The grumpy thread

[twosmoke300]

Best  time to wash a car is in the rain 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

2 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

Best  time to wash a car is in the rain 

I don't like going outside at the best of times.  As evident by my posting history.

[Remspoor]

15 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The figures for the number of new cars sold in Norway last year have now been published. And last year there was a record sale of new cars and almost all are electric, so with the average age of cars being about 11 years in Norway, most if not all petrol stations are probably gone within 10-15 years if this continues.

 

Will they? What about fuel for lorries and buses, agricultural vehicles and even things like chainsaws? Noth forgetting the equipment for building sites. All of these need liquid fuel.

[artdjones]

12 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

There are all kinds of electric cars here now, many from China as well. And it's ironic is typical of us selling oil while pretending to save the world.

This is one of the latest electric cars from China Hongqi e-hs9 for what is better for the environment than a 2.7 tonne SUV that is probably built with coal power and is dead after 10 years.

Looks like a good car for a US rap artist. Unfortunately, the name would put them off.

[Remspoor]

15 hours ago, kirton said:

It must be me getting old and a semi techno cripple but doing Mrs K's tax self assessment (SA) has driven me towards gnashing teeth and tearing hair out this afternoon.  (domestic abuse by both of us on the other was avoided by a hair's breadth)

I spent a long time trying to verify her identity;  2 required;

Northern Ireland driving licence  -that's a NO , what's so special about NI?

Phone contract - hers renewed this July -

When did you get a credit card -over 6 years ago

Current passport - hooray - YES

What was last years tax due?  found the SA return but no trace of what was due.  Searched high and low for HMRC hard copy, searched bank statements;  domestic tension brewing up

looks like we scored only one out of 5

Look at contact HMRC online- can do but contact  contains warning  - don't ask us to help verify your identity, not much* help there

Then found you can get identity GOV accepted verification by the Post Office or a firm, I chose the PO, went  round in circles entering  full name and dob at least three times on different pages, but got there, with a direct link to Self Assessment - a WINNER!  Grumpyness much reduced.  Also got to copy of last year's tax statement - they owed Mrs K £25, so no wonder we went around the circle of what did they dun her for.

SA form is pretty straightforward (I think they shouldn't quibble too much) nice to skip past the optional declarations that would provide details

Then I get to the SUBMIT; sign off in blood that it's all true, press submit  - system now says you've changed it so Fuck OFF;  time for hair tearing;  I give up after some go back, repeat, fail again ,again ; exit and get taken straight to the PO site (WTF!).  Oh well, sign in so I can log out I thinks;  straight back to SA SUBMIT, press SUBMIT - only bloody works

Having got that off my chest I feel a lot better; Mrs K hates me a bit less for putting her through the annual trauma again, time for beer.

and a belated  Happy New Year to shiters

 

 

This is one reason why I feel personal IDs are a good thing.  I even have a digital one on my PC like everyone else has here in Spain. That allows us access to certain government portals without this fuss.

[Dyslexic Viking]

12 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

Will they? What about fuel for lorries and buses, agricultural vehicles and even things like chainsaws? Noth forgetting the equipment for building sites. All of these need liquid fuel.

Work is being done to make everything electric, but it is not known if it is possible. And everything you mention here except the chainsaw runs on diesel and it will probably be available for a while but with petrol the future looks bad. California has decided that all garden machines, small machines, etc. on petrol / diesel will be banned this year. This can probably happen here as well, as some of the greens have also proposed closing down agriculture and food production in Norway to save the environment. So anything is possible.

[reb]

6 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

proposed closing down agriculture and food production in Norway to save the environment.

I've never heard anything so fucking stupid in my life.

[Remspoor]

5 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Work is being done to make everything electric, but it is not known if it is possible. And everything you mention here except the chainsaw runs on diesel and it will probably be available for a while but with petrol the future looks bad. California has decided that all garden machines, small machines, etc. on petrol / diesel will be banned this year. This can probably happen here as well, as some of the greens have also proposed closing down agriculture and food production in Norway to save the environment. So anything is possible.

