The grumpy thread

[garbaldy]

No, but I have some wheels for sale on Scumtree (the alloys off the 316). By virtue of being a car part, the site puts them in the 'motors' section, and the bastard on the phone did only refer to me by first name, which is what I have on Scumtree... Fuck's sake.

My landcruiser had been of the road for six years but funnily enough after a week on gumtree I had been in an accident in the last couple of years in it,

The Sierra had apparently been in an accident in the last two years too,

Chancing bastard's.

[Pillock]

I strung one of those chancers along for a full 15 minutes a couple of weeks ago. A mixture of asking him to repeat stuff, handing over tempting things ("oh yeah, I had a couple of weeks off work cos of neck pain" etc) and then contradicting myself hopefully made it a frustrating experience. We got as far as him needing my address to send paperwork too and I told him to use the address that my insurance company had sent him and he got all mouthy.

[Sheefag]

Just keep saying 'yes', is my favoured tactic.

 

'Is that Mr Sheefag?' 'Yes!

'It's about your accident' Yes!

'You may be due some compensation' Yes!

'Can I just take some details please?' Yes!

'What's your full name?' Yes!

'Bastard' Yes!

[Ghosty]

Near to me there's a stretch of road the local council have been messing with: filling in a roundabout and replacing it with traffic lights, messing with another one so you don't have to go round it, etc.

It used to be a 40 limit, and when they did the work they removed all the speed limit signs in a 2 mile stretch. Eh? The problem is that this meant that from one end, the road was ostensibly now 30, but if you're coming the other way, the lack of signs means the limit is 40.

This has puzzled us for a while, as we first had to work out that there are indeed no speed limit signs, then what the limit is supposed to be (everyone assumes it's 40), and what a speed camera is calibrated to.

Well, the far end of the unsigned section was closed for resurfacing the other night, and while they were at it, they put up a 30 sign. 

Aside the fact 30 is annoyingly slow for the section of road (town centre bypass, 2 lanes each way but with a couple of hefty junctions - local roads at one end, 40mph large road the other way), they put up the one 30 sign for the whole section (and only at one end!) IN A TREE. It's completely obscured by tree leaves and branches, The only way I spotted it is a corresponding sign right on the other side of a five lane road, and how that's placed you can't see the limit increase to 40 as it's obstructed by a 20 sign on a side road.

So everyone's going to speed in the 30 section, and do 30 in the 40 section as the signs are invisible and the council are too cheap for repeaters.

Fuck you, Tameside.

[Timewaster]

The is a gradual erosion of speed limits everywhere. I can think of loads of roads that were NSL that are now 50, and even more that were 40 now 30.

 

Basically, if there is streetlighting and any sort of buildings nearby and no speed limit signs then it is 30.

[The Moog]

Saw a trickle of water under the shower, being Saturday night I investigated

It is totally rotten.

 

The PO who installed it is a right royal bellend. Loads of expanding foam holding the water in.

 

The waste I think goes to the drain under concrete but isn't sealed so has been leaking at the back. Everything bodged.

 

This extension is single brick as well so gets feezing in the winter, not sure it meets building regs.

 

 

 

Now got to work out whether to bodge it back together or just wait until we get a new bathroom put in.

[Ghosty]

The is a gradual erosion of speed limits everywhere. I can think of loads of roads that were NSL that are now 50, and even more that were 40 now 30.

 

Basically, if there is streetlighting and any sort of buildings nearby and no speed limit signs then it is 30.

 

I think it's a city/town thing - noticed it a lot around Manchester but not further afield/up the moors.

 

On the border of all the Manchester boroughs and Kirklees (Huddersfield area), the limit goes up from 50 to NSL. Kirklees seem to be one of the more relaxed boroughs I've seen re:speed.

[beko1987]

Finished all my jobs this morning, and went to move onto having a look at the front brakes on the xantia.

 

CAN I find my jack handle? Can I fuck...

 

Ive looked everywhere, and got the shed so empty to look that I may as well tidy the bastard thing out and out everything away, and the porch where I also looked.

 

Just when I got a nice free afternoon to do it as well ffs

[Richard]

I quite often can't find my jack handle and end up improvising with a socket extension bar, and pliers to let it down.

