The grumpy thread

[Tadhg Tiogar]

14 minutes ago, New POD said:

..... Anyway. I digress. I have no idea what point I was trying to make. 

Could you run the middle bit by me again?

[New POD]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Could you run the middle bit by me again?

The country is fucked.  

Our wealth (Or rather the wealth that belongs to the wealthy) was gathered by fucking over the rest of the world and fucking over the desperate and poor, in our own country. 

We have governments who have mismanaged the future based on what they learnt at Eton or Oxford, going back 100s of years. And continuing to this day.   

I hope wages rise but costs of living don't.

So I'm a clear dreamer. 

[chadders]

Would you class someone with 3 houses as wealthy?

If so who did you fuck over?

[New POD]

1 minute ago, chadders said:

Would you class someone with 3 houses as wealthy?

If so who did you fuck over?

Mainly Rolls Royce PLC - For the deposits. 

When you say own? 

2 have mortgages and neither of those has a garage and none of them has a stable block, or a paddock or a sunken garden, (except when it rains). 

 

[chadders]

I didn't say own.

Most people have mortgages on their houses and very few have stable blocks, paddocks or sunken gardens, at least in my experience.

 

[cort1977]

For the first time in a generation the balance of power is shifting to employees from employers.  More jobs and a reduced number of candidates will lead to wage rises eventually.  However, as stated above the cost of housing in the south so far outstrips wages now that it would take years to rebalance.

[ChinaTom]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

I didn't say own.

Most people have mortgages on their houses and very few have stable blocks, paddocks or sunken gardens, at least in my experience.

 

I say he has fucked over society. He’d be better off sinking his independent wealth into a country pile - paying local businesses to dig a pool, local youth to maintain it, retirees to tend the lawns and just have the formal garden and orangery to pass the time for himself. Meanwhile, a bunch of start-outs are being denied the opportunity to struggle and strive their way onto the property ladder via these nice little terraces that can become a proud first step. I’m organising a march to protest against the champagne socialists and holding Rolls Royce responsible for enabling the actions of these parasites by selling their shares in an irresponsible fashion. The March will start by my shed, travel past the veg patches and end up by my back door so I can walk to the fridge to avail myself of a cold drink. Who is with me? No-one? Good. Shan’t have to share my cold drink then.

[New POD]

Who you calling a Champagne Socialist ? 

Malbec perhaps because not really a fan of bubbles. 

[Talbot]

6 hours ago, New POD said:

But if you live in London.are single, and on £20k that's the reality. £1436 a month take home. 

Now you can get a studio flat for £700 - £800 plus bills,  in what area ?  But there's never going to be money in the pot. 

Or you go "lodger" or house share in a nicer area. 

London isn't the worst for that...

It's very noticeable that housing within the M25 (but not right in the city, obviously) is cheaper than housing outside of it.  The worst of the worst is the gentrified commuter belt that sits from the M25 to about 30 miles out from it.  Housing is easily 20% or more expensive than within london suburbs, yet jobs do not have "London Weighting".  Many many jobs are minimum wage (IE about 20K) and you're lucky to get even a house share for £600-£650 + bills.  A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

 

[yohan]

4 hours ago, Dead_E23 said:

I have one of those shit B&Q mowers which I bought cheaply as a non-runner mainly because it was in the next road. It only needed a woodruff key, but whilst I was pondering whether it might need a carb (it didn't) I found this place here sells bits for them: https://coreservice.co.uk/shop/bq-own-brand/petrol-products-bq-own-brand/lawnmowers-petrol-products-bq-own-brand/bq-own-brand-40cm-petrol-lawnmower-with-se475-engine/

Ah yes I used them for the first time last week for another customer. Part was in stock, infact they showed having 40 of them. Order confirmed, and then dispatched exactly 7 days later (yesterday)…  so still waiting for it to be delivered.