And now France is pushing to make Nuclear power green. Because there is not enough power being generated by solar or turbines. I get a feeling being green is not going to work out well.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-nuclear-energy-gas-green-climate-technology/

The Dutch are also "shutting down" agriculture too. Especially meat production.

 

[Metal Guru]

32 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

Will they? What about fuel for lorries and buses, agricultural vehicles and even things like chainsaws? Noth forgetting the equipment for building sites. All of these need liquid fuel.

Lorries are the biggest problem probably as although they could carry a lot of batteries, it obviously detracts from the payload. Buses  often are fairly near to base and can carry more batteries easier.

Ditto tractors , close to base , already heavy. , more batteries relatively  easily to design in without loss of performance.

Chainsaws etc? Have you seen what you can get in power tools these days? I recently did a job with a friend cutting a hedge. I had a petrol power trimmer , he had a 56V battery powered one. It was like a Ford Fiesta v a Tesla.

[myglaren]

13 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

There are all kinds of electric cars here now, many from China as well. And it's ironic is typical of us selling oil while pretending to save the world.

This is one of the latest electric cars from China Hongqi e-hs9 for what is better for the environment than a 2.7 tonne SUV that is probably built with coal power and is dead after 10 years.

Lovely!

A spectacularly hideous beast.  BMW, Audi, Nissan, Landrangerover, Cadillac  et al will now have to up there game to out-ugly that heap.

[Dyslexic Viking]

24 minutes ago, reb said:

I've never heard anything so fucking stupid in my life.

 

19 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

And now France is pushing to make Nuclear power green. Because there is not enough power being generated by solar or turbines. I get a feeling being green is not going to work out well.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-nuclear-energy-gas-green-climate-technology/

The Dutch are also "shutting down" agriculture too. Especially meat production.

 

And I'm not making this up. I have an interest in agriculture and would probably have become a farmer if I had the health to do so I follow a lot of what is happening now and is scary. And meat production has also gained an undeserved bad reputation now and they are using the numbers and emissions from feedlots. Meat production and dairy allow us to use areas that can not be used for other food production so without this there will be food shortages are things I have heard a lot.

So a good example in Norway we have a good deal of mountain plateaus that can not be grown food on and we can not eat what grows there but this can Reindeer so by eating Reindeer we get food from a place that otherwise would not have given us food this is pure logic. The youtube channel Harry's farm covers a bit of what's going on, talk about how the UK seems to be paying areble farmers to stop grain production etc.

[artdjones]

46 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Work is being done to make everything electric, but it is not known if it is possible. And everything you mention here except the chainsaw runs on diesel and it will probably be available for a while but with petrol the future looks bad. California has decided that all garden machines, small machines, etc. on petrol / diesel will be banned this year. This can probably happen here as well, as some of the greens have also proposed closing down agriculture and food production in Norway to save the environment. So anything is possible.

It's an extreme form of outsourcing. Large areas of China are as polluted and ravaged as anything from the 19th century, but Westerners need it to be so. After all , they have to have their clean, green battery devices. Whether the same would work for food is another matter. Norwegians may want to outsource food production, but it has to be produced somewhere. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

20 minutes ago, artdjones said:

It's an extreme form of outsourcing. Large areas of China are as polluted and ravaged as anything from the 19th century, but Westerners need it to be so. After all , they have to have their clean, green battery devices. Whether the same would work for food is another matter. Norwegians may want to outsource food production, but it has to be produced somewhere. 

Yes the food must be produced one place so is the same really where it is. and is an important thing that is little mentioned in this and that is the most important thing that exists and that is food safety. And being dependent on food imports from abroad is dangerous. So all countries should produce as much food themselves as possible.

The UK was in such a situation at the start of WW2 when they were very dependent on imports and had to quickly and sharply increase food production, something they were able to achieve. But could just as well have gone wrong and the UK had suffered a famine as a result.

