The grumpy thread

[paulplom]

On the same journey there was an organised cycle  race organised on the A167, another dual carriageway.

It was chaos. Marshalls waving their arms about, cars down to 20mph, bikes overtking each other in the middle of the road. Cars were swerving all over th place, especially on the  sliproads on and off. It'll be a miracle if there's not an accident. Why the fuck you'd risk your life doing that is  beyond me never mind the inconvenience to other road users.

Wankers.

 

[dozeydustman]

Round at father in law’s again. Went to use the khasi...

 

I’m covered in glass. Just shattered while about my business - didn’t touch it, lean on it or anything.

Injuries are thankfully minimal.

Only half an hour previous father in law gave it all a clean.

[High Jetter]

Must have been some dump!

[paulplom]

I've had this happen in about a dozen jobs. They go off like a bomb for no apparent reason. The manufacturers must know about it as they'll give me a new one no questions asked.

I remember ringing my mate who is manager at the merchants and he asked me to bring it back. I said it was in a million pieces! I returned it in three builders buckets.

I couple of times they've exploded while I've been lifting them and been left bleeding with two hands full of shattered glass. It gives you a fright.

[Out Run]

21 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Round at father in law’s again. Went to use the khasi...

 

I’m covered in glass. Just shattered while about my business - didn’t touch it, lean on it or anything.

Injuries are thankfully minimal.

Only half an hour previous father in law gave it all a clean.

That was more than just a squeaker. 😂

[clayts450]

Two consecutive days of having to leave home at 0230 to pick up goods and deliver, yesterday to that London (just round the corner from RobT funnily enough), today to Newcastle. That's not the grump to be fair.

No the grump came when I had to fill up this morning at an Esso station. Real old skool pumps, had to wait for the pump jockey to wake up and press the dispense button from the sales booth. Said pump then delivered fuel at a rate of 1 ml per second. Bearing in mind the van needed 40+ litres it took forever. To cap it off, the dribble of diesel from the pump was so pathetic it failed to register that the van's tank was full. Being half asleep, I then pumped what seemed like about 100 litres of diesel all over my shoes, my clothes, the forecourt and the side of the van. Yeah, wasn't dribbling then, was it, the fucker ?

Fucked my fuel economy figures right up. Plummetted from 53.6 to 41.6

Fuelly over a cliff

 

[myglaren]

15 minutes ago, paulplom said:

I've had this happen in about a dozen jobs. They go off like a bomb for no apparent reason. The manufacturers must know about it as they'll give me a new one no questions asked.

I remember ringing my mate who is manager at the merchants and he asked me to bring it back. I said it was in a million pieces! I returned it in three builders buckets.

I couple of times they've exploded while I've been lifting them and been left bleeding with two hands full of shattered glass. It gives you a fright.

Toughened glass seems to have something of an Achilles' heel'.

I worked for a windows & doors company.   Most of the windows and door panels were toughened glass.  It only needed a slight knock on a particular corner to shatter it.

There was a bloke came into our unit with an eight foot by three foot sheet that was covered with lead and coloured bevels in an intricate pattern that had probably take a couple of days to make.  Set it gently on the floor and it turned into a heap of crystals.

Not his best day.

[paulplom]

But like what haplened to @dozeydustman, you don't actually have to be touching it for it to explode.

[myglaren]

Just now, paulplom said:

But like what haplened to @dozeydustman, you don't actually have to be touching it for it to explode.

No.  Once it has been stressed it can go any time.  Probably cleaning it has stressed it, if the corner is too tight a fit and a change in temperature can finish it off.

[dozeydustman]

22 minutes ago, myglaren said:

No.  Once it has been stressed it can go any time.  Probably cleaning it has stressed it, if the corner is too tight a fit and a change in temperature can finish it off.

It's been there for 5 years with nary a bother, so I'm wondering if maybe it got scratched or leant on too hard. FiL normally has a cleaning lady in once a week as his hips are bad (they've both been replaced and both need re-replacing).

