The grumpy thread

[GMcD]

17 hours ago, GMcD said:

Spent the last hour pulling the washing machine out as it's decided to lose all its water and soak the utility. Even better waters seeped into both the toilet and my study through the wall. My study floor is squelching. 

Fuck sakes! 

 

Ripped up the flooring in the Utility and Study. 

I've got it pretty dry now through using the dehumidifier, fan heaters and central heating on full pelt. My mate has a damp meter I can borrow to check it's actually dried out. New build concrete floors so no basement to worry about. 

I could go through insurance, but unless I run into issues I'll probably be able to fix it over a weekend for less the excess,  increased premiums and general fucking hassle of it all. (£550 excess for escape of water..must remember to check the small print of my renewal next time!).

LVT will be used instead of laminate as it least that won't be immediately fucked should it happen again.   Annoying but could've been worse. 

[jakebullet]

I've stayed an extra day at the Mrs's for an appointment. Just got back home, and I'm in the shit 'cos idiot sister wanted a lift to fetch her car. Er, nobody mentioned anything about IS to me. Yes, Ma knows I'm totally in the dark. But I should have come back pronto, just in case some halfwit who can't be arsed to drop a text message wants driving around. 

TLDR: I'm crap at mind reading.

[anonymous user]

4 hours ago, rattlecan said:

Arseholes in their company cars (usually reps, but not exclusively) sat outside my business unit  talking on their phones through the car speakers with the volume still on 90mph driving  setting so you can here them in the next county.

Which has just happened for 15 mins 

Next time join in on the conversation with them, offer helpful suggestions, or alternatively pretend the chap is in a pub and start arguing that they have had enough to drink and spilled your pint that should go down well with their boss.

[brandersnatch]

49 minutes ago, jakebullet said:

I've stayed an extra day at the Mrs's for an appointment. Just got back home, and I'm in the shit 'cos idiot sister wanted a lift to fetch her car. Er, nobody mentioned anything about IS to me. Yes, Ma knows I'm totally in the dark. But I should have come back pronto, just in case some halfwit who can't be arsed to drop a text message wants driving around. 

TLDR: I'm crap at mind reading.

Can you not just tell Idiot Sister to fuck right off? Seems a reasonable solution to me. 

[jakebullet]

15 minutes ago, brandersnatch said:

Can you not just tell Idiot Sister to fuck right off? Seems a reasonable solution to me. 

Poor little lamb has been having a terrible day. I didn't mind read to drive her about. Then when she went to pay for car timing belt changing man told her engine isn't original to car and belt was about to pop. N he wants paying in Johnny Cash, when she has no actual money and was intending to bang it on credit card.

But yeah, a fuck off would be reasonable, except as usual she doesn't communicate with me. It's all suggestions* to the Ma, n hope I do what she wants by remote control. Perhaps she'll learn to ask after having to walk home.

[Rightnider]

The drainage system has finally had it.  It’s been raining and snowing a lot this winter and water is seeping through the wall in the basement. Time to talk to the bank I guess. 

[brandersnatch]

18 minutes ago, jakebullet said:

But yeah, a fuck off would be reasonable, except as usual she doesn't communicate with me. It's all suggestions* to the Ma, n hope I do what she wants by remote control. Perhaps she'll learn to ask after having to walk home.

Not communicating with you is surely all the more reason to play the fuck right off card?

[Wibble]

3 hours ago, GMcD said:

Ripped up the flooring in the Utility and Study. 

I've got it pretty dry now through using the dehumidifier, fan heaters and central heating on full pelt. My mate has a damp meter I can borrow to check it's actually dried out. New build concrete floors so no basement to worry about. 

I could go through insurance, but unless I run into issues I'll probably be able to fix it over a weekend for less the excess,  increased premiums and general fucking hassle of it all. (£550 excess for escape of water..must remember to check the small print of my renewal next time!).

LVT will be used instead of laminate as it least that won't be immediately fucked should it happen again.   Annoying but could've been worse. 

Don’t rely on a damp meter to determine if concrete slab is dry. Takes much longer than you think and really needs rapid air movement across the surface, as well as a dehumidifier.

We would carry out an Equilibrium Relative Humidity test of the slab to be sure it really is dry, otherwise you could have failure of new flooring installation. This requires specialist kit.

[Zelandeth]

Ordered a couple of parts for one of the cars middle of the day on Wednesday.  Made a point of finding a UK based supplier who had the parts in stock "as that will be quicker than ordering from Germany."

