped me leaving in the past. As is always the way, without such commitments I'd have sacked the fucking job off years ago!

 

I try not to get bothered by such things normally, and it may turn out a positive in the end, but shite shenanigans and Daimler fixage may have to go on hold for a while. That's the bit that REALLY annoys me!

 

Edit: actually, no. Shite stuff will continue, I'll just save money by eating and drinking less...

[hairnet]

Thinking about it, my interest in F1 has waned massively since he stepped down.  It just...isn't the same without his voice, just like wildlife programmes that aren't narrated by David Attenborough just don't sound right.

although i think david tennant should do more than just the penguin programmes

[wuvvum]

Bought a replacement washing machine on Sunday night.  Not new, I got it off Gumtree, but it's quite a posh one (Zanussi washer / dryer thing) and I paid a reasonable amount for it.

 

This evening I spent ages disconnecting and dragging out the old machine, then manhandling the new one out of the van and into the house.  Plumbed it all in, plugged it in, and it doesn't fugging work.  Switches on, locks the door and all the programmes select with the funky electronic program selector (not just a twist knob like my old machine), but when I press the "start" button nothing happens.  It beeps and then just sits there.  No error messages or anything, it's just like it's not registering that I've pressed the button, even though the button beeps.  I even downloaded the manual to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious, but nope.  So that was a waste of fugging time and money then.

 

Oh, and I've also lost the battery pack for my bike headlight.  I think it must have fallen out of my bag on the way to work this morning.  Pissflaps.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I didn't like having a job and when I got one was mega happy. It's something I like doing, which for me is unusual.

 

Made the mistake of asking for part time in the first week. I've only worked two days in the past two weeks. Turns out they don't have part time it's all or just fill in as and when which doesn't help anyone.

 

Had a moan at the boss* today but I can see fuck all changing as he's the kind that makes sure he's got the best shifts and the new woman to work with

[RobT]

Following my grump above, atleast it's still only voluntary redundancies they're after. It's just the further uncertainty it creates isn't ideal.

[dave21478]

I have talked previously about my annoyance with people who insist on driving too fast everywhere, especially in carparks.

 

This was highlighted today when I popped to a supermarket at lunchtime to find somebody in a terribly important hurry had crashed into someone else. Normally a bump in a supermarket involves scraped paint, a broken bumper or light lense and maybe a bashed door, but these choobs had collided hard enough to destroy both cars and justify calling out countless cozzers, two emergency ambulances, a fire brigade rescue truck and with a couple of recovery trucks lying in wait for the remains.

 

How fucking fast were they going?

 

 

 

Grump 2 - I keep getting bank statements and life insurance policies and shite like that in other peoples names delivered to me. Not sure if half-assed ID theft attempts or postal incompetance. The latest guy isnt poor either, over 400k in his savings account.

[dave21478]

Bought a replacement washing machine on Sunday night.  Not new, I got it off Gumtree, but it's quite a posh one (Zanussi washer / dryer thing) and I paid a reasonable amount for it.

 

This evening I spent ages disconnecting and dragging out the old machine, then manhandling the new one out of the van and into the house.  Plumbed it all in, plugged it in, and it doesn't fugging work.  Switches on, locks the door and all the programmes select with the funky electronic program selector (not just a twist knob like my old machine), but when I press the "start" button nothing happens.  It beeps and then just sits there.  No error messages or anything, it's just like it's not registering that I've pressed the button, even though the button beeps.  I even downloaded the manual to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious, but nope.  So that was a waste of fugging time and money then.

 

Oh, and I've also lost the battery pack for my bike headlight.  I think it must have fallen out of my bag on the way to work this morning.  Pissflaps.

 

Whats your water pressure like? some machines dont like it too high or too low and will refuse to work.

[vulgalour]

We were going to get proper internet connected today but it turns out our allocated slot in the fibre box is broken and there are no spare slots to make use of.  That means we have to stay on the temporary internet thing, which is good but pricey, while we wait to be connected.  That wait could take several WEEKS which is just crazy.

 

I need the internet for work, especially so at the moment with an imminent deadline and customers who need updates on their commissions.  Mike and I both need it to stay in touch with friends and do all the mundane things like online banking and money transfers.  It's a bad time for the internet to possibly go down for us too because this is when I produce some seasonal pieces to boost my income, a boost that I very much need each year.

 

Trying not to panic about it, I'm sure it'll be fine, but it's monumentally bad timing.  I'm also not entirely sure where I stand with the contract as no service is being provided so theoretically I shouldn't have to pay a bean and I would hope the 'cooling off' period doesn't apply since the provider isn't providing a service.  That is just in case we do decide to switch and don't want to get hit with oodles of fees.

 

We're with Plusnet but it's BT that's dragging their heels. It was BT that wouldn't get us connected quicker and it's BT that's now responsible for finding out what's broken, fixing it, and getting us connected.

[fairkens]

Plus net is BT, so they probably aren't dragging their heels for no reason, but BT are a nightmare at the best of times - good luck

[twosmoke300]

I had the same with my work like activation . Plusnet were brilliant at updating me but open reach were lazy useless twats

[Cavcraft]

Plusnet are class in a glass.

[eddyramrod]

+1 for Plusnet.  Whatever else you do, AVOID Tesco Broadband!

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Thankfully, Plusnet has not been ruined by BT ownership. Openreach are absolutely terrible though. Nice work competition folk! BT was broken up into loads of companies and now Openreach doesn't seem accountable to anyone and has an appalling lack of commitment to anything at all. 

 

Vulg - when we moved, I was forced to work down at the local hotel. For the cost of a few hot chocolates, I had lovely broadband. Not ideal, as I like to have my books with me too, but got me through a barren patch of internet (again, Openreach pissing about not being arsed to actually connect us - TalkTalk were utterly unable to speed things up so we told them to piss off and got Plusnet on the case. All resolved pretty swiftly).

[vulgalour]

Oh, that's the other thing, it wasn't even Openreach that came out.  BT sub-contract the job of connecting new customers and the sub-contractor doesn't get paid if he can't connect the customer so it sucks massively for the guy that came out!  I have been with TalkTalk before and have no intention of going back.

 

If it were just e-mails that would be fine but a lot of what I do is scanning and updating a picture real time with a customer and I can't very well do that away from my art desk.  As long as I have some internet for e-mails I can at least keep people updated but it really is a rotten time of year for me to be without proper internet as it gets quite busy this month.

[HH-R]

Bought a replacement washing machine on Sunday night.  Not new, I got it off Gumtree, but it's quite a posh one (Zanussi washer / dryer thing) and I paid a reasonable amount for it.

 

This evening I spent ages disconnecting and dragging out the old machine, then manhandling the new one out of the van and into the house.  Plumbed it all in, plugged it in, and it doesn't fugging work.  Switches on, locks the door and all the programmes select with the funky electronic program selector (not just a twist knob like my old machine), but when I press the "start" button nothing happens.  It beeps and then just sits there.  No error messages or anything, it's just like it's not registering that I've pressed the button, even though the button beeps.  I even downloaded the manual to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious, but nope.  So that was a waste of fugging time and money then.

 

Oh, and I've also lost the battery pack for my bike headlight.  I think it must have fallen out of my bag on the way to work this morning.  Pissflaps.

 

Sounds daft but is the door shut right? Every few months I go through an "ah shit, the washer's broken, WHY WON'T YOU WORK?!" then notice the door isn't *quite* shut properly...

[HH-R]

When the fibre broadband rollout happened in rural areas (or is still happening) I believe anyone could bid for the graft but very few did - just Openreach.