The grumpy thread

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

....Actually a quite pokey shop in a shit area of that Lundon.

It was the mail order side of the business that was far more interesting than the shop premises.

[meggersdog]

Don't really know where to put this but someone was grumpy so..............

After running an MoT station for six years today was the first day someone actually cried because their car failed it's MoT.

Nice lady late thirties maybe forty brought a diesel Golf in.The car had iffy tyres, rusty brakepipes, oil leaks and generally uncared for in appearance . An armful of advisories but the failure was emissions. The lowest reading was 4.86 and a big cloud of black soot every time you revved it.I tried to clear it but to no avail.We only do MoTs no repair work. We'd been recommended by a friend and when the lady asked if I could repair it I said no we don't do that sort of thing she burst out crying. Not hysterical just a stream of tears rolling down her cheeks. Turns out the lady is a carer and the car goes just over a mile to each job . Stop start every day.A modernish  diesel is not the car for her.

I did eventually make her smile and off she went.Never met the lady before and as is the case I employ a female assistant for these sort of situations. The kids are off school so yeah she's got the week off. Don't really know what to do when a stranger starts blubbing infront of you but I seemed to have got it right as she left a little happier.

[Lord Sterling]

35 minutes ago, meggersdog said:

After running an MoT station for six years today was the first day someone actually cried because their car failed it's MoT.

Nice lady late thirties maybe forty brought a diesel Golf in...

I did eventually make her smile and off she went.

Oh ar? ?

Actually something similar happened at work. Young girl just joined our team. First proper job and fresh out of uni. I think on the second day, the daunting enormity of what she had to learn dawned on her but I managed to calm her down, my colleague took her away for a few minutes to let her compose herself. 

She is doing quite well now. Everyone has to start from somewhere. 

[Mrcento]

12 hours ago, reb said:

What is the point in this?

I suppose it could be swung as a grin because that's all I need to be keeping in the boot. But what if I want to transport something else in the boot? Like that flymo there? Useless! It's bigger than the 205 and seats fewer people, why is there less rear cargo/passenger space!?

Ultimately, Citroens utterly bizarre, lazy, penny pinching decision to fit the dashboard from the larger C3 despite it being way too big means the whole car feels like a device purely designed to carry its dashboard around.

That's what robs it of space.  Horribly packaged.

[Mrcento]

7 hours ago, meggersdog said:

Don't really know where to put this but someone was grumpy so..............

After running an MoT station for six years today was the first day someone actually cried because their car failed it's MoT.

Nice lady late thirties maybe forty brought a diesel Golf in.The car had iffy tyres, rusty brakepipes, oil leaks and generally uncared for in appearance . An armful of advisories but the failure was emissions. The lowest reading was 4.86 and a big cloud of black soot every time you revved it.I tried to clear it but to no avail.We only do MoTs no repair work. We'd been recommended by a friend and when the lady asked if I could repair it I said no we don't do that sort of thing she burst out crying. Not hysterical just a stream of tears rolling down her cheeks. Turns out the lady is a carer and the car goes just over a mile to each job . Stop start every day.A modernish  diesel is not the car for her.

I did eventually make her smile and off she went.Never met the lady before and as is the case I employ a female assistant for these sort of situations. The kids are off school so yeah she's got the week off. Don't really know what to do when a stranger starts blubbing infront of you but I seemed to have got it right as she left a little happier.

My old works van was constantly "broken" because of that, it was always just getting used for 5 minute drives, barely ever even close to getting it up to temperature. They were getting robbed blind by constantly putting it in to be "fixed". I told them it was just not suited to what they were using it for and it was clogging up the DPF's on it, they ignored me.

One day, it was sitting out front and i had a 40 mile round trip to do (normally i'd just use my own car) but said seeing as the van wasn't being used i'd take that. "Oh no you can't, it needs to go into the garage", told them it'd be fine and took it anyway.

Drove it very, very hard up the A90, bouncing it off the rev limiter plenty, could see the smokescreen behind. EML on etc, flat, lack of power... somewhere near the destination the smoking stopped and it had all its power back. Switched off, got out, 20 minutes later, got in to drive back, EML light was off and it drove like new.

Was feeling smug and justified when i got back, only to look at the side of the van (A Fiat Ducato with a side exit exhaust) and see all that soot it had cleared up was being worn all down the side ?. thankfully i'd parked it with that side facing away from the office and they were happy when i told them i'd fixed it and wasn't in the next day to get the bollocking when they saw the state of it.

[cort16]

Ultimate middle class grump ? I just gave myself a paper cut on a tub of humous.

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

There are several flies and a wasp taking refuge in the office; we think they are being driven in here by smells from the two restaurants downstairs.

They also appear to be mutant insects in the sense that I've been spraying all these insect sprays at them and they have no effect at all.

[SierraMikeHotel]

One of the providers I use at work has proudly announced that they have simplified one of their processes in order to make things faster for us. Great!

Erm, no. What they've done is taken a one-stage process and turned it into a two-stage process. Yeah, thanks.

[barefoot]

A sad tale. We used to have a Hermes delivery bloke, a lovely old chap with a moustache and a blazer, clearly retired from something more interesting. He used to drive a variety of shite motors, culminating with a white Daihatsu Grand Move which had at some point in its life had had fake wood panelling very skilfully painted on by hand. And then he vanished... I've just heard that after a cup of coffee with his wife he was killed by a drunken driver on a zebra crossing in Nottingham. Bum Hats!