[Dead_E23]

7 minutes ago, Talbot said:

A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

Does that comparison take account of the quality of the area though?  Anything 2 beds within London for £850pcm is likely to be in a rough area, yet a quick look on Rightmove shows the same amount gives a choice of flats in St Albans or Tunbridge Wells (but not Sevenoaks, unsurprisingly)

[Talbot]

The absurdly expensive stuff is more to the south and west of London.  And yes, the £850 two-bed flat within the M25 isn't going to be in the best area, but then as far as I'm concerned almost everything within the M25 is a grotty area.  There's always specific instances of individual properties that buck the trend, but as far as I can see there's definitely a "hump" of higher prices for property in a ring around london.. essentailly the "easy" commuter belt area.

Compared to the 2-ish bedroom barn conversion with double garage and massive private driveway that I used to rent in Dorset for £375/month not that many years ago (ok, a bit over 10 years ago) it all seems astonomically expensive to me.

[chodweaver]

Tv and radio ads which...

actually, ALL tv and radio advertising can get in the sea, but the ads that can get in first, to be trampled into the sharp shells and rocks, broken White Lightning bottles, half corroded oil cans and shopping trolleys that will cut them to ribbons, by all the other ads right behind them, are the ads with the 'catchy' little whistle embellishing them. Which is what I have been subjected to this morning by the neighbours' fencing contractors who, despite working in the great outdoors in glorious weather, with birdsong to entertain them, have brought their fucking Makita builder's radio with them, tuned to a commercial station with a playlist made exclusively of the worst 80s shit, but limited to 16 tracks, so Starship 'we built this fucking city' and Phil Collins' Sussudio will be back around in 3, 2, 1...

Fuckers.

So i remembered i had some pressure washing to do. That drowned it out.

[chadders]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

London isn't the worst for that...

It's very noticeable that housing within the M25 (but not right in the city, obviously) is cheaper than housing outside of it.  The worst of the worst is the gentrified commuter belt that sits from the M25 to about 30 miles out from it.  Housing is easily 20% or more expensive than within london suburbs, yet jobs do not have "London Weighting".  Many many jobs are minimum wage (IE about 20K) and you're lucky to get even a house share for £600-£650 + bills.  A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

 

It's not just London.

Our youngest and his girlfriend rent a one and a half bedroom, i.e. a small boxroom, flat in Oxford and that's 1,500 a month.

[wuvvum]

Oxford is almost comically overpriced nowadays.  As is Bristol.

[sierraman]

4 hours ago, cort1977 said:

For the first time in a generation the balance of power is shifting to employees from employers.  More jobs and a reduced number of candidates will lead to wage rises eventually.  However, as stated above the cost of housing in the south so far outstrips wages now that it would take years to rebalance.

It’s not just London. My old man lives in Somerset, 80% of the jobs there are pretty much minimum wage working in the tourist industry. Houses are minimum £200k, unless you’ve a very sizeable deposit you are going nowhere on those salaries. Lovely part of the country, but if you’ve no money it’s a gilded cage. As a result all the young folks fuck off to Bristol where the jobs are, in your early 20’s in rural Somerset unless you’ve a trade you are a bit bollocksed if you want to stick around. 

As you say the balance of power is such now that people will gladly work delivering parcels for 50p a drop, I can’t quite coin the phrase but it amounts to something along the lines of ‘if you keep people in a situation where they are feeling as if they owe you, you have an employee for life, they’ll not leave’.

Flip side of same coin we are all contributing to this in a round about way, Ive just ordered 6 mini wire brushes for something absurd like £2.95 delivered. Somewhere along the line someone is paying the price for a retailer to be able to offer that.

[Markeh]

I've screwed up shipping some laptops out last week. Two were meant to go to a computer shop not too far from here, they've instead received an ancient one someone down Cornwall way had bought. Went and fetched the ancient one from the shop, tried to contact the one down in Cornwall to get those two back... nothing so far. Hoping and praying that it's because someone else signed for the delivery and they were out at work, otherwise I'm about £250 out of pocket. Serves me right for trying to package up stuff at 10pm while tired and hot. So pissed off with myself.

And then had to go and grab a third from a parcel drop off place I never normally use, who never actually bothered to give UPS the parcel... Some days I wonder why I do this.

[Zelandeth]

Just looked on eBay to look for a handbook for the W123 as she didn't come with any documents.

HOW BLOODY MUCH?!?

Was expecting £10-20.  Sod that, I'll find a PDF and just print one myself!

