The grumpy thread

[Volksy]

I used to fly a lot with work, And it was normally a PikeyAir flight. I didn't find them too bad, normally punctual and I wasn't paying the surcharges, the company was.I've been using Jet2 (or Jetpoo) as they should be known as... Ancient aircraft, always delayed, rude staff, and about as many surcharges as Pikeyair.I flew back with SqueasyJet when i smashed my knee up in Switzerland last March, and it was loads better. The smell that wafts out of Greegs just makes me want to hurl, it's just not pleasent, or appetising.

[OwdChina]

Yummy.

 

[Pete-M]

butter pie.

Best. Pie. Ever. However, thanks to my useless employer 'transferring' me, I now work in Liverpool and am unable to get them anywhere around these parts as they are clearly a Lancashire delicacy and the bakers of Liverpool are clearly off somewhere steeling wheeltrims and whatnot rather than producing tasty baked goods.

You work in Liverpool!!! This means you're somewhere near me. Scary.

[Pete-M]

I used to fly a lot with work, And it was normally a PikeyAir flight. I didn't find them too bad, normally punctual and I wasn't paying the surcharges, the company was.I've been using Jet2 (or Jetpoo) as they should be known as... Ancient aircraft, always delayed, rude staff, and about as many surcharges as Pikeyair.I flew back with SqueasyJet when i smashed my knee up in Switzerland last March, and it was loads better.

I've been using "Wizz Air" lately. Hungarian effort who are truly fuckin' awful but very cheap. Other week I was in Prague airport and I'd somehow missed my flight by two days - don't ask, I had this idea I was there Thursday - Thursday, and I'd booked Thursday - Tuesday. Wandered up to Check in and the girl behind the counter pointed out my error, directed me to the Wizzair counter thing and said "You've got 5 minutes". Wandered over and they charged me more than double the return flight I'd originally booked, plus an initially undisclosed amount for 'ticket alteration' even though I pointed out that I'd missed the Tuesday flight. "You're here, you missed the flight and you want to get home now, yes? We don't fly to Liverpool tomorrow so you either take the flight now, or you're here for a few more days, that'll be £86. Cash point is that way, you've got 2 minutes". I had the cash in my pocket but wasn't amused. I was much less amused when I got down to the gate and there was a 20 minute delay while they searched in vain for some old blokes passport. We were crammed into the bus to the plane, no a/c, 37 deg heat and the doors and windows closed. They left us on there until war was about to break out. They then drove us out to the plane, which was broken, so back to the terminal for a couple of hours. After about 2 hours they oh-so-generously gave us 100CzK for 'refreshments'. 100Czk is about £3.50. Prague airport is without doubt the most expensive in Europe for food. A friggin' baguette is 130 CzK, a pint is about the same, a bottle of water is 90 friggin' Czk. Some refreshments.Anyway, Wizz Air. Bunch of cunts.

[Guest]

I see they're pressing on with using the hard shoulder as a driving lane on the M62 - that'll be good when there's a big crash and the ambulances can't get down to it. Very good.

[Mr H Sceptre]

Anyway who has the worst uniform colour - Easyjet, Virgin Atlantic or Aer Lingus? (Bear in mind potential co-ordination with orange/brown fake tan most of the attendants have)

 

Would have said Easyjet before last month but the Aer Lingus 'green' has to be seen in the flesh to be believed

If Autoshite did stewardess's:

 

 

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm.......

[Guest]

[seth]

If Autoshite did stewardess's:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grantgb/sets/72157615256258380/

[Mr H Sceptre]

This thread appears to be morphing into 'The 1970's Air Stewardess Appreciation Thread'.*Adopts Carry On style voice * Quoooor, whaaaat!

[mnde]

"Ooh what a lovely pear!""You took the words right outta my marf"" Ooh, saucy!"/carryon

[AlsoMike]

Going pointlessly back to the subject of Greggs, the one in Lincoln replaced a joint that made really nice and cheap sandwiches so I was relegated to making my own sodding lunch, balls. Thanks Greggs, you greasy bastards. Luckily I was saved from having to use the Greggs by being made redundant. Ahhh....

[Pete-M]

Gratuitous and pointless stewardess image

 

 

The old Sayers on West Derby Road in Liverpool 6 always used to make me laugh, when the shutters were down someone had painted "Greggs is better" on 'em.

 

Personally, I think Greggs are bloody awful, but there's no helping some folk.

[AlsoMike]

Actually, the subject of redundancy leads me nicely on to a rant about recruitment agencies. What a joy they are. I don't particularly enjoy being agressively rejected for jobs that I'm actually quite qualified for, by some kid who obviously has no background in my field and sends me a one line response by email and doesn't reply when I ask for an explanation.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Actually, the subject of redundancy leads me nicely on to a rant about recruitment agencies. What a joy they are. I don't particularly enjoy being agressively rejected for jobs that I'm actually quite qualified for, by some kid who obviously has no background in my field and sends me a one line response by email and doesn't reply when I ask for an explanation.