Yeah, have they been dispatched yet?  Nope! 

Would they be here from Germany by now?  Most likely.  Almost definitely by tomorrow morning.

Yes it's a minor grump in the grand scheme of things, but it's still annoyed me.

[cort1977]

First World problem I know, but why is it so bloody hard to get from terminal 5 to terminal 4 at heathrow? I've been to a lot of shit airports in my life but they let you walk from one terminal to another. It took me an hour to go about a mile today, ended up on the tube to Hatton Cross and back. Was starting to feel like Tom Hanks by the end of it.

[Zelandeth]

13 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

First World problem I know, but why is it so bloody hard to get from terminal 5 to terminal 4 at heathrow? I've been to a lot of shit airports in my life but they let you walk from one terminal to another. It took me an hour to go about a mile today, ended up on the tube to Hatton Cross and back. Was starting to feel like Tom Hanks by the end of it.

Oh this a thousand times.  We ran into this problem last time we went to the US.  Return flight was direct, whereas outbound was via Paris.  So return flight was into T5, we'd left from T4, so the car was at T4.

We'd been on the go for >20 hours thanks to delays, had had a horrible flight full of screaming kids, been pissed about by the border crossing, and just wanted to get to the damned car and go home.  The discovered there was a signal failure so the shuttle rail service wasn't running.  Was an overnight flight as well which is never a great start heading this way.

Nearly two bloody hours it took us...we were all about ready to murder someone.  If we'd known it was going to be such a bloody hassle we'd just have got a taxi - but we kept thinking "surely we're missing something..." At every step which then went wrong and ended up with us getting further and further away from our destination!

Never. Ever. Again. Even if it doubles the sodding cost, we will make sure to fly back to the same bloody terminal we left from.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Because the world but especially the UK is fucked.

Anyone in charge of anything hasn't got a clue what or how to do it.

So just pass the buck to the people below them.

[EyesWeldedShut]

54 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

First World problem I know, but why is it so bloody hard to get from terminal 5 to terminal 4 at heathrow? I've been to a lot of shit airports in my life but they let you walk from one terminal to another. It took me an hour to go about a mile today, ended up on the tube to Hatton Cross and back. Was starting to feel like Tom Hanks by the end of it.

Because LHR is a dog's dinner of cobbled together architectural fuckups loosely coupled in a semi-airport-like format. T1 , T2 & T3 kind of hung together as the  'originals' even if T3 was out on a bit of a (geographical) limb.
T4 & T5 are extremely out by themselves and (especially the latter) are quite divorced from the other four. 

Better to think of them as (almost) separate destinations??

6 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Anyone in charge of anything hasn't got a clue what or how to do it.

Those in charge of keeping the money down in that there London knew exactly what they were about - have a gander at how hard they pushed to get T5 up and running (even relocating the, rather vast, local shiteworks) rather than lose the traffic to one of the regionals.

https://framearch.co.uk/t5/2007/04/24/the-perry-oaks-water-treatment-works/

(I'd take issue with the use of 'disused' in that article as Perry Oaks was only decommissioned after BAA and Thames Water reached a £££ agreement)

[sheffcortinacentre]

I ment the day to day managerial side.

[rattlecan]

35 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Because the world but especially the UK is fucked.

Anyone in charge of anything hasn't got a clue what or how to do it.

So just pass the buck to the people below them.

Which is why in my ‘old age’ (59 last week) I’m digressing into hating everyone & everything about the modern world. (Bit ironic saying that on the internet, but clearly none of you are actual people, just replies, I can dip in & out of) I don’t live in a particular over populated area but I am genuinely spending more time looking at houses in the middle nowhere, so I don’t have to put up with cunts

[Wack]

BBFC 

42 minutes ago, rattlecan said:

Which is why in my ‘old age’ (59 last week) I’m digressing into hating everyone & everything about the modern world. (Bit ironic saying that on the internet, but clearly none of you are actual people, just replies, I can dip in & out of) I don’t live in a particular over populated area but I am genuinely spending more time looking at houses in the middle nowhere, so I don’t have to put up with cunts

It's just an age thing, wait until you hit 60, everyone else  instantly becomes a cunt, especially if they wear a hat while driving 

Doesn't matter what kind of hat,

trilby, old cunt,

baseball cap, just a cunt 

Other cunts stop you going where you want to go just by being in your way, phrases like, " where are all these cunts going, it's 11am" and "does no cunt work anymore" just enter your vocabulary and after a week or so just fall out of your mouth. 