 

I'll be going back there tomorrow with some rubble sacks, a hand shovel and a Henry Hoover to clear up; he's staying with us tonight now as his kitchen isn't quite finished.

[dozeydustman]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Must have been some dump!

 

51 minutes ago, Out Run said:

That was more than just a squeaker. 😂

I didn't even get that far along - shut the lav door and BANG! Bad news is my favourite beige chinos are now covered in sanguineous stainage and have holes in, so they'll be 'old' trousers now. Thankfully I have skin and stature of a hippo so I'm pretty tough and only have scratches.

Wife and FiL are more shaken up about it than I am. I know they can go at random, this is the first time one has exploded over me. Is that a cherry popped?

[Pieman]

That happened to a couple of the windows at my old school - I think both times on the corner of the building, they had metal frames and I guess due to temperature expansion/contraction it just popped the glass.

[MikeR]

Ironically her next door , her drains leak into mine so her rain water drains away when the soak away is full . But as my drains are full , her house is surrounded by a moat ....

[Floatylight]

Arses! I bloody hate drum brakes, been trying to sort out SmollestFl Fiesta Handbrake, have managed to make both the handbrake and foot brake worse, I'll get the garage to fix it I think..

[MikeR]

we have all done it , but we have just suffered the effects of pavement parking ... 

the personhole in the street is next to where everyone pavement parks , and the vibration had shook 2 bricks loose which fell into the bottom

of the sewer and blocked it ....  our personholes were brimmed with dirty water , and the down pour on top !!!

3 houses worth of shite .  that was bad but .....

Do you know what its like having a wife going on about a non working bog !!!!

any way the big water board van pulled up ,they  got the tools out and it was cleared in minutes , took longer to do the paper work !

[richardmorris]

Watching around the world in 80 days with Michael palin and finding it was 1988!

[108]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Watching around the world in 80 days with Michael palin and finding it was 1988!

I was just thinking exactly the same. Seems like it was only about 15 years ago!

 

Where did the time go?

[Jikovron]

I took all this crap to the tip, of which was the 82yo neighbours tree, hes still well up for manual labour , anyhow it was shedding needles like mad so I though blimey rather than spread it all over the ground at the tip, the trailer got decoupled and pushed over to the tip wall to unload directly into the skip ,,success thinks us both till the guy who we had saved a job tells us in the shitteiest tone possible that we broke the rules doing it that way and they would be getting a load of guff from the council about it,,fuck sake the place was empty!

[dozeydustman]

Not only is Vanessa Feltz not welcome blaring out the radio alarm clock, but she’s playing UB40. 🤮

[Borsuq]

This week is already killing me. I'm the manager of the hygiene section in a small hospital (5 wards + A&E + operating block + fairly large outpatient department) and as of today 7 out of 29 of my staff are quarantined. If even one more person becomes unavailable I'm afraid that keeping up the required 24/7 coverage will become pretty much impossible. I'm already working my staff very hard and calling in favours from them (all above board and within legal limits of course) but I doubt we can keep this up for much longer.

[paulplom]

Decent parking by ghia x mondeo man ffs.

[Fumbler]

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

[Talbot]

2 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake

That deserves a complaint.  She is there to assess your driving, not to comment on your car or it's condition.

The 1983 Micra 1.0 I took my test in was a)Fucked, b)Filthy and c)a decade old.  It didn't affect my ability to drive, nor should it have any effect on the outcome of your test.

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

That deserves a complaint.  She is there to assess your driving, not to comment on your car or it's condition.

The 1983 Micra 1.0 I took my test in was a)Fucked, b)Filthy and c)a decade old.  It didn't affect my ability to drive, nor should it have any effect on the outcome of your test.

Perhaps so, but fair's fair. I failed on valid grounds and I don't think the DVSA would give two fucks about the tester's preconceptions about the vehicle. I think if I was driving a 13 year-old Toyota Aygo, things may have been different. I certainly wouldn't have failed the emergency stop! Anyway, retest booked for December 8th. If I have that bint again, I think I know what the outcome from that will be!

