The grumpy thread

[yohan]

6 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder whose bright idea it was to have this all managed* by algorithm?

The same bastard that designed the EU settled status scheme... I helped my partner apply for hers the other night. It came back saying they dont have enough national insurance records over the last 5 years, so please provide evidence to cover a total of 7 years... Waiting to hear back from a human caseworker now...

[Floatylight]

4 minutes ago, yohan said:

The same bastard that designed the EU settled status scheme... I helped my partner apply for hers the other night. It came back saying they dont have enough national insurance records over the last 5 years, so please provide evidence to cover a total of 7 years... Waiting to hear back from a human caseworker now...

If she comes unstuck try contacting JCWI - Joint Council for the Welfare o Immigrants, they do some good work in this area or contact www.settled.org.uk which is run by an ex colleague of mine..

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, yohan said:

The same bastard that designed the EU settled status scheme... I helped my partner apply for hers the other night. It came back saying they dont have enough national insurance records over the last 5 years, so please provide evidence to cover a total of 7 years... Waiting to hear back from a human caseworker now...

Ah.....the EUSS online system. I had a client who had similar problems - he derived almost all of his considerable income from his home country Germany but lived in the UK. The online system couldn't cope with this idea. Took a while to have it resolved but we got there in the end.

Having been in immigration work for over 20 years, I've seen that the Home Office's capacity for feck-ups is famous*. It never used to be like this before 1999, when the Home Office assumed full control of what was then the Immigration & Nationality Directorate. After that, everything went downhill as the Home Office culture of secrecy turned I&ND into something less approachable and a lot less accountable. The multi-millions spent on rebranding it variously as the Border & Immigration Agency, then UK Border Agency, and then eventually the current UK Visas & Immigration, was mostly wasted on consultancies.

More recently, they replaced a perfectly good biometric scanning system run by the Post Office with a much more expensive one run by a commercial contractor, Sopra Steria. Clearly someone had pulled a few strings in the Home Office to ensure that their friend got the gig.

[Stanky]

2 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

It's odd, but since I fitted mine, I haven't recorded any fuckwittery at all. Not a single thing. Beforehand, fuckwittery seen on every drive.

I'm glad its not just me that experienced this, I had visions of getting £250 cheques from YBF on a pretty much daily basis, fitted it then literally nothing noteworthy for over 2 years. 

[New POD]

4 hours ago, TheDoctor said:

Motherfucker!

My girlfriend is showing CV19 symptoms, but there aren't any tests available. 

So that means 14 days isolation for both of us. 

Fucksake. 

I don't even get out of work because I work from home ??

You have a girlfriend?  

 

Hope she's okay. 

[New POD]

Bloke across the roads father in law died last week.  

His next door neighbour had another fall and a stroke and is now in a nursing home. 

I've arranged to see my Dad. I haven't seen him since Christmas, due to him living 2 hours away in the another country, and Covid fears. 

[DoctorRetro]

4 minutes ago, New POD said:

You have a girlfriend?  

 

Hope she's okay. 

What's that meant to mean?

She's ok, just coughing loads and run down. We've got a test booked for later today, as she kept trying on the website. 

 

[xtriple]

I have been 'proper poorly' for the last 5 days and have spent so much time laying about whinging and whining that my watch stopped! By way of an explanation: it's an automatic with a full 2 days of power reserve, so if taken off and placed somewhere, it will still be going in 2 days time.

I claim my prize as the most static thing on Earth that can still be considered 'alive'!

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

What's that meant to mean?

She's ok, just coughing loads and run down. We've got a test booked for later today, as she kept trying on the website. 

 

I made some assumptions about you that may be incorrect. ???????

 

[yohan]

3 hours ago, Floatylight said:

If she comes unstuck try contacting JCWI - Joint Council for the Welfare o Immigrants, they do some good work in this area or contact www.settled.org.uk which is run by an ex colleague of mine..

 

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Ah.....the EUSS online system. I had a client who had similar problems - he derived almost all of his considerable income from his home country Germany but lived in the UK. The online system couldn't cope with this idea. Took a while to have it resolved but we got there in the end.

Having been in immigration work for over 20 years, I've seen that the Home Office's capacity for feck-ups is famous*. It never used to be like this before 1999, when the Home Office assumed full control of what was then the Immigration & Nationality Directorate. After that, everything went downhill as the Home Office culture of secrecy turned I&ND into something less approachable and a lot less accountable. The multi-millions spent on rebranding it variously as the Border & Immigration Agency, then UK Border Agency, and then eventually the current UK Visas & Immigration, was mostly wasted on consultancies.

More recently, they replaced a perfectly good biometric scanning system run by the Post Office with a much more expensive one run by a commercial contractor, Sopra Steria. Clearly someone had pulled a few strings in the Home Office to ensure that their friend got the gig.

