The grumpy thread

[Wibble]

10 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

I find it difficult these days - so many soft drinks are just horrible since they ditched sugar and went to sweeteners. I've always found diet coke absolutely disgusting

 

My favourite soft drink these days is Tropical Blast at Aldi. Their version of Lilt. No sugar but heavy in aspartame 

Aspartame is fucking poisonous. Some years ago, Mrs W was suffering with breathing difficulties and suspected heart problems. Cardiology couldn’t find anything wrong but acknowledged she had a problem.

She was drinking two cans of Diet Coke a day and, googling her symptoms (I haven’t listed them all) found a link to an American thread, where Aspartame was causing such problems.

She cut out the Diet Coke and the symptoms disappeared quite quickly. Believe it may now be banned in the states but certainly isn’t in Diet Coke in the USA anymore.

We now check everything, aspartame is banned in our household.

[Timewaster]

A friend had constant diarrhea for months, even ended up in hospital with a camera up his butt. Couldn't find a cause.

Then he stopped drinking diet coke and the problem went away after a couple of days.

This must have been 25 years ago.

[Floatylight]

....sakes

Just hit a deer, bent front  wing, smashed grill & bumper damage...

[Pieman]

2 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

....sakes

Just hit a deer, bent front  wing, smashed grill & bumper damage...

Well that's an alternative Christmas roast sorted anyway.

[New POD]

9 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I would normally buy off brand cola, and I’ve noticed that a few shops have started mixing artificial sweeteners into the ‘normal’ versions, meaning that there is no option for people who don’t want artificial sweeteners in their drinks.

I’d say it’s had the desired effect as I don’t drink cola anymore, but I just drink off brand lemonade with a dash of elderflower in it instead.

What’s really annoying is that I’m drinking soft drinks as I’m having a break from alcohol. When it’s so awkward to find something affordable and free of artificial sweeteners I start to think why fucking bother, I might as well just grab some beers…

Water? With 🍯  and 🍋 

[Timewaster]

26 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

....sakes

Just hit a deer, bent front  wing, smashed grill & bumper damage...

It didn't have a red nose did it?

🦌

[Zelandeth]

That was a gigantic pain in the ass, but we are back up and running.

All because one of the unions absolutely refused to budge from the old pump.

So I had to drain the entire damned system.

Then I couldn't find a damned radiator key.  That took nearly an hour to track down.  I have now put it somewhere actually sensible for future use.

We are back up and running though.

Utility room looks like it exploded, but that's a problem for me to deal with tomorrow.

My spine - which hates life at the best of times - now reeeaallly hates me.

[Dave_Q]

12 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I would normally buy off brand cola, and I’ve noticed that a few shops have started mixing artificial sweeteners into the ‘normal’ versions, meaning that there is no option for people who don’t want artificial sweeteners in their drinks.

I’d say it’s had the desired effect as I don’t drink cola anymore, but I just drink off brand lemonade with a dash of elderflower in it instead.

What’s really annoying is that I’m drinking soft drinks as I’m having a break from alcohol. When it’s so awkward to find something affordable and free of artificial sweeteners I start to think why fucking bother, I might as well just grab some beers…

The sugar tax is to blame here, rather than stopping people drinking sugary drinks what it's actually done is reduce choice and many places only stock 1 kind of each drink, which has just under the sugar tax level of sugar in it, topped up by sweeteners.

My wife is sensitive to the taste of sweeteners but she finds aspartame (which is in almost everything) worse than the other one (acesulfame?).

She drinks Old Jamaica ginger beer (sugar free version), you should check the ethnic aisle in the supermarket as some of the good shit like Ting and KA might still be full sugar.

Otherwise the more expensive types of squash/cordial might be worth a look.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Timewaster said:

Well today brought a new discovery.

I had to reluctantly throw away a big greedy slice of apple pie because the custard tasted like paint.

Turned out to be Ambrosia "lighter" custard that is low sugar and full of bloody sweetener.

Low sugar custard. WTF?!

Who would want that?

I realise I am part of a small minority that can taste aspartame but it is absolutely horrible and is turning up in more and more stuff.

Am I the only one who still makes custard from Bird's powder?

[Rocket88]

12 hours ago, Wibble said:

Aspartame is fucking poisonous. Some years ago, Mrs W was suffering with breathing difficulties and suspected heart problems. Cardiology couldn’t find anything wrong but acknowledged she had a problem.

She was drinking two cans of Diet Coke a day and, googling her symptoms (I haven’t listed them all) found a link to an American thread, where Aspartame was causing such problems.