[dozeydustman]

I've been on a round that I hate doing today. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. I have no idea, but working in Bracklesham and the Witterings saps all my joi de vie and leaves me feeling numb and mega mega stressed.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

57 minutes ago, SierraMikeHotel said:

One of the providers I use at work has proudly announced that they have simplified one of their processes in order to make things faster for us. Great!

Erm, no. What they've done is taken a one-stage process and turned it into a two-stage process. Yeah, thanks.

They probably paid some consultant a small fortune for that simplification*

[reb]

I just stood up from the sofa and I don't think there's a single joint in my body that didn't make an unnerving crack. Has being a grumpy old bastard before my time accelerated my aging? Bloody hell.

[danthecapriman]

24 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

I've been on a round that I hate doing today. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. I have no idea, but working in Bracklesham and the Witterings saps all my joi de vie and leaves me feeling numb and mega mega stressed.

Haha! I ended up down there at the marina a couple of weeks ago. It’s ok when your there but it’s getting in and out from the A27 this time of year that’s the nightmare. It’s absolutely packed. Nobody ever lets you out at junctions either, despite not being able to go anywhere themselves because of traffic.

[dozeydustman]

Just now, danthecapriman said:

Haha! I ended up down there at the marina a couple of weeks ago. It’s ok when your there but it’s getting in and out from the A27 this time of year that’s the nightmare. It’s absolutely packed. Nobody ever lets you out at junctions either, despite not being able to go anywhere themselves because of traffic.

It is a nightmare, west wittering beach is the only sandy beach in the area, so people flock from miles away to go to there, and pay £10 for the privilege to park and be crammed together with no personal beach space.

I also find the people around there are extremely rude old farts who complain about anything and everything.

Whole area can be washed away into the sea as far as I care.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

It is a nightmare, west wittering beach is the only sandy beach in the area, .....

I also find the people around there are extremely rude old farts who complain about anything and everything....

Not surprising, it's not that far away from the Goring-by-Sea/Worthing conurbation, a.k.a God's Waiting Room.

[dozeydustman]

1 minute ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Not surprising, it's not that far away from the Goring-by-Sea/Worthing conurbation, a.k.a God's Waiting Room.

Witterings residents are even older. I think the area is the walkway to the pearly gates sometimes.....

[Tadhg Tiogar]

19 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Witterings residents are even older.....

Didn't think that was possible. Last time I drove down that way, it looked like The Eastbourne Supremacy

[dozeydustman]

1 minute ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Didn't think that was possible. Last time I drove down that way, it looked like The Eastbourne Supremacy

Grabbed a bottle of sparkling water in the Tesco while on Tacho break, aside from the handful of visiting families in there, most of the shoppers looked like an average age of 103.

[Floatylight]

Stuck on a train in Wolverhampton due to someone threatening to chuck themselves off a bridge...

Been here almost an hour.

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[Floatylight]

Stuck on a train in Wolverhampton due to someone threatening to chuck themselves off a bridge...

Been here almost an hour.

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

Update: train cancelled, now waiting for replacement bus service ffs!

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[GBJ]

7 hours ago, cort16 said:

Ultimate middle class grump ? I just gave myself a paper cut on a tub of humous.

 

Middle class? Why can't you spell then?

[Tamworthbay]

2 minutes ago, GBJ said:

Middle class? Why can't you spell then?

Butler on his lunch break?

[cort16]

37 minutes ago, GBJ said:

Middle class? Why can't you spell then?

I could decide to write it as hummus or humous so combine both.

[Timewaster]

4 hours ago, Floatylight said:

Stuck on a train in Wolverhampton due to someone threatening to chuck themselves off a bridge...

Been here almost an hour.

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
 

Well it's fair to say some poor bugger is having a worse day than you.

[Bianconeri]

On 8/20/2019 at 12:25 PM, Tamworthbay said:

Or a Volvo, everyone I have had have been brilliant. Having had back problems for years they have been a welcome respite at times. Worst ever was a Mazda 3 which nearly crippled me.

Up to a point, and I think that point was about 2002 though I've only been in a few more recent Chinese Volvos. I had a succession in the 1980s and 1990s that had superb seats but the (very) last was a 2004 V70 that was (a) very uncomfortable, (b) hugely unreliable, (c ) thrown together, and (d) exceptionally noisy.

SAABs always had good seats if memory serves. For a modern Mrs BN's CX-3 seems to have decent seats but I rarely go far in it so probably not the best judgement. I miss the DS, great seats and fantastic ride comfort (when it worked).

[GBJ]

11 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I could decide to write it as hummus or humous so combine both.

Could or couldn't? Hummus or houmous?

 

[cort16]

6 minutes ago, GBJ said:

Could or couldn't? Hummus or houmous?

 

Sorry Dad

[cort16]

or should that be dad?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 hours ago, cort16 said:

Ultimate middle class grump ? I just gave myself a paper cut on a tub of humous.

Was it from Waitrose?

[cort16]

Just now, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Was it from Waitrose?

Na, Asda I'm not made of money.