 

[goosey]

Anyone seen the Electric Fiat 500 advert?

What a soppy wet load of shit 

[Tigerfox]

Whats the record for a main dealer to repair a car ?

Son in laws 60 plate Lexus is suffered a injector failure, 3 months later same part failed. New injector fitted under parts warranty and car wont start now.

They have now had the car 3 months, yes 3 and have decided the ecu is faulty and is obsolete and nobody will attempt to repair it

Absolutly staggering. Mind you the 70 plate loan car is clockingup the miles

Rant over

 

[artdjones]

57 minutes ago, Tigerfox said:

Whats the record for a main dealer to repair a car ?

Son in laws 60 plate Lexus is suffered a injector failure, 3 months later same part failed. New injector fitted under parts warranty and car wont start now.

They have now had the car 3 months, yes 3 and have decided the ecu is faulty and is obsolete and nobody will attempt to repair it

Absolutly staggering. Mind you the 70 plate loan car is clockingup the miles

Rant over

 

I don't know about main dealers, but when Renault decided to be pacesetters in electronic automatic gearbox control it was often very difficult to get those transmissions fixed. One car was so long waiting for repair that the owner went down to the garage and shot the garage man, fortunately not fatally. I can't remember if they'd had the car one year or two.

[JMotor]

Thanks Parcelforce.

That might be the panels I ordered for the Corsa now gone.

It never made it out of the depot! Despite making it all the way from Germany to begin with. 

Useless wankers!

 

*Inhales in*

Fuckin' wankers!

I hope whoever made it disappear (it might not be the person in the tracking) steps on a cuntin' lego while running to the toilet to shit a hedgehog that's coming out backwards!! 

E-mailled Parcelfarse, I'm not holding my breath!

I'm also gonna contact the seller too. Who wasn't at fault. Just annoyed that we were let down by a wanky service. 

[jakebullet]

Bob the fucking builder next door who I may* have mentioned is getting on my tits again. 

Last night I'm outside trying to do some work while it's a fraction cooler. What's that fucking smell? Oh, it's super cheap burgers dripping fat onto a BBQ. Little clouds of noxious smoke rising every few seconds or so. Well they're entitled to cancer if they want it.

THREE FUCKING HOURS LATER, they finally stop burning meat. There's only two of them and two little bastards. How much meat can they eat? For bonus dozy points they have the BBQ 5 foot from their own door, so their house will have been full of awful smoke.

Fast forwards to tonight, and yep, it's another 3 hour BBQ for 4! They must have clicked the wrong button on iceland and got 50 kilos of their finest cheapest mystery meat.

[loserone]

Just be glad you aren't breathing in the farts

[wuvvum]

Today has been an almost complete waste of a day.  This morning's task was to finally fit the aircon belt that I bought two years ago to the Rover 75.  On the diesel 75s the aircon compressor is driven by a separate belt that sits behind the main auxiliary belt, so the aux belt has to come off to fit it.  Getting the aux belt off took about 10 minutes once I'd figured that I could get enough movement on the tensioner from above (wasn't going to happen from underneath).  It then took a further 15 minutes of wrangling, swearing and trying to fit my hand through impossibly small gaps to figure out that the aircon belt I had bought is far too short - even with the tensioner slackened off completely there's no way it's going to go round the crank pulley and the compressor pulley at the same time.  Which is an embuggerance as the few sellers on eBay who list an aircon belt for the 75 all list the same length as the one I have.