GAH! Recruitment agencies! I fucking hate those bastards. What i hate most is the cocky 22-yr-old twats who work in em, wearing ill-fitting shiny suits from Top Man and ties with fuck-off massive knots in em, taking my CV, making some whiny noises near it, then deleting loads of important information and replacing it with inane wank like 'equally at home working independently or as part of a cross-functional team' WTF is this shit? I hope you die soon. And then having done that they send you packing then ring back with 3 jobs which are totally unsuitable like 'bakery equipment project co-ordinator team leader planner', and start getting arsey when you inevitably tell em to ram all of 'em. After that you never hear from em again even if you ring 50 times in a day, theyre always 'in a meeting with a client', yeah right a meeting with a fucking rusk and jar of 'cow and gate' more like. FUCK OFF AND DIE YOU MORONS! GET BACK TO CARPHONE WAREHOUSE.

[Pete-M]

I know a chap, nice enough guy, runs something or other to help people to improve their businesses. Helps people to 'network' but he's a funny enough chap and his warblings are sometimes worth reading.He's skint. Not got two pennies to rub together, but he's a 'business advisor and consultant' or summat and if you met him you'd think he's loaded.Flash office, nice suit, empty fridge.

[Parky]

Last time I was in Brussels I saw a Greggs in the city centre. Cant believe the Belgians with their supreme pastries and stuff need a steak bake!I have never had anything from Greggs as I always worry about the quality of the ingredients. Its a bit like Asda's 2p sausage or whatever it cost. How can you possibly believe that there is actually any decent meat in it for that price? My vote for Best Baker would be the French Bakery in Wairaki Road in Christchurch (the NZ one). Admittedly, its a fair way to go for a pie but jeez, the Kiwi's do pies in a way we can only dream of.

[Parky]

Bollox, dont get me started on Carphone Warehouse.........or in fact any provider of mobile telephony.In fact, thats got me thinking about tiny blonde women in fucking enormous pick up trucks parking in disabled spaces and giving you a load of mouth when you point out that they shouldnt really be parking there. It may be a sexist statement but you cant see over the wheel so surely its a bit too big?The stroppy cows at my local petrol station who seem to take ten minutes to press the feckin activate button when I am waiting for the pump to start working.....Women who insist on paying for everything with the correct change. Look, you may have the required £3.94 but just give the bloke a fiver, collect the change and have done with it yeah? Theres a queue here!

[garethj]

My vote for Best Baker would be the French Bakery in Wairaki Road in Christchurch (the NZ one). Admittedly, its a fair way to go for a pie but jeez, the Kiwi's do pies in a way we can only dream of.

There's a few pattiseries close to where I worked in Chelsea - Paul's close to South Kensington (right in the French quarter of London) and Pattiserie Valerie on Brompton Road close to Harrods.An almond croissant that melts in the mouth and a jam doughnut that must have a pint of jam in it. None of this "quick snack" nonsense, you have to eat it slowly to appreciate it, food like that deserves respect.And all for the price of a dried out cinnamon slice at a service station

[Pete-M]

the Kiwi's do pies in a way we can only dream of.

Careful, you'll have the entire of Wigan after you, saying things like that.

[r.welfare]

A good recruitment agent is a rare thing indeed. Unfortunately, most work on the short-termism theory of trying to get as much commission as possible without caring whether the job is suitable for you. Then they move on somewhere else.Pete's comment makes me think about people with jumped-up job titles. Why is this so important? I've got a prosaic job title but get paid a lot, surely that's better than being called an "executive-summat-or-other" but only being on a third of what I earn. Plus, I don't have to wear a Burton's suit, nor drive an expensive car that doesn't belong to me (and the taxman shafts me for). I don't have any hair left so I don't have to gel it into improbable shapes, either.And don't get me started in small woman/big 4x4 debates. Also - on a similar vein - what is it with drivers of expensive (£50k+) cars with a mobile phone pressed to their ear? FFS, a proper handsfree kit (or even a Parrot) is only about £200.I've never been to a Gregg's, but if you ever find yourself in Reading, seek out one of the two Pierre's sandwich shops and treat yourselves to a chicken curry, mango chutney and lettuce brown baguette - sublime!

[Mr Lobster]

Saab. WTF has become of you?I have a shiny new 9-3 sat here at work and have been giving it admiring glances and thinking that in five or six years I wouldn't mind one.But today I have driven it I don't think I've ever been so dissappointed.Where do we begin? How about the flimsy, cheap feeling indicator / wiper stalks, the lifeless diesel engine, the enormous feeling that this really isn't any kind of premium car or the utterly miserable ride 'quality' which managed to transmit every road bump back through to my spine. No, I think it was the immense understeer which really didn't give you any confidence when trying to make progress that really spoiled my journey.I really wanted to like it as well, which makes it an even bigger shame really.

