The grumpy thread

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 06/10/2022 at 04:44, New POD said:

Wide low profile tyres, rock hard suspension, and anti-Roll bars.

My Astra GTC will grip the road in the dry like a go cart. (In the rain less so). 

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So does t'Bini of t'missus - like a limpet even in the wet but it is as low as a go-cart and has very harsh suspension too. Day after my moan I left MK in the middle of the school run - whacking great big SUV's going everywhere like rockets with little nippers in the back seats. Driving the Bini absolutely flat out would put me out in front of them until the speed limit - then they'd just keep accelerating up to the next roundabout and whack on the brakes. It would appear that folks around there like to test the Isofix fittings - not sure how the nippers avoid brain injury the way their little heads snap back and forth though.
Biggest joy is after Leominster - pretty much just me and a luvverly, windy road all the way back to Y Gwyll (local comedy show on TV once upon a time).

Oh - and the Bini has the BMW 'DSC' system on it too - maybe my old skool driving style is the problem but I can't see/feel any difference if it is on or off - nevermind, the little blighter goes like the proverbial in either case.

[hairnet]

  On 06/10/2022 at 09:35, mercedade said:

They're on really flaky actively illegal ground here. 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c66abfd40f0b61a1e93a27a/Mr_M_Furlong_v_The_Chief_Constable_of_Cheshire_Police_2405577.18_judgment_and_reasons.pdf

Cheshire police lost an employment tribunal when they attempted to do the same thing, and I'm astonished that the company you've applied to would commit such a reasoning to paper.

Happy to offer any advice (not a lawyer, but anti-discrimination is my field).

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speak to chaseracer also

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 06/10/2022 at 18:58, Noel Tidybeard said:

Delivery By Royal Mail

Tracking ID: MM*********GB

Thursday, 6 October

12:46 PM

Parcel arrived at a carrier facility

Birmingham MC,

Wednesday, 5 October

11:59 PM

Parcel arrived at a carrier facility

South West Parcel Hub,

6:59 PM

Package transferred to another courier for delivery

Port Botany, NSW AU

Tuesday, 4 October

10:02 PM

Package is in transit. Flight containing package has arrived.

Egham, Surrey GB

10:25 AM

Package is in transit. Flight containing package has departed.

Egham, Surrey GB

3:17 AM

Parcel left the carrier facility

Jamaica, NEW YORK US

Monday, 3 October

5:04 AM

Package departed an Amazon facility

Trenton, NJ US

Saturday, 1 October

 

Carrier picked up the package.

 

7:05 PM

Package arrived at an Amazon facility

Trenton, NJ US

 

now call me wrong here but Royal Mail prolly could cope with parcel being left in Surrey!

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Egham Airport? Wow - Staines has got one on t'other side from Heathrow now - wonder if Egham Airport is outside the LEZ?

[mercedade]

  On 06/10/2022 at 13:23, Lankytim said:

I remember applying for a job years ago and getting a similar reply. I think there's provision in law to discriminate with recruitment on the grounds of diversity, I forget where I read it but it's all legit and has been a thing for at least 20 years. 

It made me wonder what would happen if you said you were gay to get the job and then "came out" as straight a few months later? Also what do they determine as a minority, if you had a mixed race grandparent would that count? 

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There is a provision where, all things being equal with two otherwise-impossible-to-split candidates, you are permitted to select the candidate(s) from a currently under-represented group, but there are so many hurdles (and frankly, arseache) that would go along with it, that it is realistically never relied upon.

But the law is clear that 'positive' discrimination at the point of employment is illegal. The UK does not permit discrimination on the grounds of any protected characteristic, regardless of the imagined rationale.

Many of the protected characteristics are largely self-defined - including ethnicity.