She cut out the Diet Coke and the symptoms disappeared quite quickly. Believe it may now be banned in the states but certainly isn’t in Diet Coke in the USA anymore.

We now check everything, aspartame is banned in our household.

Strange….. I’m type 2 diabetic and Diet Coke has never had an averse affect on me……..

[Rocket88]

12 hours ago, Wibble said:

Aspartame is fucking poisonous. Some years ago, Mrs W was suffering with breathing difficulties and suspected heart problems. Cardiology couldn’t find anything wrong but acknowledged she had a problem.

She was drinking two cans of Diet Coke a day and, googling her symptoms (I haven’t listed them all) found a link to an American thread, where Aspartame was causing such problems.

She cut out the Diet Coke and the symptoms disappeared quite quickly. Believe it may now be banned in the states but certainly isn’t in Diet Coke in the USA anymore.

We now check everything, aspartame is banned in our household.

My  better half ( who is a chemist) says that the real problem is sodium benzoate, which is in a lot of fizzy drinks

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Rocket88 said:

My  better half ( who is a chemist) says that the real problem is sodium benzoate, which is in a lot of fizzy drinks

Sodium Benzoate is a preservative and is used in nearly all processed food. Buy “proper” bread, it’s stake the next day. By a white sliced loaf , and it stays fresh for a week. Good knows what it does to your guts.

[myglaren]

[outlaw118]

Watching the telly while pottering about, saw the Sally Army advert..."George will be all alone on Christmas day....." etc.

Am I the only one that thinks YOU LUCKY BASTARD?

[cobblers]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

Sodium Benzoate is a preservative and is used in nearly all processed food. Buy “proper” bread, it’s stake the next day. By a white sliced loaf , and it stays fresh for a week. Good knows what it does to your guts.

Yup, there's a little bakery near work that makes absolutely beautiful sourdough, focaccia and stuff, but the owner has to warn new customers that it won't last after she got a few snotty google reviews "£5 for a focaccia and 4 days later it's totally stale! this place is not selling fresh produce like they say" etc.

I feel a bit bad for them actually, they make everything fresh from the best ingredients and people give them grief for charging £2.50 for their pastries that are often still warm, fresh from the oven

One tight miserable bastard left a review saying "I went in here with my wife and we asked for 2 coffee and 2 croissants, they wanted £10.00!!! we told the owner this was extortionate and just walked out"

[AnnoyingPentium]

Come out of my work, go to start the Vectra and the clutch pedal sinks into the floor. AVAS.

Merry Christmas folks.

[Remspoor]

Grumpy about where has my time gone... 50 years ago.

 

[beko1987]

On 24/12/2023 at 13:16, AnnoyingPentium said:

Come out of my work, go to start the Vectra and the clutch pedal sinks into the floor. AVAS.

Merry Christmas folks.

Quick. Do a clutch swap on ghostys while he isn't looking

(can you flick the pedal back up with your foot?) 

[EyesWeldedShut]

5 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

(can you flick the pedal back up with your foot?) 

Probably not.
Ayrshire folks leave secondary school with two club feet due to too many Eightsome Reels, Dashing White Sergeants and the like.
Stress fractures and bunions abound - a  legacy of Rabbie Burns and the need to continually feed the resulting tourism machine with young, good looking and  nimble Scottish country dancers.
Hence a locally high proportion of Mobility vehicles, badermatics and no flicking of clutch pedals - heavy duty bungees may* be a local substitute for clutch flicking

If it don't get you in your twenties, it'll bite you later (hence Ovlov Badermatic here 45 years after my last Eightsome Reel  )

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

35 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Quick. Do a clutch swap on ghostys while he isn't looking

(can you flick the pedal back up with your foot?) 

Clutch is returning by itself now, but there's no weight to it nor will it go into gear. Will wheel it to the garage down the road and leave it there, its my regular place anyway.

22 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Ayrshire folks leave secondary school with two club feet due to too many Eightsome Reels, Dashing White Sergeants and the like.
Stress fractures and bunions abound - a  legacy of Rabbie Burns and the need to continually feed the resulting tourism machine with young, good looking and  nimble Scottish country dancers.
Hence a locally high proportion of Mobility vehicles, badermatics and no flicking of clutch pedals - heavy duty bungees may* be a local substitute for clutch flicking

Can confirm, motabmobiles galore here.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Probably not.
Ayrshire folks leave secondary school with two club feet due to too many Eightsome Reels, Dashing White Sergeants and the like.
Stress fractures and bunions abound - a  legacy of Rabbie Burns and the need to continually feed the resulting tourism machine with young, good looking and  nimble Scottish country dancers.
Hence a locally high proportion of Mobility vehicles, badermatics and no flicking of clutch pedals - heavy duty bungees may* be a local substitute for clutch flicking

If it don't get you in your twenties, it'll bite you later (hence Ovlov Badermatic here 45 years after my last Eightsome Reel  )

 

I used to with my laguna 2! The pedal would progressively get lower and lower with each push. Fine sometimes, with maybe 5/6 pushes an entire journey, but I'd be crawling in thick traffic with the pedal on the floor and the bit point on the weight of my foot. 

