The grumpy thread

[Cavcraft]

Ref the lady* in the Passat who hit your car, sod the Argos catalogue. Just get an old car and return the favour.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Smoke allegedly sends them to sleep and you can stamp on them.  May be a specialist smoke though (weed)?

 

My daughter seems to have a nest of them somewhere.  She pus a bit of jam and some water in empty jam jars, smallish hole in the lid.  They go in after the jam, can't fathom how to get out and drown.

Apparentlly some oil soaked sawdust on fire in a baked bean tin , just pisses them off and all of them come out of the nest to make you fall off your step ladder, causing great hilarity to family and neighbour's, apparently...

[captain_70s]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

 

Bleh.

[Tamworthbay]

Smoke allegedly sends them to sleep and you can stamp on them.  May be a specialist smoke though (weed)?

 

My daughter seems to have a nest of them somewhere.  She pus a bit of jam and some water in empty jam jars, smallish hole in the lid.  They go in after the jam, can't fathom how to get out and drown.

This works a treat, at this time of year put bits of scrap meat in and you will get loads more. Adult wasps eat sweet stuff but the grubs are carnivorous (nope I didn’t know that until fairly recently either). We had a nest in a shed back in the days the council did pest control, a guy came out with a can of smoke making stuff and a big stick. Killed them dead in no time, not sure if you can just buy the stuff if you aren’t a pest controller though. The nest was about as big as football.

[Pillock]

We went for some food at a pub and sat outside a couple of weeks ago.

 

Spent ages watching a lone wasp hack off bits of leftover meat and try to fly away with it, giant chunks of chicken.

[Wilko220]

This wasn’t what I wanted to read on my morning commute...

[Cavcraft]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

Bleh.

Tenner if you describe Hairnet.

[somewhatfoolish]

We were lined up on an old council house in the next town along. We had the draft contract in our hand. Turned out there were many, many permissive covenants that could have put us straight into negative equity the second we moved in if the council had decided to enforce a couple of them.

 

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

[Guest Hooli]

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

You can. A mate did after finding out about a chanchil? Tax meaning he'd need to pay towards a new church roof.

[BavarianRetro]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

 

Bleh.

Surely better than being the accused?

[Guest Hooli]

Update my excellent* trip so far.

 

My bike is in Austria and has been diagnosed by the garage. It's got a failed stator, oddly exactly what I said sat when it broke. Parts take five days to order so it seems I'll get flown home and then back to collect it once fixed.

This trip really hasn't worked out well. I'll have to pay for parts and I know that'll be over £300 as I priced one about four years ago, last time it burnt out.

 

Thank fuck for the breakdown cover though. It's free from Carole Nash and apart from the Italian office has been excellent.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

 

 

You certainly can and that's the point of it but if I don't have to and there are other options, why would I?

 

In our instance, it may have meant losing two large, permanent sheds, a covered car parking space and a conservatory.  Not playing that game. 

 

Chancel repair liability wasn't one on our list but then at least there isn't a risk associated with it...

[sierraman]

Out of all the vehicles to use for a ram raid, it wouldn’t be a Maestro diesel van.

[barefoot]

Not so much grumpy old man as embarrassed old man.

 

Yesterday I momentarily drove like a twat, through a gap that wasn't as big as I thought it was, causing me to have to drive through it much faster than I should have done. Someone hooted at me and I am ashamed of myself. I shouldn't still be doing stuff like that at my age.

[omegod]

Just had a lovely week in Lanzarote, fantastic hotel and weather, why grump you may ask? got home knackered at 3 am and whilst approaching and opening the front door and one noticed a strange whiff, ones hand was reaching for the light switch as one recognised said whiff ..GAS, the house was completely rammed with it 

 

Turned out FIL had been down to drop some milk and bread off that morning and gave the hob a wipe over, inadvertently knocking one of the rings on full wack which had been merrily blasting away for 15 hrs,  Managed to oped all the doors and windows and legged it as it was becoming a bit overbearing, family sat in the car and I called BG emergency number and ,good enough 2 lads turned up 40 mins later and sniffed the house with a gadget by which time it had vented. Got a free carbon monoxide detector off them too. We won't mention the whole affair to FIL  as he would feel awful but rather a close shave! I'll turn the main gas off next time.

[Guest Hooli]

Not so much grumpy old man as embarrassed old man.

 

Yesterday I momentarily drove like a twat, through a gap that wasn't as big as I thought it was, causing me to have to drive through it much faster than I should have done. Someone hooted at me and I am ashamed of myself. I shouldn't still be doing stuff like that at my age.

Blame those heavy lead boots....

 

 

 

...oh

[sierraman]

Surprise welcome home! Cue to a Gas explosion.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!

[omegod]

Surprise welcome home! Cue to a Gas explosion.

 

 

Pretty sure it would have took me and a couple of neighbours houses out too  , Can laugh about it now....well kind of   

[Guest Hooli]

What an absolute pisser Sorry it didn't all go to plan.