Thankyou Floatylight and Tadhg Tiogar.

I may well try your reccomendations if I dont have any luck from the home office themselves. Sounds like you guys have alot of experience dealing with us immigrants!

We had a look into getting british citizenship, but very quickly gave up since the amount of paperwork looks like the sole reason for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests...

[Spiny Norman]

4 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

It's odd, but since I fitted mine, I haven't recorded any fuckwittery at all. Not a single thing. Beforehand, fuckwittery seen on every drive.

I still get them despite the camera. The speciality round here is 'Giving way isn't necessary when I'm only on the main road for a few hundred yards before slamming on the anchors and turning right into the next side street' although I found swapping a K11 Micra for a Land Rover has helped enormously.

[Jerzy Woking]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Having been in immigration work for over 20 years, I've seen that the Home Office's capacity for feck-ups is famous*. It never used to be like this before 1999, when the Home Office assumed full control of what was then the Immigration & Nationality Directorate. After that, everything went downhill as the Home Office culture of secrecy turned I&ND into something less approachable and a lot less accountable. The multi-millions spent on rebranding it variously as the Border & Immigration Agency, then UK Border Agency, and then eventually the current UK Visas & Immigration, was mostly wasted on consultancies.

More recently, they replaced a perfectly good biometric scanning system run by the Post Office with a much more expensive one run by a commercial contractor, Sopra Steria. Clearly someone had pulled a few strings in the Home Office to ensure that their friend got the gig.

The whole of the Civil Service is fucked. HMC&E rebranded as HMRC, SOCA created to be Britains answer to the FBI. Then rebranded as NCA. Same staff, same work.

HMRC's border staff (those you see (or used to see!) at ports and airports) removed from HMRC and integrated into UK Border Force (I think) then moved again into some other rebrand of "Border Something or Other".

No one has ever said why rebrands were needed, nor stated the cost of all of these changes, and things such as new logo'd uniforms, stationary, marked vehicles, payroll etc must run into millions and millions. Whilst all the time implementing "new" pay deals (in effect pay  freezes) pension cutting, and all that goes with it. I'm just glad I retired when I did, as I am sure my open and vocal criticisms of senior staff and the working methods that were introduced by "revolving door" management. They were drafted in from elsewhere and had no idea of what front line staff did to protect society. 

Oddly HMRC staff administered the Furlough scheme, but never got a mention by the Government when they were handing out plaudits to other front line staff.

Rant over.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

41 minutes ago, yohan said:

.....We had a look into getting british citizenship, but very quickly gave up since the amount of paperwork looks like the sole reason for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests...

Whilst it is fine to go no further than settled status or indefinite leave to remain, do remember that this won't necessarily protect you if you are later convicted of an imprisonable offence and end up serving a prison term of 12 months or more. In those cases, a deportation decision is pretty much automatic.

[Remspoor]

23 hours ago, loserone said:

Is it actually in the way? I kinda think fair enough if it's a one off..

In the way or not, it is 100% a fire hazard. The use of community stairwells is not only for everyday access, but fire escapes too.

[richardmorris]

8 hours ago, Stanky said:

I'm glad its not just me that experienced this, I had visions of getting £250 cheques from YBF on a pretty much daily basis, fitted it then literally nothing noteworthy for over 2 years. 

Bit like the power bank I bought from you. Since then no power cuts. I’m happy as it’s obviously working as a talisman.

[yohan]

7 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Whilst it is fine to go no further than settled status or indefinite leave to remain, do remember that this won't necessarily protect you if you are later convicted of an imprisonable offence and end up serving a prison term of 12 months or more. In those cases, a deportation decision is pretty much automatic.

Ah yes good point. Maybe I should get a car thats difficult to break speed limits and be very uninteresting for all those dashcams. ?

[yohan]

2 minutes ago, Parky said:

At least there are tests occasionally available and people potentially interested in running them,  I was sick with ALL the Covid symptoms back in March but when I tried to get tested, I was told that because I hadn’t been in Wuhan province there was no possible way that I could have Covid 19.  When I explained that viruses had a habit of moving around a bit and I could easily have been exposed (tube trips every day, working in Chinatown, every nationality under the sun wandering the London streets on holiday) I was told that if I hadn’t been to Wuhan, I didn’t have it.  End of.  Things have developed somewhat.

I have a private antibody test next week as part of my emigration efforts.  That might show if I have the antibodies as a result of having had it after all.  I certainly hope so as the thing I had in March was a bastard and I still can’t taste things or see properly.

 

I would be very interested to hear the results. My kids had such high fevers followed by a cough in february that one of them ended up in hospital, but of course no covid test for him either, cos it wasnt spreading in the country yet...

[Ghosty]

13 hours ago, New POD said:

How far before the gantry wasn't it showing 50 ?  