[r.welfare]

The thing is, the 9-3 was better looking before they messed up the front and rear lights.If you try and pull away from a crawl in 2nd gear, it's about as speedy as the QE2 until the turbo does anything, isn't it? The sports suspension package helps the understeer a bit, but the steering feel is still pretty lifeless.Mind you, I did try a Hirsch-breathed-on one (with 180bhp) before I ordered mine, and you can forgive a lot of the 9-3's shortcomings when you have that much shove allied with an average of 50mpg. But then I spoiled it a bit by getting the 120bhp one - our lease company didn't allow performance upgrades.Seats are comfy though!

[Mr Lobster]

If I had one full time I could probably learn to live with most of the faults but I just expected so much more from it. I still think it's a decent looking car, comfortable and well specced but the driving experience was just not what I hoped for. I was expecting it to be a lot sharper and just be a nice cosseting, comfortable thing to drive.Until the turbo comes in though it really does feel very slow indeed...

[Parky]

the Kiwi's do pies in a way we can only dream of.

Careful, you'll have the entire of Wigan after you, saying things like that.

Ah, not one to upset the good folk of Wigan - perhaps I should have added the caveat "The kiwis do pies in a way we can only dream of - however I havent sampled the fine fare from Wigan as of yet so may change my mind on that score"However I have eaten a pie in Skelmersdale and I can say for certain that the Kiwi ones were better.....

[dollywobbler]

The Saab 9-5 we've got in the office here is just like that. Premium price when new I guess but inside, it has all the quality of a plastic, takeaway fork - though that might be a bit harsh on fast food cutlery. Every indicator operation leaves you cringing like someone's cracked their knuckles. The fuel gauge keeps cutting out, the aircon doesn't work and it's stupidly easy to utterly confuse the engine/auto gearbox so you actually get oodles of throttle lag before being able to even think about turbo lag.Bloomin' good for covering distance though, despite the iffy ride (certainly no worse than the E39 Beemer we've also got).

[pompei]

I'm not sure if the multi-national Greggs that has taken over every town like some kind of creeping mould is the same one that started out as Greggs of Gosforth when I was a kid in Newcastle. Their stotties were brilliant. Greggs now just seems to be a greasy pastry emporium staffed by greasy looking mingers.

[Negative Creep]

Yesterday me and a friend had an encounter with a proper grumpy old man, and not the comedy type either. We were working on our cars, with my Datsun parked across his drive. All of a sudden, one of his neighbours gets out of his car and begins having a go at my mate for blocking the road. He then gets very aggressive indeed telling my mate that he was "going to knock you the fuck out, I'll take you on right now". During this rant at us blocking the road, a lwb Transit drove between with no problems We made it clear we weren't going to be intimidated and since there were two of us standing by a large set of tools, he then went into his house ranting and raving.You would think that was it, but shortly after the Police turn up. Mr Dickhead had gone straight in and called them on us, claiming we were blocking the road. They quickly established there was no problem, but I can't believe they were called out for this. Surely there are more important things going on?Oh and his threats were done with his 5 year old grandchild next to him. Lovely huh?

[dollywobbler]

Oh I had that once. I was trying to fix an exhaust leak on my Dyane. I'd taken the entire front end off the car, which was sitting on the pavement, though there was space to walk around it. I was parked in a quiet cul-de-sac opposite my house, not really wishing to do the job while buses blasted past.Then some gobshite in a Puma (when they were new) pulls up and starts mouthing off about it being illegal to work on my car there. Gave him a whole dose of 'whatever' and carried on working, getting the job sorted and it all back together.Then I get called to the front door because THE POLICE have turned up. WTF?! They said there wasn't actually anything they could do but would I mind not working on my car there. I said "um, no, if you can't do anything, I think I'll keep working on my car there." They left. Never had another problem. Some idiots are more idiotic than you could ever believe. By the way, I was working on the car a good 500yds away from Pumatwat's home, so he couldn't even see me by the time he was indoors. After that, I'd always turn around in their cul-de-sac, often giving it hoon towards his lovely Poo-ma with the usual hilarious bodyroll. Twat.

[pompei]

The ex-outlaws lived in a cul de sac on a fairly smart estate. There was a garage and plenty of room on the drive for their cars. If anyone parked outside their house, they'd go out and ask the "offending " person to remove their car. Because it was "their bit of road". Such wilful pettiness boils my fluids.

[Guest]

yeah right a meeting with a fucking rusk and jar of 'cow and gate' more like.

There's an agency like that not far from here, sometimes you see the kids who work there outside having a smoke in their navy blue stripey suits, having a talk on their fancy contract mobiles - "Let me run this past you, level playing fields, yeah?"Talking of agencies, I used to work through one as a temp - that was a bit of an eye-opener in terms of the commission rates those places work off. The weekly payment from my employer to the agency was a few pennies under £500. My weekly pay before tax was around £240. Was only a 4-5 month job, but it ended up carrying on for about 3 years, so the agency absolutely loved me - I made them at least £30K, all they needed to do was give me a courtesy phone call every 6 months. Nice work if you can find it.