[Metal Guru]

43 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

 

And I'm not making this up. I have an interest in agriculture and would probably have become a farmer if I had the health to do so I follow a lot of what is happening now and is scary. And meat production has also gained an undeserved bad reputation now and they are using the numbers and emissions from feedlots. Meat production and dairy allow us to use areas that can not be used for other food production so without this there will be food shortages are things I have heard a lot.

So a good example in Norway we have a good deal of mountain plateaus that can not be grown food on and we can not eat what grows there but this can Reindeer so by eating Reindeer we get food from a place that otherwise would not have given us food this is pure logic. The youtube channel Harry's farm covers a bit of what's going on, talk about how the UK seems to be paying areble farmers to stop grain production etc.

The same applies to most upland areas of the U.K, where grass ( not that sort)  is the only viable “crop”. Humans can’t eat grass, sheep and cows turn it into food.

I imagine the same applies on a much larger scale to large areas of USA, Russia and Australia amongst others.

Its cutting down the rainforests for ranches or Soya growing etc which is more about profits than feeding people.

[ProgRocker]

1 hour ago, myglaren said:

Lovely!

A spectacularly hideous beast.  BMW, Audi, Nissan, Landrangerover, Cadillac  et al will now have to up there game to out-ugly that heap.

A six foot tall front grille might be the way to go!

[Dyslexic Viking]

27 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

The same applies to most upland areas of the U.K, where grass ( not that sort)  is the only viable “crop”. Humans can’t eat grass, sheep and cows turn it into food.

I imagine the same applies on a much larger scale to large areas of USA, Russia and Australia amongst others.

Its cutting down the rainforests for ranches or Soya growing etc which is more about profits than feeding people.

I agree. And much of Norway is like the UK you describe here only suitable for grass. We have some areas that are well suited for food production but they are also the most populated areas of the country so we are building over it and losing a lot of valuable farmland which is extremely frustrating.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

38 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I agree. And much of Norway is like the UK you describe here only suitable for grass. We have some areas that are well suited for food production but they are also the most populated areas of the country so we are building over it and losing a lot of valuable farmland which is extremely frustrating.

We're extremely good at building over decent quality farmland here in the UK. It's all ok* though as we're addressing our housing shortage.  No-one seems to have noticed that our population continues to rise year on year and this trend will likely continue until we have no green spaces left. 

I found an interesting stat on our population density too:

Population density in Europe is just 34 people/sq km. At 426 people/sq km, England is the most overcrowded large nation in Europe.

[Amishtat]

13 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Desperately want to get my Golf cleaned as the lack of a working rear wiper and current weather conditions mean it's absolutely filthy.  Can't get enough of a break between rain to do it so went looking for a car wash yesterday.  The only local one that doesn't involve driving through central Canterbury is currently being overhauled (to accept card payments at the wash rather than in the shop - long overdue) and I don't want to encourage people trafficking, so refuse to use any of the hand car washes around.

It's a minor grump I grant you but it's fucking annoying.  Is it me or have most automatic car washes just disappeared?

Have you always been a virtue-signalling cretin, or is it something at which you've had to put in some effort? 

(If it's the latter, then my congratulations. Hard work truly has paid off.) 

[Dyslexic Viking]

11 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

We're extremely good at building over decent quality farmland here in the UK. It's all ok* though as we're addressing our housing shortage.  No-one seems to have noticed that our population continues to rise year on year and this trend will likely continue until we have no green spaces left. 

I found an interesting stat on our population density too:

Population density in Europe is just 34 people/sq km. At 426 people/sq km, England is the most overcrowded large nation in Europe.