[Zelandeth]

  On 06/10/2022 at 19:20, EyesWeldedShut said:

So does t'Bini of t'missus - like a limpet even in the wet but it is as low as a go-cart and has very harsh suspension too. Day after my moan I left MK in the middle of the school run - whacking great big SUV's going everywhere like rockets with little nippers in the back seats. Driving the Bini absolutely flat out would put me out in front of them until the speed limit - then they'd just keep accelerating up to the next roundabout and whack on the brakes. It would appear that folks around there like to test the Isofix fittings - not sure how the nippers avoid brain injury the way their little heads snap back and forth though.
Biggest joy is after Leominster - pretty much just me and a luvverly, windy road all the way back to Y Gwyll (local comedy show on TV once upon a time).

Oh - and the Bini has the BMW 'DSC' system on it too - maybe my old skool driving style is the problem but I can't see/feel any difference if it is on or off - nevermind, the little blighter goes like the proverbial in either case.

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I live there.  Yes, drivers in the area are bloody insane.

i refuse to turn right out of our neighbourhood, instead going left and doubling back.  We see accidents there pretty much monthly.

It is an aggressively unfriendly place to drive.  Everyone NEEDS to be somewhere half an hour ago, and woe betide you if you happen to hold them up by 5 seconds.

[High Jetter]

It's endemic. Worst offenders here are young females, or 30ish ones in Chelsea tractors on the school run (very important)

[Metal Guru]

  On 07/10/2022 at 00:16, High Jetter said:

It's endemic. Worst offenders here are young females, or 30ish ones in Chelsea tractors on the school run (very important)

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Few days ago , I made the mistake of going into a town centre at school time (3.30 ish). Above mentioned 30 ish female in an Audi Q something forced her way through and blocks me from going forward. Some other idiot follows through behind her and it’s grid lock until she moves forward. Except now a police car is behind me , all blues and twos, and so she thinks she has to stay still. I wave at her to move forward , so I can get out of the way of the police car, but instead she reverses diagonally without looking, straight into a parked car.  She then drives forward and doesn’t stop to see what she hit .

[cobblers]

In the business center where we work, every radiator in all the communal areas and most of the offices (25000+ sq ft total) has a TRV. Every TRV is turned up to full. They have all the windows open because it's too warm.

Every few days I will walk past the rads in the communal areas and turn the TRVs down. By the next day they're all turned back up to full by the fucking numbskulls who work in the offices.

Give me fucking strength.

[myglaren]

^ Superglue the windows shut.  My kids used to do the same

Daughter had a scare last night.  Twat tailgating her almost ran into the back of her car when she stopped for traffic.

He zoomed round her, stopped in front, got out leaving his door open and was screaming and waving his arms at her, threatening to kill her.

Surprisingly, she was quite scared.  Normally she would have got out and decked him.  She looks and acts the sweet girl but can be lethal where required, very fit and fast and surprisingly strong, martial arts trained.

I think a dashcam would have been a great tool to have had there.

[artdjones]

  On 07/10/2022 at 08:35, cobblers said:

In the business center where we work, every radiator in all the communal areas and most of the offices (25000+ sq ft total) has a TRV. Every TRV is turned up to full. They have all the windows open because it's too warm.

Every few days I will walk past the rads in the communal areas and turn the TRVs down. By the next day they're all turned back up to full by the fucking numbskulls who work in the offices.

Give me fucking strength.

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Usually caused by people who think it's their right to wander around in a t-shirt or something even skimpier every minute they are indoors. Probably best cured by all the fat balding middle aged men wandering around stripped to the waist whenever they get too hot.

[Metal Guru]

Driving up the M6 from Birmingham north a couple of days ago.  Speed restriction signs on and off at random because of “congestion”. There was no congestion apart from that caused by idiots braking hard as soon as they saw a 50mph sign.

Similarly going South a few days before that on M42 , the hard shoulder kept changing from in use to emergencies only at virtually every junction. Late lane changing galore, more manufactured congestion.

I think there are too many people in the control rooms without enough to do all day.

[cobblers]

  On 07/10/2022 at 09:55, Metal Guru said:

Driving up the M6 from Birmingham north a couple of days ago.  Speed restriction signs on and off at random because of “congestion”. There was no congestion apart from that caused by idiots braking hard as soon as they saw a 50mph sign.