It then took three hours to refit the aux belt.  The problem was that the belt had partially slipped off one of the idler pulleys, which I didn't spot as there was about 150 other fucking pulleys in the way and a roughly 3mm gap between said pulleys and the inner wing.  So when I let go of the tensioner it sprang back way further than it should have, the spanner pinged off and I couldn't get it back on again.  Or rather I could, but one notch round, so I didn't have anything like enough movement on the tensioner to get the belt back on properly.  Going at it from underneath was the same story.  I tried pushing the car down off the ramps, jacking it up and removing the front wheel and the wheelarch liner so as to try turning the crank pulley with a socket to see if that'd pull the belt on.  It didn't - the pulley turned but the belt didn't move.  Then I tried sticking a crowbar down between the tensioner and the PAS pulley and levering the tensioner down - that worked but the end of the crowbar was too wide for me to be able to get the spanner on the tensioner.  So I tried with my long flathead screwdriver - it's a good couple of feet long so in theory should have given plenty of leverage, but it's a Rolson so in practice it did little more than bend and then slip out of place.  I did eventually manage to get it to move the tensioner enough for me to get the spanner on, but then when I went to find something to hold the whole thing in place so I could refit the belt, the spanner pinged off again.  It took me another half hour of swearing to get the spanner to grip again, following which I wedged it in place using the aforementioned big screwdriver and finally got the belt back on.  So 3 1/2 hours later I was back to where I started.  Except that for some reason the belt is now tighter than before.  And I still don't have aircon.

Also someone had managed to put a dent in the rear wing.  Not a bad one, and fortunately I was able to push it out, but that wasted another half hour or so removing all the trim from inside the boot to get to it.

The Spacy has decided, having started and run fine yesterday, that it's going to play silly fuckers again.  It will start, and it will idle happily for hours, but as soon as I give it any throttle it cuts out.  There's still plenty of fuel getting through, so I'm not quite sure what its problem is, but it looks like I'm going to have to take the fugging carb off yet again.

I then went to Tesco to stock up on drinks, and on the way out I almost drove into some senile old twat who wandered across behind me whilst I was reversing out of my space.  I was looking over my right shoulder as that's the way I was going, and he came from the left and must have been in my blind spot or behind another car when I started the manoeuvre because I didn't see him.  Fortunately I was in the Ypsilon and the parking sensors started beeping so I stopped, but my brain then started doing the usual thing it does when I'm mentally in a bad place of firing off all sorts of what-if scenarios - what if I'd been in another car, or even in the van where I can't see directly behind me at all?  Etc etc.

My task for this afternoon was supposed to be to cut out the patch for the floor of the Renault 6 and then get the welder out and play with settings etc, but given that I was running massively late and having one of those days where everything I touch turns to shit, I thought I'd better leave it, so I decided to tidy the porch / shed instead.  Spent about 2 1/2 hours on it (until it got too dark to see what I was doing) and have barely made a dent in it.  I have far too much shit.

I clicked on a link in the eBay Tat thread for a van that was advertised for sale on Facebook, but then made the mistake of scrolling down and having a look at the other featured ads, including several for property to rent.  Fuck me have prices gone stupid.  I know I have a very good deal on my current house, but looking at the listings online I'd now barely get a 1-bed flat for what I'm currently paying.  Apparently there are still queues for properties even at those prices.  I blame cunts from London moving up here to work from home and sending the prices through the roof.  I am going to be proper stuffed if I have to move out of this house any time soon - I'll probably end up having to move in with my parents, which is not what I want to be doing at the age of 42.

I've been looking at jobs this week - I'm thoroughly pissed off with my current job , the team is falling apart, the entire division is viewed as second class citizens by senior management, and the pay is frankly pathetic for the amount of work I've been doing and responsibility I've been taking on.  Except that I can't find anything with significantly better pay.  I know there are jobs out there in the insurance industry that pay far more than what I'm on now, as I work alongside people who are paid far more than me, but can I find any?  Can I feck as like. 

I'd actually started off the summer really motivated to sort my finances out.  Get a better paid job, sell off most of the fleet, cut my VED bill and pay off my debts, and then maybe I could finally start saving for a deposit on a house.  That's not going great - I've already touched on the job situation, and nae cunt seems to want to buy any of my stuff (either vehicles or pushbikes) so I've made pretty much zero progress towards that goal.  The problem is that it's now starting to depress me, which is a problem in two different ways - firstly I'm going to lose my motivation and sink back into my rut, and secondly when I'm depressed I start impulse buying cars to cheer myself up, which is only going to make the situation worse.

Oh, and the Toyota failed its MOT today.  Not badly, but given the amount of time I've spent on it and the amount of other shiz I have to get done at the moment, I really could have done with a straight pass.

[AnthonyG]

I know this may seem sacrilege, but with the price of scrap running as high as it is now, it is worth thinking about weighing some of them in?  

