The grumpy thread

[Zelandeth]

5 hours ago, New POD said:

Do you drive in Birmingham? Was it a white Astra GTC? Was it me? I keep getting in the wrong fucking lane and my attempts to make it right seems to activate people's most aggressive nature. 

That doesn't bother me so much, and it's usually pretty obvious when someone has fouled up.  This is very clearly just people who can't be assed waiting in the queue of two or three cars going ahead (which is always by far the busiest direction on the roundabouts in question), which have very clear lane markings both on the road leading up to and on signposts - plus while there are plenty of complicated, confusing roundabouts around here, this isn't happening on those!

The one at the Caldecotte A5 junction is a good example - which I now *deliberately* use the wrong lane for when turning right (heading north), because if you use the correct lane there's about an 80% chance of you getting sideswiped as nobody else seems to understand (or cares) how it works.

I honestly thought I was doing something wrong before, to the extend of emailing a friend who's a PCV driving instructor to ask if I was being an idiot.  Nope, I was right!

[eddyramrod]

@tooSavvy You got a better result than I did!  When I swopped my Volvo for CMS206'sAstra, Churchill wanted a load of extra money out of me!  Wait a minute... going from a 2.5 litre 1996 Volvo to a 1.7 litre diesel 2004 Astra?  I managed to get the increase down to £69 by adding MrsR, even though there was no way she was ever going to drive it.  Guess who isn't going to get my business for the next shite car?

[tooSavvy]

^ ^ ^ ..... Oh, Yes Yes Yes!

Changing with DirectLine, from ToMM© into SuziQ got my premium UP to £396 from £200... WTF?

Churchill was a Shoe In @£200

🤠

[beko1987]

2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Tell me moar! I'd like to remove the cartoon-ness from it.

https://www.xda-developers.com/best-icon-packs/

Start here! Also don't forget you can still set other images for the lockscreen and/or homescreen. I've got my Samsung lock screen cycling through a different photo of food every time it turns the screen on

[beko1987]

52 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That doesn't bother me so much, and it's usually pretty obvious when someone has fouled up.  This is very clearly just people who can't be assed waiting in the queue of two or three cars going ahead (which is always by far the busiest direction on the roundabouts in question), which have very clear lane markings both on the road leading up to and on signposts - plus while there are plenty of complicated, confusing roundabouts around here, this isn't happening on those!

The one at the Caldecotte A5 junction is a good example - which I now *deliberately* use the wrong lane for when turning right (heading north), because if you use the correct lane there's about an 80% chance of you getting sideswiped as nobody else seems to understand (or cares) how it works.

I honestly thought I was doing something wrong before, to the extend of emailing a friend who's a PCV driving instructor to ask if I was being an idiot.  Nope, I was right!

Theres a roundabout like that on the edge of Milton Keynes coming in from Aylesbury.

I've traversed it the correct way and I lncorrect way many times now and decided the correct way was better but with a huge chance of a kiss from the left... 

They've re painted the road marking now which helps, at least you can sit on the inside on the horn and be correct, although the lane across is easier... 

8/10 I am at the front of the queue at the lights and just take off and straight-line it and job jobbed... 

Coming from the a4146 and off to Brickhill Road. 

I failed my first driving test on an evil double roundabout in Wycombe too... Got beeped at because i was in the correct lane. Nowadays I've learnt the lanes mean nothing and you just set eyes on your exit and grit your teeth... (or go nowhere near that bit of Wycombe...) Bottom of Desborough hill iirc 

[Soundwave]

Just reported a facebook ad openly advertising "bent MOTs" at £100 a go. Pisses me off - yes the MOT can be expensive and inconvenient, particularly for older cars, but ultimately it helps ensure cars are safe for the occupants and everyone else around them.

I'm not expecting FB to actually do anything about it though.

[Zelandeth]

16 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Theres a roundabout like that on the edge of Milton Keynes coming in from Aylesbury.

I've traversed it the correct way and I lncorrect way many times now and decided the correct way was better but with a huge chance of a kiss from the left... 

They've re painted the road marking now which helps, at least you can sit on the inside on the horn and be correct, although the lane across is easier... 

8/10 I am at the front of the queue at the lights and just take off and straight-line it and job jobbed... 

Coming from the a4146 and off to Brickhill Road. 

I failed my first driving test on an evil double roundabout in Wycombe too... Got beeped at because i was in the correct lane. Nowadays I've learnt the lanes mean nothing and you just set eyes on your exit and grit your teeth... (or go nowhere near that bit of Wycombe...) Bottom of Desborough hill iirc 

That's exactly the same one I just posted!  I get our dog food from a store in Walnut Tree so am regularly heading from Brickhill road right onto the northbound A5.  Folks just don't seem to understand that you can go right from the two rightmost lanes - but if you're in the far right it takes you onto lane 2 - they almost invariably move to the left as soon as they enter the roundabout, where I usually already am.