Similarly going South a few days before that on M42 , the hard shoulder kept changing from in use to emergencies only at virtually every junction. Late lane changing galore, more manufactured congestion.

I think there are too many people in the control rooms without enough to do all day.

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I have never, not even once seen those matrix signs showing any accurate or useful information, and I used to drive up and down the M1 every day for 8+ years

Sorry, I tell a lie. I was once in the most incredibly thick fog with visibility about 40 feet, crawling along in traffic. I got underneath one of the signs and you could just about make out the word "fog" on it. Thanks guys.

 

[Lankytim]

  On 06/10/2022 at 22:28, mercedade said:

There is a provision where, all things being equal with two otherwise-impossible-to-split candidates, you are permitted to select the candidate(s) from a currently under-represented group, but there are so many hurdles (and frankly, arseache) that would go along with it, that it is realistically never relied upon.

But the law is clear that 'positive' discrimination at the point of employment is illegal. The UK does not permit discrimination on the grounds of any protected characteristic, regardless of the imagined rationale.

Many of the protected characteristics are largely self-defined - including ethnicity.

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This job application was around 2001ish so legislation may well be different now. One employer I looked at said they wasn’t recruiting at the present time, however if I was from a minority or disabled then they were offering interviews.  
 

Hasn’t the RAF been in the news recently for only recruiting from BAME and other minority groups? 

[New POD]

  On 07/10/2022 at 08:35, cobblers said:

In the business center where we work, every radiator in all the communal areas and most of the offices (25000+ sq ft total) has a TRV. Every TRV is turned up to full. They have all the windows open because it's too warm.

Every few days I will walk past the rads in the communal areas and turn the TRVs down. By the next day they're all turned back up to full by the fucking numbskulls who work in the offices.

Give me fucking strength.

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Glue them to position 2.5. 

[cobblers]

  On 07/10/2022 at 11:38, New POD said:

Glue them to position 2.5. 

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I'm half tempted to just shut the balancing valves completely

[iainrcz]

Fitted a new soil pipe on the toilet. Had to lift it out of the way to do it. Isolated and unhooked the filler. 

Fitted new soil pipe, connected all back up and managed to chowder the threads on the bottom of the filler. So obviously it now leaks, even with half a roll of PTFE tape on it 🙄

New part it is then. 

[grogee]

I've received a £50 Halfords voucher, which isn't making me grumpy - far from it, it's a thoughtful gift.

No, it's the fact that those robbing bastards are trying to charge £113 for something that is exactly the same kit as I bought a couple of years back for £25.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 07/10/2022 at 12:14, cobblers said:

I'm half tempted to just shut the balancing valves completely

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I'd do that - gluing the other valves up could be construed as criminininal damage - shutting the balancer (on every other one maybe ??) may be the way to go.
Or perhaps print off a few notices 'wear a cardigan'; 'get more clothes on'; 'it's feckin Autumn dress appropriately'

[beko1987]

  On 07/10/2022 at 15:13, grogee said:

I've received a £50 Halfords voucher, which isn't making me grumpy - far from it, it's a thoughtful gift.

No, it's the fact that those robbing bastards are trying to charge £113 for something that is exactly the same kit as I bought a couple of years back for £25.

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Looks identical to my £11.99 ebay rewind kit, bar the casing is red and all the tools are very surface rusty from being rained on mid job 😂

[grogee]

  On 07/10/2022 at 17:43, beko1987 said:

Looks identical to my £11.99 ebay rewind kit, bar the casing is red and all the tools are very surface rusty from being rained on mid job 😂

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Same, same

[neil1971]

Well this is subtle.

[sheffcortinacentre]

  On 07/10/2022 at 10:04, cobblers said:

I have never, not even once seen those matrix signs showing any accurate or useful information, and I used to drive up and down the M1 every day for 8+ years

Sorry, I tell a lie. I was once in the most incredibly thick fog with visibility about 40 feet, crawling along in traffic. I got underneath one of the signs and you could just about make out the word "fog" on it. Thanks guys.

 

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Passed one recently that was just constantly changing/trying to show all combinations of lights/ signs at once.