50 and camera were on the same gantry, zero distance between them. Up to then it was clear 70mph running in average traffic.
So you had from when you read the gantry to being under it, to react and slow down from 70 to 50, which wasn't possible safely.

[New POD]

33 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

50 and camera were on the same gantry, zero distance between them. Up to then it was clear 70mph running in average traffic.
So you had from when you read the gantry to being under it, to react and slow down from 70 to 50, which wasn't possible safely.

So how far before the gantry could the 50 sign be seen? 

I'm being churlish because recently I've started making sure I'm doing the new lower speed limit by the time I get to the sign. And not increasing my speed until I reach a higher limit sign And not before. 

[High Jetter]

That's what you're supposed to do, what the signs say.

[Talbot]

11 hours ago, Stanky said:

I'm glad its not just me that experienced this, I had visions of getting £250 cheques from YBF on a pretty much daily basis, fitted it then literally nothing noteworthy for over 2 years. 

Is your camera visible to others though?  I've noticed that if a camera is visible, people stop acting like a cunt around you.  I had a dashcam very visible in the window for a few weeks.  It didn't work because "cheap chinese shit",  but the way other people drove definitely changed.  I know it didn't change the way I drove as I knew it was dead, although I do wonder if having a working dashcam subconsciously changes the way the owner drives too.

[Richard_FM]

I found that most bad driving seems to happen when I forget to put my dashcam on, though occasionally I catch someone trying to do a sub-par Lewis Hamilton impression.

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

So how far before the gantry could the 50 sign be seen? 

 

Not very as there was some old concrete gantry or bridge or something not long before it, also those signs are blurry until you're pretty close to them. I remember being completely blindsided by the 50, as was everyone around me. 

[New POD]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

That's what you're supposed to do, what the signs say.

That's what they told me on the "offenders course".   They make the signs big enough, that you have a warning some distance before you reach them.  The only excuse is if the gantry sign changed as you were passing under it.  

 

 

[New POD]

9 hours ago, Ghosty said:

50 and camera were on the same gantry, zero distance between them. Up to then it was clear 70mph running in average traffic.
So you had from when you read the gantry to being under it, to react and slow down from 70 to 50, which wasn't possible safely.

To put it into context, I accelerated in a 50 zone, towards a NSL sign on a dual carriage way.  This was some distance beyond the reason for the 50 zone.  I passed the NSL sign at 64 mph. Got 3 point because a van was hiding in the behind bushes. 

My father in law was done (years ago) for going from 60 to 30 after passing through a 30 sign, but 1/4 a mile before the village the lower speed limit was there for.  IIRC he was done for 40 mph so was slowing down, and he complained that if he braked harder the car behind would have gone straight into the back of him. 

 

[New POD]

5 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Not very as there was some old concrete gantry or bridge or something not long before it, also those signs are blurry until you're pretty close to them. I remember being completely blindsided by the 50, as was everyone around me. 

I know I struggle on the M6 to decide whether it says 60 or 50 but none of them are hidden.  My usual problem is not concentrating on them and concentrating on which lane I'm in and which trucks are trying to kill me. 

[burraston2006]

Finally had enough of the P38 Range Rover. Couple of weeks ago it burst a coolant pipe and over heated. Fixed that. The thermostat decicided to follow suit. It fought me every step of the way to fix that. Treated it to a wash yesterday and I trod on the hose got soaked, then yanked the hose in temper which meant it got suck under a tyre and the sprayer took the skin off of my finger. Much swearing and the dreaded C word used. Took it for a spin chucked some go go juice in it and it has now dumped the aft all the way around Yeovil. The ungrateful bxstard is going on bum free later. Wonder how many lowest offers and Xbox tonight messages I'll get.

See for sale section. 

[angle]

On 9/5/2020 at 5:30 PM, angle said:

Wankers. 

When will I learn that every time I think 'I've got half an hour, let's fix something simple on the car' it's inevitable that it will be A MASSIVE TWAT? One screw, cunningly positioned with clearance from the radiator that is slightly less than the length of my screwdriver, accessed through a hole slightly smaller than my hand. 

[Borsuq]

Apparently correct heater valves for my FSO are unobtainium, which is annoying as mine is both sticky and leaky. They're a very common failure point so even if I managed to find one it probably wouldn't last too long anyway.

I guess I'll have to look into adapting a different valve. Most common choice seems to be the plastic valve from one of these:

But from what I'd heard it's less than ideal because it has a longer travel than the original FSO valve, therefore will either not open or shut fully using standard controls.

My Polonez ownership experience is definitely looking pretty typical, I'm hitting all the common failure points: heater valve, stepper motor, intake air thermostat, remote headlight height adjustment. Other than the stepper motor (which is a cheap and common GM unit) they're all a pain to fix properly.

[chaseracer]

What IS that?  Looks like the bastard offspring of a drunken coupling between an Iveco Daily and an early Merc Sprinter...