As an example, you’ve been trying to sell that diesel Mondeo for about £500 for more than a year - it might be worth nearly £400 from one of those car take back places. Vans too must be close to that, if not more. 

Just a thought, hope things start looking up for you soon. 

[New POD]

10 hours ago, Tigerfox said:

Whats the record for a main dealer to repair a car ?

Son in laws 60 plate Lexus is suffered a injector failure, 3 months later same part failed. New injector fitted under parts warranty and car wont start now.

They have now had the car 3 months, yes 3 and have decided the ecu is faulty and is obsolete and nobody will attempt to repair it

Absolutly staggering. Mind you the 70 plate loan car is clockingup the miles

Rant over

 

There's an ecu repairer on here.. can't remember his user name..

[Mally]

5 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Today has been an almost complete waste of a day.  This morning's task was to finally fit the aircon belt that I bought two years ago to the Rover 75.  On the diesel 75s the aircon compressor is driven by a separate belt that sits behind the main auxiliary belt, so the aux belt has to come off to fit it.  Getting the aux belt off took about 10 minutes once I'd figured that I could get enough movement on the tensioner from above (wasn't going to happen from underneath).  It then took a further 15 minutes of wrangling, swearing and trying to fit my hand through impossibly small gaps to figure out that the aircon belt I had bought is far too short - even with the tensioner slackened off completely there's no way it's going to go round the crank pulley and the compressor pulley at the same time.  Which is an embuggerance as the few sellers on eBay who list an aircon belt for the 75 all list the same length as the one I have.

It then took three hours to refit the aux belt.  The problem was that the belt had partially slipped off one of the idler pulleys, which I didn't spot as there was about 150 other fucking pulleys in the way and a roughly 3mm gap between said pulleys and the inner wing.  So when I let go of the tensioner it sprang back way further than it should have, the spanner pinged off and I couldn't get it back on again.  Or rather I could, but one notch round, so I didn't have anything like enough movement on the tensioner to get the belt back on properly.  Going at it from underneath was the same story.  I tried pushing the car down off the ramps, jacking it up and removing the front wheel and the wheelarch liner so as to try turning the crank pulley with a socket to see if that'd pull the belt on.  It didn't - the pulley turned but the belt didn't move.  Then I tried sticking a crowbar down between the tensioner and the PAS pulley and levering the tensioner down - that worked but the end of the crowbar was too wide for me to be able to get the spanner on the tensioner.  So I tried with my long flathead screwdriver - it's a good couple of feet long so in theory should have given plenty of leverage, but it's a Rolson so in practice it did little more than bend and then slip out of place.  I did eventually manage to get it to move the tensioner enough for me to get the spanner on, but then when I went to find something to hold the whole thing in place so I could refit the belt, the spanner pinged off again.  It took me another half hour of swearing to get the spanner to grip again, following which I wedged it in place using the aforementioned big screwdriver and finally got the belt back on.  So 3 1/2 hours later I was back to where I started.  Except that for some reason the belt is now tighter than before.  And I still don't have aircon.

Also someone had managed to put a dent in the rear wing.  Not a bad one, and fortunately I was able to push it out, but that wasted another half hour or so removing all the trim from inside the boot to get to it.

The Spacy has decided, having started and run fine yesterday, that it's going to play silly fuckers again.  It will start, and it will idle happily for hours, but as soon as I give it any throttle it cuts out.  There's still plenty of fuel getting through, so I'm not quite sure what its problem is, but it looks like I'm going to have to take the fugging carb off yet again.

I then went to Tesco to stock up on drinks, and on the way out I almost drove into some senile old twat who wandered across behind me whilst I was reversing out of my space.  I was looking over my right shoulder as that's the way I was going, and he came from the left and must have been in my blind spot or behind another car when I started the manoeuvre because I didn't see him.  Fortunately I was in the Ypsilon and the parking sensors started beeping so I stopped, but my brain then started doing the usual thing it does when I'm mentally in a bad place of firing off all sorts of what-if scenarios - what if I'd been in another car, or even in the van where I can't see directly behind me at all?  Etc etc.