Another on a 4 lane stretch had 3 showing 50 while lane 3 was blank.

[New POD]

  On 07/10/2022 at 20:54, sheffcortinacentre said:

Passed one recently that was just constantly changing/trying to show all combinations of lights/ signs at once.

Another on a 4 lane stretch had 3 showing 50 while lane 3 was blank.

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So legally you can go 70 in lane 3 but not undertake the dweeb doing 48 in Lane 4, but if you can move to Lane 4 and get said dweeb to move to Lane 3 he can now speed up to 70 but you have to slow to 50. And therefore can't overtake. I think that sounds like fun. 

[New POD]

My S7 has always had a dodgy connector, so I usually charge it up by magic. Yesterday the screen frooze, so I thought I'd leave it to go to 0 charge.  But it won't take a magic charge. And won't charge via the wire. 

I am on my work phone. It has a dual sim. Must work out how to use it. 

[Lankytim]

We're having the bathroom at home refurbished. Everything out, toilet and sink moved e.t.c The company doing it seem alright but the finish date was yesterday and the room is still empty, no tiles on the walls or anything. The guys said they'd be in this morning (Saturday) to do some tiling but haven't shown due to an upset stomach (I'll take his word for that). Weird that he took all his tools home on Friday afternoon instead of leaving them like he usually does.  Earlier in the week all three of the workmen apparently needed to take the day off to take the van for MOT, I looked up the reg and there's still 10 months remaining on the current one, so presumably it was BS and they were on another job or something, that's on top of a no show last weekend after ripping everything out the previous Friday, When they are here they tend to arrive around 9am and bugger off around 3pm. The entire job was meant to take 5 days max but I think it's going to be more like  10, the wife and kids are getting pretty fed up at being without proper washing facilities and having to make do. 

Oh, and the doorway, which is in a stud wall was meant to be moved 10cm over to allow room for a shower enclosure, which they decided not to do without any consultation as "it should just about fit" I'm not amazing at maths but a 700mm shower tray won't fit inside a 680mm gap. obv moving the doorway was included in the initial quote so we'll have to see how that works out.

[cobblers]

  On 08/10/2022 at 10:25, Lankytim said:

tradesmen

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Out heating packed up 'tother day. I'd have a look at it myself but the landlady had a plumber booked to do a boiler service on Monday anyway so I just let her know, to let the plumber know.

Mrs had all day off work monday, plumber didn't show up. Apparently he had crashed his van but he didn't think to let any of the bookings for that day know. Landlady very apologetic, she booked another guy to come out on Wednesday afternoon.

Mrs finished work at 11:30 and went home to let the guy in. Landlady rang him up at 5pm, and he said "yes I'll be there in half an hour"

6PM we called him "Sorry, I was just leaving my previous job and I have drove my van into a bollard and broke my nose"

 

So just fixed the heating myself. (2 port valve)

[grogee]

  On 07/10/2022 at 15:13, grogee said:

I've received a £50 Halfords voucher, which isn't making me grumpy - far from it, it's a thoughtful gift.

No, it's the fact that those robbing bastards are trying to charge £113 for something that is exactly the same kit as I bought a couple of years back for £25.

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Here's another one. £50 heat shrink.

[Metal Guru]

  On 08/10/2022 at 10:40, grogee said:

Here's another one. £50 heat shrink.

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That’s “only” 33p per piece. Similar pack £3.99 on eBay.

[Yoss]

  On 08/10/2022 at 10:40, grogee said:

Here's another one. £50 heat shrink.

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I thought the first one was ridiculous but defies belief. I'd want a heat gun as well at that price. Not that it needs a heat gun, the stuff I I have upstairs for the model railway shrinks perfectly well with a hair dryer but a heat gun might come in handy for other stuff. 

There doesn't even look like there's that much in it. I bought a box about double that size with five colours for a fraction of that price. 

[High Jetter]

  On 08/10/2022 at 10:25, Lankytim said:

We're having the bathroom at home refurbished

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I do hope you haven't paid in full upfront. It sounds like they're stringing you along TBH.