Me too mate.

Guess I'll have to try again next year.

[vulgalour]

Found some suitable expanding nylon nuts for the headlight adjusters on the Princess, listed to fit a 10mm square hole, as required.  They arrived today, which was very speedy of them.  They're for a 7mm hole and don't stand a chance of fitting.  I can't find any expanding nuts that fit 10mm holes, they all seem to stop at 8mm.

 

Think I'll just use nyloc nuts and washers and hope they hold position.  Can't be worse than the original system.

[dozeydustman]

The Saab has died.

 

Meh

[DVee8]

Just had a lovely week in Lanzarote, fantastic hotel and weather, why grump you may ask? got home knackered at 3 am and whilst approaching and opening the front door and one noticed a strange whiff, ones hand was reaching for the light switch as one recognised said whiff ..GAS, the house was completely rammed with it 

 

Turned out FIL had been down to drop some milk and bread off that morning and gave the hob a wipe over, inadvertently knocking one of the rings on full wack which had been merrily blasting away for 15 hrs,  Managed to oped all the doors and windows and legged it as it was becoming a bit overbearing, family sat in the car and I called BG emergency number and ,good enough 2 lads turned up 40 mins later and sniffed the house with a gadget by which time it had vented. Got a free carbon monoxide detector off them too. We won't mention the whole affair to FIL  as he would feel awful but rather a close shave! I'll turn the main gas off next time.

Oh just wait till the gas bill come in..

[Saabnut]

The Saab has died.

 

Meh

What happened (and what model is it - I might have bits)

[dozeydustman]

What happened (and what model is it - I might have bits)

 

 

It's a 2006 93 Vector TiD 150. It's losing electricity somewhere but the alternator is throwing out 14v at the terminal, so thinking bad earth or something electrical is swallowing the juice (New battery in March but need to rule this out first). Also 2 swirl flaps have popped out of exhaust manifold. ABS, ESP & Traction control warnings keep coming up. Loses coolant. Needs washer jets looking at. think the top end is starting to knock as well. I've had it 3 years and done 30k in it, and was sub £1000 when I picked it up.

 

It's got 200k on it, so trying to balance between save or scrap. TBH I think it'd make a good spares or reapers.

 

Trouble is I love driving the old thing.

 

EDIT - 2006 93 Vector 1.9 TiD 150 SportWagon to be precise.

[captain_70s]

Surely better than being the accused?

Not in particular. I imagine they'll be off home with nay a care in the world same as me, only difference being is that I've not done anything to warrant being in court and have lost a day's wages. I could claim my expenses back of course, although obviously I paid towards them via taxes, something the criminals didn't.

 

They also had the case postponed as both of them were inexplicably too ill to attend the last time and then decided they needed two translators for this case despite being heard to have spoken English just fine by witnesses at the scene of the crime. Today they decided it'd be best to just change their plea to guilty, given they'd been caught red handed at the scene of the crime, although they've managed to cause the most inconvenience and expense for as many people as possible along the way.

 

Actually being burgled by them didn't actually anger me as much as them playing the system and wasting hours of my life. The other bloke who was going to be a witness said they should just be deported, I suggested they be deported to the bottom of the Clyde with some cinder blocks tied to their feet.

[Captain Furious]

Oh ey up that last paragraph will trigger some folk...

 

My Grump is that I sat in the car eating my lunch listening to the radio, as I do every day, and after 10 minutes the battery is stone cold dead. 

[Saabnut]

It's a 2006 93 Vector TiD 150. It's losing electricity somewhere but the alternator is throwing out 14v at the terminal, so thinking bad earth or something electrical is swallowing the juice (New battery in March but need to rule this out first). Also 2 swirl flaps have popped out of exhaust manifold. ABS, ESP & Traction control warnings keep coming up. Loses coolant. Needs washer jets looking at. think the top end is starting to knock as well. I've had it 3 years and done 30k in it, and was sub £1000 when I picked it up.

 

It's got 200k on it, so trying to balance between save or scrap. TBH I think it'd make a good spares or reapers.

 

Trouble is I love driving the old thing.

 

EDIT - 2006 93 Vector 1.9 TiD 150 SportWagon to be precise.

 

Aaah, too new for my spares pile I am afraid. I know what you mean, my modern is a 2007 version of the same thing, longest I have ever owned a daily.

[dozeydustman]

I'm thinking given that I get 14v directly from the alternator and only 12.1 at the battery, something is eating the juice quite severely. Trouble is, what? Engine management system seems most likely culprit as EML goes on, sometimes it goes into limp mode, then other times light goes out and it accelerates like a bat out of hell.

[Captain Furious]

Got a colleague to jump start it, it is alive again but the radio has now decided it doesn't work at all.  Fuck this car and its favourite colour.  It obviously does not want to live.