My task for this afternoon was supposed to be to cut out the patch for the floor of the Renault 6 and then get the welder out and play with settings etc, but given that I was running massively late and having one of those days where everything I touch turns to shit, I thought I'd better leave it, so I decided to tidy the porch / shed instead.  Spent about 2 1/2 hours on it (until it got too dark to see what I was doing) and have barely made a dent in it.  I have far too much shit.

I clicked on a link in the eBay Tat thread for a van that was advertised for sale on Facebook, but then made the mistake of scrolling down and having a look at the other featured ads, including several for property to rent.  Fuck me have prices gone stupid.  I know I have a very good deal on my current house, but looking at the listings online I'd now barely get a 1-bed flat for what I'm currently paying.  Apparently there are still queues for properties even at those prices.  I blame cunts from London moving up here to work from home and sending the prices through the roof.  I am going to be proper stuffed if I have to move out of this house any time soon - I'll probably end up having to move in with my parents, which is not what I want to be doing at the age of 42.

I've been looking at jobs this week - I'm thoroughly pissed off with my current job , the team is falling apart, the entire division is viewed as second class citizens by senior management, and the pay is frankly pathetic for the amount of work I've been doing and responsibility I've been taking on.  Except that I can't find anything with significantly better pay.  I know there are jobs out there in the insurance industry that pay far more than what I'm on now, as I work alongside people who are paid far more than me, but can I find any?  Can I feck as like. 

I'd actually started off the summer really motivated to sort my finances out.  Get a better paid job, sell off most of the fleet, cut my VED bill and pay off my debts, and then maybe I could finally start saving for a deposit on a house.  That's not going great - I've already touched on the job situation, and nae cunt seems to want to buy any of my stuff (either vehicles or pushbikes) so I've made pretty much zero progress towards that goal.  The problem is that it's now starting to depress me, which is a problem in two different ways - firstly I'm going to lose my motivation and sink back into my rut, and secondly when I'm depressed I start impulse buying cars to cheer myself up, which is only going to make the situation worse.

Oh, and the Toyota failed its MOT today.  Not badly, but given the amount of time I've spent on it and the amount of other shiz I have to get done at the moment, I really could have done with a straight pass.

I may inavertently be partly responsible for some of this.

The spanner I promised to look for is as yet still missing.

However, this has reminded me, and since your a/c belt is still not working I will redouble my efforts and attempt to help you achieve success sometime in the future.

Mine never had working air con either. A floppy top is my prefered solution.

[Rocket88]

13 hours ago, goosey said:

Anyone seen the Electric Fiat 500 advert?

What a soppy wet load of shit 

As are all "new" car adverts.............as long as it connects to your Faceache ridden phone, and it plugs into the mains, nothing else seems to matter...................

[Talbot]

8 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Today has been an almost complete waste of a day.  This morning's task was to finally fit the aircon belt that I bought two years ago to the Rover 75.  On the diesel 75s the aircon compressor is driven by a separate belt that sits behind the main auxiliary belt, so the aux belt has to come off to fit it.  Getting the aux belt off took about 10 minutes once I'd figured that I could get enough movement on the tensioner from above (wasn't going to happen from underneath).  It then took a further 15 minutes of wrangling, swearing and trying to fit my hand through impossibly small gaps to figure out that the aircon belt I had bought is far too short - even with the tensioner slackened off completely there's no way it's going to go round the crank pulley and the compressor pulley at the same time.  Which is an embuggerance as the few sellers on eBay who list an aircon belt for the 75 all list the same length as the one I have.