[LightBulbFun]

22 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

sorry to hear that but best of luck for the next test  

if it helps im waiting for my 2nd test on the 13th of October and I actually have a driving lesson later today  

but yeah its one of the things im worried about for my next test

the lady I had for my first test (that I failed) was a nice lady, and im worried next examiner I get will be a total arse or something...

[MorrisItalSLX]

49 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

FFS. Failed driving test. 4 majors, 2 of which were after I knew I failed. Examiner was the most miserable bint I've ever had the misfortune to be sat in a car with. It was at rush hour too, so the town was rammed. Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately. She took great delight in explaining to my instructor how shit I was, and didn't take kindly to my car either. Even decided to make a jab about my test preparations, complaining about the cleanliness of the interior. The wipe was barely soiled for christ's sake.  Was it really necessary to complain about that and make me feel even more shit? I think not.

TL:DR- Failed, 4 majors, 7 minors, unsympathetic and unpleasant examiner, rush hour, nerves and a little bit of bad luck. Now I have to go back to college and pretend that nothing ever happened.

The cow that failed my first and second test was also awful. First time was fair as I made a major error (didn’t wait long enough at a stop sign) but the second time I still don’t understand. She had no interest in explaining what happened, just handed me the fail slip and buggered off. Both times she was less than impressed with my car (30 year old Jaguar XJ) as it needed a bit of coaxing to start and apparently had “very tired suspension that really needs looking at”. Yeah right, I think you’ll find that’s how it’s supposed to be love, the shocks and springs were practically new!

For my third test I used a different test centre and got a lovely young lady who was quite taken by the old Jag, passed with flying colours.

I’m not sure what the lesson is here, try and hit it off with the tester? Probably not.

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

The cow that failed my first and second test was also awful. First time was fair as I made a major error (didn’t wait long enough at a stop sign) but the second time I still don’t understand. She had no interest in explaining what happened, just handed me the fail slip and buggered off. Both times she was less than impressed with my car (30 year old Jaguar XJ) as it needed a bit of coaxing to start and apparently had “very tired suspension that really needs looking at”. Yeah right, I think you’ll find that’s how it’s supposed to be love, the shocks and springs were practically new!

For my third test I used a different test centre and got a lovely young lady who was quite taken by the old Jag, passed with flying colours.

I’m not sure what the lesson is here, try and hit it off with the tester? Probably not.

Perhaps so. She wasn't very happy at all when she first looked at my car- you could see her shoulders sink. Weirdly enough, all the other testers were happy, jovial and were making their candidates feel right at home. I think I'll get a different tester next time, hopefully. I know that several of the testers in town are very nice people; my friends passed their tests with them!

[Talbot]

20 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

She wasn't very happy at all when she first looked at my car- you could see her shoulders sink.

So had a pre-conceived expectation regarding your driving based on your car.  Certainly sounds like it. 

Maybe you'd have still failed, but possibly on one major not four. 

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

So had a pre-conceived expectation regarding your driving based on your car.  Certainly sounds like it. 

Maybe you'd have still failed, but possibly on one major not four. 

Indeed, perhaps I would have still failed if I was unlucky enough to have still got an emergency stop to do, but oh well. Experience nonetheless. I'll hopefully get someone else instead, but being a test in December at 8:18AM, I might have icy roads to contend with as well. Perhaps a good thing coming out of this is that I will have sorted the rear brakes by then during the half term, making me feel a whole lot safer driving in those conditions!

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

 Main failure point: bad emergency stop- "Too soft" was the examiner's reason, fair play as I don't have ABS and I need to shove the brake pedal. Fine line between skidding on the wet roads and not slowing down enough, unfortunately.

I wonder if an instructor used to post 2010 cars would actually even register an emergency stop in a car with tiny discs, narrow tyres or all wheel drums.

My mates have taken my Dolly and Acclaim for a spin and vocalised about the comparative lack of braking compared to their newer cars and suggested they're in bad condition. In reality both had recent brake work and were operating pretty much perfectly, they're just old designs and it takes less braking force to lock up the wheels on tyres half the width of modern cars.

I took my test in my instructors modernish Proton Savvy.