Pulled it back up, normal service was resumed for a short while. 

I started to get more scared that one day the pedal wouldn't return and I'd have to have an FTP and was instrumental in scrapping the car sadly when I totted up parts (slave cylinder needed the gearbox out, and there's a few 'while your in there' s on a 200k laguna 2 that had a vibrating dmf anyway... 

Still slightly regret it now, was probably the best car I've ever had 😢

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Still slightly regret it now, was probably the best car I've ever had 😢

Shh! Are Lagunas not one of the horseless carriages of Beelzebub that Shall Not Be Mentioned?

Actually - I had an 'S' plate Laguna Estate that was a very good car and would probably have been a longer term prospect if it had not ate the cambelt, 
To be fair, that was 100% my fault in that I knew the alternator belt was fraying, bought a new one and just never got around to fitting it before the old one broke, slipped under the cambelt cover and tripped the cambelt.
Up until that point all it had done was two 'drumstick' track rods and the usual stuff (ironically including a new cambelt).

For some reason Renaults seem to have 'meh' reputation in the UK? Kind of a Marmite marque?

[Garythesnail]

On 22/12/2023 at 13:53, Popsicle said:

Amazon guys though, the conditions of entry for them are have you a vehicle and when can you start.

 

On 22/12/2023 at 14:15, sierraman said:

bottom feeders that will cut corners. 

 

Son in law , who works for one of the national recovery services, when allocated a job to assist a Mercedes Vito van with DPD stickers was politley told to FRO by plod who were already on-scene.

No tax, MOT, insurance and dodgy tyres. Prick was already in  cuffs in the back of the plodmobile.

Good.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Shh! Are Lagunas not one of the horseless carriages of Beelzebub that Shall Not Be Mentioned?

Actually - I had an 'S' plate Laguna Estate that was a very good car and would probably have been a longer term prospect if it had not ate the cambelt, 
To be fair, that was 100% my fault in that I knew the alternator belt was fraying, bought a new one and just never got around to fitting it before the old one broke, slipped under the cambelt cover and tripped the cambelt.
Up until that point all it had done was two 'drumstick' track rods and the usual stuff (ironically including a new cambelt).

For some reason Renaults seem to have 'meh' reputation in the UK? Kind of a Marmite marque?

It helped I had a phase 1 mark 2 I think, and a basic one at that. So a nice manual handbrake, nice manual gearbox, and little toys to break! Back windows still did a Renault iirc, but I never sat in them so wedged them up and left it be

The 2005 Initiale Paris was lovely too but had many issues that weren't worth fixing. 

The main issue with them nowadays is the amount people want for them 😢

[sierraman]

On 24/12/2023 at 13:16, AnnoyingPentium said:

Come out of my work, go to start the Vectra and the clutch pedal sinks into the floor. AVAS.

Merry Christmas folks.

Possibly clutch slave cylinder. Gearbox off job then. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Possibly clutch slave cylinder. Gearbox off job then. 

Yeah that's what I'm reckoning too. Got a clutch kit here including the slave cylinder ready to go on. I'll farm that out methinks.

[sierraman]

19 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Yeah that's what I'm reckoning too. Got a clutch kit here including the slave cylinder ready to go on. I'll farm that out methinks.

100% would, not the weather for pissing about with that on a driveway. 

[hairnet]

On 24/12/2023 at 11:15, myglaren said:

which is why xmas week you go nowhere near a large supermarket

 

[Pieman]

5 hours ago, hairnet said:

which is why you go nowhere near a large supermarket 

 

FTFY.  As soon as 99% of people go near one, they lose their ability to think or notice anyone else is around them.

[Zelandeth]

My entire goddamn house reeks of cigarette smoke.  My lungs feel like they've been through a cheese grater, and my head is pounding (even more than usual) and has been for about 48 hours now.

Having chain smoking relations over for Xmas sucks.  Especially if you've got asthma.

I thought it was about the most repulsive habit on the planet even before seeing it in black and white as a cause of death on my mother's death certificate.

Sure it will only take about a week to get rid of the stink.