[D Spares & Tyres]

You may recall me mentioning my lovely neighbour two doors up, the one that was kicked out of the Army for being thick and violent? Well last night he had some kind of party and at 4:00 this morning it all kicked off outside, one Pug 306 with a smashed drivers window and another 306 with the back door smashed to shit.

 

Blood and glass all over the road. Police are slightly interested but the neighbour is being a cunt about it as usual, no idea about anything... It's a really nice area apart from him.

I know how he feels...

 

I put a radiator on a 306 last week and I felt like smashing up every 306 in the country.....

[beko1987]

I quite often can't find my jack handle and end up improvising with a socket extension bar, and pliers to let it down.

I did think of that, but the garden is full of everything from the shed, so if I don't put it all back now, itll rain heavily as I start the car or some other such bullshit.

 

And so much is out I may as well take the time to sort through it and fit more stuff in, and hope I haven't got to do a tip run afterwards

[Bren]

If you ever need a fence putting up and are considering doing it yourself, DONT. I am 30 man hours in and am still not done. Its just a 32ft of fence across the back of the garden but its doing me fookin' noggin in.

In a scene reminiscent of an episode of Taggart, I also found some bones when digging but hopefully they were just a dead pet and not a child.

Inexplicably, instead of singing the Taggart theme music I spent the rest of the day singing the music from Boon.

I did my front and side of my property. Never again. Although neighbours went half with the cost they were nowhere to be seen while I humped rockface bases and concrete posts while my scrotum was dragging along the floor.

When you found the bones did you think "There's been a murderrrrrrr"

[xtriple]

A couple of things today:

 

1, it is fucking hot out there and peoples tempers seem to be rather 'fluid'....

 

2, it is fucking chaos with people all trying to get to the beaches/fields/wooded areas.

 

Put the two together and you have a recipe for upset and annoyance... witness the fact that the chap that drives the classic open topped bus around Torquay daily was sooooo annoyed at not being able to get down Ilsham valley that he was using his loudspeaker system to shout abuse (with many, MANY words with few letters) at the cars blocking his way. I ended up parked in someones drive 'cos there was nowhere else to go (temporarily while he got his karma under control and drove his bus out of the way) then continued on my way.

 

One last point, when you are parked alongside one of these old buses, the heat they kick out of the exhaust is quite phenomenal as is the toxicity of the chuffing fumes!

[Rocket88]

As a nation, we don't do "summer" at all well..........................

[Ghosty]

The humidity in the nights at the moment is really messing with me.

[saucedoctor]

It's well for you, it's cold here. And the weather in NI is always* so good.

[strangeangel]

Fecking Gumtree. Freelander buyer who phoned me 5 times in a row and was supposed to come today to "definately take it away mate, I'll get it insured" hasn't turned up and won't reply to me.

 

Got some others lined up but it's still a pain in the ass. He may find himself receiving text updates/phone calls from various sources over the coming weeks.

 

Have you got his email address? If yes then http://www.mailbait.info/

[Jazoli]

It's well for you, it's cold here. And the weather in NI is always* so good.

 

As is the weather in the Lake District, its been shit since May ended.

[The Moog]

With careful tray and waste choice (and perhaps a very small amount of digging), you could get that tray onto the floor.

You'd then need to do something about joining the gap between the new tray and the bottom row of tiles, but if there's anything other than clockwork behind the tiles it will likely be fucked as well.

 

I'd be stripping the hole lot, insulating everything and then putting an new bathroom in.

That's the plan. Which is why it is annoying patching it up just for a few months.

 

Just waiting for a house sale to go through. It is all going to be ripped out and turned into wet room.

 

 

Not sure this is the point of damp proof course. Just loose in a pool of water

[Bobthebeard]

A hawthorn tree at the end of my drive has been causing various problems, so decided to get rid. It was a spiteful bugger. The roots were lifting up the public pavement, the roots were lifting up the end of my drive, it spiked me/Mrs Beard when we got in or out of the car with sharp thorns, was leaning against a joint fence... Etc. Just generally in the way.