It then took three hours to refit the aux belt.  The problem was that the belt had partially slipped off one of the idler pulleys, which I didn't spot as there was about 150 other fucking pulleys in the way and a roughly 3mm gap between said pulleys and the inner wing.  So when I let go of the tensioner it sprang back way further than it should have, the spanner pinged off and I couldn't get it back on again.  Or rather I could, but one notch round, so I didn't have anything like enough movement on the tensioner to get the belt back on properly.  Going at it from underneath was the same story.  I tried pushing the car down off the ramps, jacking it up and removing the front wheel and the wheelarch liner so as to try turning the crank pulley with a socket to see if that'd pull the belt on.  It didn't - the pulley turned but the belt didn't move.  Then I tried sticking a crowbar down between the tensioner and the PAS pulley and levering the tensioner down - that worked but the end of the crowbar was too wide for me to be able to get the spanner on the tensioner.  So I tried with my long flathead screwdriver - it's a good couple of feet long so in theory should have given plenty of leverage, but it's a Rolson so in practice it did little more than bend and then slip out of place.  I did eventually manage to get it to move the tensioner enough for me to get the spanner on, but then when I went to find something to hold the whole thing in place so I could refit the belt, the spanner pinged off again.  It took me another half hour of swearing to get the spanner to grip again, following which I wedged it in place using the aforementioned big screwdriver and finally got the belt back on.  So 3 1/2 hours later I was back to where I started.  Except that for some reason the belt is now tighter than before.  And I still don't have aircon.

Also someone had managed to put a dent in the rear wing.  Not a bad one, and fortunately I was able to push it out, but that wasted another half hour or so removing all the trim from inside the boot to get to it.

The Spacy has decided, having started and run fine yesterday, that it's going to play silly fuckers again.  It will start, and it will idle happily for hours, but as soon as I give it any throttle it cuts out.  There's still plenty of fuel getting through, so I'm not quite sure what its problem is, but it looks like I'm going to have to take the fugging carb off yet again.

I then went to Tesco to stock up on drinks, and on the way out I almost drove into some senile old twat who wandered across behind me whilst I was reversing out of my space.  I was looking over my right shoulder as that's the way I was going, and he came from the left and must have been in my blind spot or behind another car when I started the manoeuvre because I didn't see him.  Fortunately I was in the Ypsilon and the parking sensors started beeping so I stopped, but my brain then started doing the usual thing it does when I'm mentally in a bad place of firing off all sorts of what-if scenarios - what if I'd been in another car, or even in the van where I can't see directly behind me at all?  Etc etc.

My task for this afternoon was supposed to be to cut out the patch for the floor of the Renault 6 and then get the welder out and play with settings etc, but given that I was running massively late and having one of those days where everything I touch turns to shit, I thought I'd better leave it, so I decided to tidy the porch / shed instead.  Spent about 2 1/2 hours on it (until it got too dark to see what I was doing) and have barely made a dent in it.  I have far too much shit.

I clicked on a link in the eBay Tat thread for a van that was advertised for sale on Facebook, but then made the mistake of scrolling down and having a look at the other featured ads, including several for property to rent.  Fuck me have prices gone stupid.  I know I have a very good deal on my current house, but looking at the listings online I'd now barely get a 1-bed flat for what I'm currently paying.  Apparently there are still queues for properties even at those prices.  I blame cunts from London moving up here to work from home and sending the prices through the roof.  I am going to be proper stuffed if I have to move out of this house any time soon - I'll probably end up having to move in with my parents, which is not what I want to be doing at the age of 42.

I've been looking at jobs this week - I'm thoroughly pissed off with my current job , the team is falling apart, the entire division is viewed as second class citizens by senior management, and the pay is frankly pathetic for the amount of work I've been doing and responsibility I've been taking on.  Except that I can't find anything with significantly better pay.  I know there are jobs out there in the insurance industry that pay far more than what I'm on now, as I work alongside people who are paid far more than me, but can I find any?  Can I feck as like. 

I'd actually started off the summer really motivated to sort my finances out.  Get a better paid job, sell off most of the fleet, cut my VED bill and pay off my debts, and then maybe I could finally start saving for a deposit on a house.  That's not going great - I've already touched on the job situation, and nae cunt seems to want to buy any of my stuff (either vehicles or pushbikes) so I've made pretty much zero progress towards that goal.  The problem is that it's now starting to depress me, which is a problem in two different ways - firstly I'm going to lose my motivation and sink back into my rut, and secondly when I'm depressed I start impulse buying cars to cheer myself up, which is only going to make the situation worse.

Oh, and the Toyota failed its MOT today.  Not badly, but given the amount of time I've spent on it and the amount of other shiz I have to get done at the moment, I really could have done with a straight pass.

Top quality rant 10/10 A+ 5* rating.  Would read about your minor explosion with rage at modern life again.