So I now do exactly the same...just I check there's no bloody car there before moving to the left.  If there is, I stay right where I am and just join the A5 in lane 2 as the designer intended...and am usually then stuck there for about half a mile while a string of Audis and BMWs undertake me at 90 before I can get back into lane 1.

[loserone]

20 minutes ago, Soundwave said:

Just reported a facebook ad openly advertising "bent MOTs" at £100 a go. Pisses me off - yes the MOT can be expensive and inconvenient, particularly for older cars, but ultimately it helps ensure cars are safe for the occupants and everyone else around them.

I'm not expecting FB to actually do anything about it though.

Never mind facebook, report that to DVSA

[tooSavvy]

19 hours ago, iainrcz said:

I think it was Dave.

Dave you reckon.... Hmm, couldn't have been a Premier League footie player then...

🤐

[tooSavvy]

57 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

https://www.xda-developers.com/best-icon-packs/

Start here! Also don't forget you can still set other images for the lockscreen and/or homescreen. I've got my Samsung lock screen cycling through a different photo of food every time it turns the screen on

Deftly combining 'copyright violation', freezeframing & in-menu navigation...

I have this..... 🌈😎

[cobblers]

Ordered a starter motor from carparts4less. I should know better, but they were half the price of anywhere else for the same Lucas rebuilt starter.

Against all odds, they sent the "right" one! only it's an old one someone has taken off their van. FFS

[beko1987]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

That's exactly the same one I just posted!  I get our dog food from a store in Walnut Tree so am regularly heading from Brickhill road right onto the northbound A5.  Folks just don't seem to understand that you can go right from the two rightmost lanes - but if you're in the far right it takes you onto lane 2 - they almost invariably move to the left as soon as they enter the roundabout, where I usually already am.

So I now do exactly the same...just I check there's no bloody car there before moving to the left.  If there is, I stay right where I am and just join the A5 in lane 2 as the designer intended...and am usually then stuck there for about half a mile while a string of Audis and BMWs undertake me at 90 before I can get back into lane 1.

So it is! Hadn't clocked that, don't actually know where its called, just where to go to get to my dad's 😂

Good to have confirmation from a local that I'm doing it correctly 👍

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, Soundwave said:

Just reported a facebook ad openly advertising "bent MOTs" at £100 a go. Pisses me off - yes the MOT can be expensive and inconvenient, particularly for older cars, but ultimately it helps ensure cars are safe for the occupants and everyone else around them.

I'm not expecting FB to actually do anything about it though.

I reported a want ad on Done Deal for a set of registration documents for a Transit pickup last week and it was gone 10 min later. Unsurprisingly, the ad was from County Louth.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, artdjones said:

... County Louth.

Bandit country.

[jakebullet]

My garage hoover decided to croak today. Hmmmm, I think it's the brushes, nowt to lose by taking it apart, could be resurrected cheaply. Strip down started well, the entire thing appears to be held together by identical self tappers. 9 screws removed, stick screwdriver in hole #10, and why isn't it working? That would be 'cos it's a security torx. Bastards!

[cobblers]

Unless it's incredibly tight, you'll be able to get it out with a small flatblade jammed in like this:

[Jazoli]

Or just buy some security torx bits, dirt cheap in the usual places.

[eddyramrod]

22 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Well it won't be tonight.  They're keeping her in at least one night, possibly more, because there was talk of me bringing in a bag in the morning with stuff she will need.

Keeping her again tonight, phone again tomorrow.

[artdjones]

I know I'm a miserabilist, but does anyone feel like a lot of companies have such good customer service that the whole thing is a con. We have a perfect spring mattress bought a couple of years ago that's just a bit too hard. So we thought we'd try a memory foam mattress topper. Evesleep deliver to Ireland and their topper is supposed to be wonderful, special foam that's cooler, etc. €250, but with a no questions return guarantee. So it was ordered and duly arrived. In the interim they sent me a referral offer, if someone clicked through a link  they gave me the person would get €100 off a mattress and I'd get 50. If they can afford 25% off the price of a mattress, what's their margin? Too much.

The topper got put on the bed, but didn't feel any better than the hard mattress over 3 nights tryout. So I filled in the return form and repacked it for collection. Today I got my refund, but they don't pick up in my area, so told me to give it away. If they can give it away that easily, I can't help suspecting they are selling cheap junk at three times what it's worth. The ones that stick make enough profit to pay for all the rejects. All I want is a really good mattress topper without all the flimflam.

Just remembered. Our juicer is a very expensive one some friends bought mail order. After three months it developed a tiny fault in that a magnet in an interlock got dirty. It stopped working, and the guarantee was activated. Immediately, a new one was sent, with instructions to junk the old one. 20 minutes had it working again. The same deal, something from China upsold as being wonderful quality at such a high price it pays for all the failures.