So, decided to remove it. Cut the tree down to approx four feet high (kept the wood and split it into logs for 2017 winter warmth on the log burner) and called in a mate with his mini digger. Mate arrived at 0800 on Saturday and proceeded to gently remove the stump. No one around, quiet as you like in the street. Pushes and pulls on the stump a bit with the digger and movement! So we poke around at the roots and hand saw through the biggest. Look up, and people have appeared... An audience. Hmmmm. One guy says " Hoy, you are lifting the pavement, that's council property that is".

Explained that I was removing the tree precisely because it was lifting the flags... I was doing it to prevent further damage and that I would be re laying the paving stones, all three.

Another guy turns up..... "Isn't that Council property you are vandalising? Should you be.... Etc"

Explains again.

Some random bloke on a bike stops to comment...

Explains again.

All this on a shonky uneven 1950's pavement that I was actually trying to repair.

 

Removed the stump, re laid the three paving flags on the public bit and cleared up. Bloke across still twittering about damaging Council property... Damage that the tree roots had done before I bought the house, that I had repaired at my cost....

Grump.

Sorry to go on a bit. Guess you had to be there!

[The Moog]

That's not going to involve much work, it looks very wet to me.

 

 

Serious question though, why a wet room?

So that when we have invalid mums visit they don't have to cope with steps.

[chaseracer]

One guy says " Hoy, you are lifting the pavement, that's council property that is"...

 

Another guy turns up..... "Isn't that Council property you are vandalising? Should you be.... Etc"

 

Some random bloke on a bike stops to comment...

 

Bloke across still twittering about damaging Council property...

 

The nature of the relationship between 'council' and 'taxpayer' seems to have been forgotten...

[3VOM]

Fair enough, I just tend to find the vast majority of people who ask me for such things don't need them nor want to pay the extra have them.

What he said. Not in the business any more but wet rooms are like >£5k and that's for a council house, concrete floor, been there done that, team set up to just do bathroom conversions as a subcontract to the Local Authority.

[The Moog]

Fair enough, I just tend to find the vast majority of people who ask me for such things don't need them nor want to pay the extra have them.

If it was just us then we wouldn't bother. But both of the mother units struggle with steps and like to visit.

 

I don't expect it to be cheap!

[The Moog]

Are you going to do it yourself?

Nope. Too big a job for me.

[dave21478]

I have the Metro advertised for sale or swap for other retro/classic car.

 

Swap for job lot of non functioning r/c model boats?

Swap for Megane DCi maybe needs a new turbo?

Swap for Mercedes 300 6 cylinder diesel? I replied to this guy saying thanks but no thanks as he seemed genuine but its just not what I am looking for.

And finally over the last couple of days some fart sniffer has been very interested in it and has been asking me for photos of this, photos showing that, photos of other stuff, taking ages to reply to my messages and has now decided that since I have no absolute proof of the mileage being genuine, he doesnt want it. Well good luck finding one with FSH....no wait, good luck finding one full stop since mine is literally the only Metro Sport listed on any site in the whole of of the country.

 

 

I have got a nasty feeling that this car might be really hard to sell.

[danthecapriman]

I've just had 2 weeks off work on Holiday. Tomorrow is my first day back at work, Fucking place!

The last couple of weeks seem to have passed so quickly. Oh well, only another 33 years until retirement!

[Kiltox]

I have the Metro advertised for sale or swap for other retro/classic car.

 

Swap for job lot of non functioning r/c model boats?

Swap for Megane DCi maybe needs a new turbo?

Swap for Mercedes 300 6 cylinder diesel? I replied to this guy saying thanks but no thanks as he seemed genuine but its just not what I am looking for.

And finally over the last couple of days some fart sniffer has been very interested in it and has been asking me for photos of this, photos showing that, photos of other stuff, taking ages to reply to my messages and has now decided that since I have no absolute proof of the mileage being genuine, he doesnt want it. Well good luck finding one with FSH....no wait, good luck finding one full stop since mine is literally the only Metro Sport listed on any site in the whole of of the country.

 

 

I have got a nasty feeling that this car might be really hard to sell.

 

Swap 4 a rusty mx5 m8? shud fly thru mot wiv bit of welding

[Station]

DIDNT NEED IT ANYWAY M9 :(

 

[dugong]

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