 

And that is one of the biggest problems we have in front of us overpopulation. This is very conversational and goes towards something everyone thinks is a human right so I do not want to go there. And the UK / England is one of the last places I would have lived. Since I hate overcrowded areas and people everywhere I moved for several years to here I now live because of it and will move again if it gets like this here too.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

5 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

 

And that is one of the biggest problems we have in front of us overpopulation. This is very conversational and goes towards something everyone thinks is a human right so I do not want to go there. And the UK / England is one of the last places I would have lived. Since I hate overcrowded areas and people everywhere I moved for several years to here I now live because of it and will move again if it gets like this here too.

I've several relations who've emigrated within the last decade or so - some Oz, a few to NZ and one cousin to France and shortly to Belgium with his wife to be. Increasingly, I can see the appeal. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

3 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I've several relations who've emigrated within the last decade or so - some Oz, a few to NZ and one cousin to France and shortly to Belgium with his wife to be. Increasingly, I can see the appeal. 

 I can too, had I lived there, I would have also moved.

[adw1977]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Will they? What about fuel for lorries and buses, agricultural vehicles and even things like chainsaws? Noth forgetting the equipment for building sites. All of these need liquid fuel.

I've always thought that building site equipment ought to be relatively easy to make electric. 

Things like those mini digger / dumper things that get transported to and from the site on the back of a truck.  Couldn't they be charged overnight before being loaded onto the truck?  They're not going far and stand idle for more hours than they're in use.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

5 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

 I can too, had I lived there, I would have also moved.

It's the usual problem though. Ageing parents would make relocation beyond awkward.

[artdjones]

3 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

I've always thought that building site equipment ought to be relatively easy to make electric. 

Things like those mini digger / dumper things that get transported to and from the site on the back of a truck.  Couldn't they be charged overnight before being loaded onto the truck?  They're not going far and stand idle for more hours than they're in use.

They are often hired out, so when they are onsite they are used intensively so as to get the maximum use for the hire fee.

[bunglebus]

Post Office small parcels. Max dimensions 45x35x16 cm, = 25200 cm3

My box is 20x22x22 = 9680 cm3. But it's too big for small parcels in one dimension, so having trudged to the Post Orifice once and queued up, I've come home again and repacked into a 33x24x13 shoe box, 10296 cm3. 

Stupid, stupid rules

[Rod/b]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

This is one reason why I feel personal IDs are a good thing.  I even have a digital one on my PC like everyone else has here in Spain. That allows us access to certain government portals without this fuss.

Same here. Digital ID linked to national ID number. Everything is smooth sailing thereon in. I really don’t understand this British fixation on a perceived invasion of privacy when it comes to ID cards. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

12 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

It's the usual problem though. Ageing parents would make relocation beyond awkward.

 

Yes it is difficult had it not been for parents I would probably have thought about moving to Canada if I could get a permanent residence permit which is doubtful i would.

[New POD]

19 hours ago, Wack said:

You really can't believe people can be so stupid 

Rings 999 , asks for Snowdon mountain rescue  then asks them what the weather will be like up there tomorrow 

 

Better than attempting crib gock in the snow wearing trainers. Now that would be a waste of resources. 

[Unlucky Alf]

49 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

I've always thought that building site equipment ought to be relatively easy to make electric. 

Things like those mini digger / dumper things that get transported to and from the site on the back of a truck.  Couldn't they be charged overnight before being loaded onto the truck?  They're not going far and stand idle for more hours than they're in use.

You would think so, as I did,  indeed it seems that the mini excavator stuff is do-able and JCB do sell it now,https://www.jcb.com/en-gb/products/mini-excavators/19c-1e  but for larger construction sites and major projects, larger full size electric really is not a solution that works well because of the limited capacity, operational and charging times. 

take a look at this…

 

[Wack]

5 minutes ago, Unlucky Alf said:

  but for larger construction sites and major projects, larger full size electric really is not a solution that works well because of the limited capacity, operational and charging times.

 

I saw a video where they were building a warehouse using a zero emissions digger , only it went flat in a morning, took hours to recharge and because of no mains power they were using a massive generator to charge it

 

I'm sure they have their place but if it can't do a full days work it's next to useless