Oh, well, back to square one.

[tooSavvy]

Overpriced Tat..?

My daughter is a FB 'SkipRat'

Freecycle is her 'go to' source for lots of stuff. Her reasoning [not faulted by my observation of what turns up at her house...] being "Oooh - BrandNew/Unboxed - DunnLikeIt!" ... recycled as ... "Oooh - cheaps!"

With patience + restraint.... EVERYTHING washes up on Freecycle

*Oh, and... F##ked Dysons must be a goldmine for someone lol.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, tooSavvy said:

*Oh, and... F##ked Dysons are a goldmine for @beko1987 lol.

FTFY

[eddyramrod]

16 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Keeping her again tonight, phone again tomorrow.

It now looks like she's going to be in for the weekend.  Noticeably, it's ten years this month since she was in hospital in Paphos.

[BorniteIdentity]

2 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

It now looks like she's going to be in for the weekend.  Noticeably, it's ten years this month since she was in hospital in Paphos.

Keep your chin up man.  The fact she's being kept in is a good thing.  I know a couple of people who've properly had sepsis; by now they were both in a very very bad way.  If she hasn't deteriorated in the last 48 hours then she's likely doing well.  

Try to keep busy eh?

[HillmanImp]

Thats the end of banger racing in Angmering then. 

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Thats the end of banger racing in Angmering then. 

Oh, I dunno... that section on the top-right looks pleasingly oval-shaped...

 

[Lankytim]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Thats the end of banger racing in Angmering then. 

That's a crying shame, it's a great track and really well attended. Recently United Downs raceway in Cornwall has had the lease it's held from the Council for donkeys years ended and awarded to a rum distillery,  ending 50 years odd of racing  My old "home" track of Birmingham Wheels is probably also getting closed though some spurious and convoluted way by the council to be sold and developed into warehousing.   Birmingham wheels was donated many years ago to the council and had some caveat about it only being used as a motor sports venue. They tried to close it a while back using some clause or other but were defeated but now are using the excuse of finding Japanese Knot weed on the land, meaning the only course of action is to demolish the whole lot, the speed skating oval, the fantastic Karting track, the rally circuit, driving school and of course the banked tarmac ovaltrack, used for short circuit racing and drifting.  They're obliged by some sort of old contract to provide an alternative venue of equivalent standard or better, but of course they've found a dodge around this and are simply evicting all the motorsport businesses that use the site. 

I know this form of motorsport venue isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if we're not careful the only form of motorsport anyone's going to have access to will be via a Playstation. 

[sheffcortinacentre]

You forget a couple of points 

 

1. Money to be made 

2. The evil car must be banished ( unless you're saving the planet by buying a new one).

 

 

[HillmanImp]

16 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Oh, I dunno... that section on the top-right looks pleasingly oval-shaped...

 

I did notice that myself as its where the current track is. 

I am genuinely gutted. I've been going all my life. I still try go when I'm visiting my mum if its on. 

Its funny, the miserable residents have been complaining about it for decades. 

'Its noisy' 

'There's dust coming from it'. 

'People going to it are causing traffic' 

But its the same ones that are up in arms about more houses 'ruining' their community. 

However they like to moan about absolutely fucking anything in Angmering.

https://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/politics/amazon-delivery-drivers-told-to-stop-using-angmering-as-cut-through-3257451?amp

There was terrible weather the other day and it flooded in multiple places in sussex and the peoole on the Angmering Facebook page were calling for a protest. What the fuck against. 

I mean the money must be tempting but I wouldn't be surprised if the constant pressure to close the track from the wanker residents is a factor in the decision to sell. 

[warch]

11 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

You forget a couple of points 

 

1. Money to be made 

2. The evil car must be banished ( unless you're saving the planet by buying a new one).

 

 

I do often look enviously at places like Ireland and France, where motorsport is still tolerated and encouraged. I especially like those French tout terrain rallies they have, often on incredibly narrow unsurfaced tracks.

The value of land for housing in the UK is really putting the kibosh on any other form of development, it's absolutely ridiculous now (I work in a development related industry). The site adjoining my house has just been sold off, happily to a local steel producers, which is preferable to yet another housing estate.

[tooSavvy]

Ref: Grand Pa 'shouts at cloud'....

"..The site adjoining my house has just been sold off, happily to a local steel producers, which is preferable to yet another housing estate.."

Remembering the Great Springfield Tyre 🔥= behind my house...

 

The old post office yard, behind our house, was leased by a scaffolding firm.... Bonggling of scaffy pipes at 6AM. We were not happy

.... change of use, to tyre place...

Fire nearly takes us & house!!

Be Careful What You Wish For