I'm looking for this wholesale so I can rig it up on my car with a crop sprayer so it works like a machine gun 

[Wack]

BBFC, 

Just gone to watch a film I knew nothing about but the " somebody might be offended" so we can't just age rate it warning  more or less told me the whole fucking plot. 

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, cort1977 said:

First World problem I know, but why is it so bloody hard to get from terminal 5 to terminal 4 at heathrow? I've been to a lot of shit airports in my life but they let you walk from one terminal to another. It took me an hour to go about a mile today, ended up on the tube to Hatton Cross and back. Was starting to feel like Tom Hanks by the end of it.

 

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Oh this a thousand times.  We ran into this problem last time we went to the US.  Return flight was direct, whereas outbound was via Paris.  So return flight was into T5, we'd left from T4, so the car was at T4.

We'd been on the go for >20 hours thanks to delays, had had a horrible flight full of screaming kids, been pissed about by the border crossing, and just wanted to get to the damned car and go home.  The discovered there was a signal failure so the shuttle rail service wasn't running.  Was an overnight flight as well which is never a great start heading this way.

Nearly two bloody hours it took us...we were all about ready to murder someone.  If we'd known it was going to be such a bloody hassle we'd just have got a taxi - but we kept thinking "surely we're missing something..." At every step which then went wrong and ended up with us getting further and further away from our destination!

Never. Ever. Again. Even if it doubles the sodding cost, we will make sure to fly back to the same bloody terminal we left from.

It's of no use to you now I realise but the 490 bus goes from T5 to T4 (and on to Hatton Cross, Feltham and Richmond) and takes about 10 minutes. It's a normal TfL service but is free within the airport as are all TfL services from Hatton Cross to anywhere within the airport.

If I'm using Heathrow I just park in Hanworth where there is unrestricted parking, then get the bus in. The 490 goes to T4 and T5, and the 285 goes to T1,2 and 3. Both are 24 hour services so even at 4am on a Sunday they run at 30 minute intervals and obviously much more frequently during the day.

I know that won't work for everyone but coming from Southampton it's five minutes off the the end of the M3 to where I leave the car. At £1.75 each way why on earth would you pay to park at the airport?

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, brandersnatch said:

Can you not just tell Idiot Sister to fuck right off? Seems a reasonable solution to me. 

Hello, are you new here?

It's been suggested many times before, but Jake's a stubborn bugger and loves her really. I think.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Because LHR is a dog's dinner of cobbled together architectural fuckups loosely coupled in a semi-airport-like format. T1 , T2 & T3 kind of hung together as the  'originals' even if T3 was out on a bit of a (geographical) limb.
T4 & T5 are extremely out by themselves and (especially the latter) are quite divorced from the other four. 

Better to think of them as (almost) separate destinations??

Those in charge of keeping the money down in that there London knew exactly what they were about - have a gander at how hard they pushed to get T5 up and running (even relocating the, rather vast, local shiteworks) rather than lose the traffic to one of the regionals.

https://framearch.co.uk/t5/2007/04/24/the-perry-oaks-water-treatment-works/

(I'd take issue with the use of 'disused' in that article as Perry Oaks was only decommissioned after BAA and Thames Water reached a £££ agreement)

Edinburgh is a one terminal airport but it still takes an hour from the plane landing to getting out of there, what with the passport machines not working and the slowest baggage handlers in the world.

[Wibble]

19 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Edinburgh is a one terminal airport but it still takes an hour from the plane landing to getting out of there, what with the passport machines not working and the slowest baggage handlers in the world.

And what becomes a single carriageway exit is a joke too.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Ordered a couple of parts for one of the cars middle of the day on Wednesday.  Made a point of finding a UK based supplier who had the parts in stock "as that will be quicker than ordering from Germany."

Yeah, have they been dispatched yet?  Nope! 

Would they be here from Germany by now?  Most likely.  Almost definitely by tomorrow morning.

Yes it's a minor grump in the grand scheme of things, but it's still annoyed me.

I had one like this recently,

I picked up from Japan this cute little 4W T5 switch start (magnetic ballast) fluorescent batten

the 4W T5 fluorescent tube is the smallest normal fluorescent tube out there, but actual proper mains powered fixtures for them where never really made for them here in the UK sadly, hence why I went out of my way to import one from Japan

but the fixture being Japanese uses a special sort of stater, like so

however I know of a wide selection of specialist lighting wholesalers here in the UK so I do a quick check and find one that does the starters it requires, so I thought great, once the fixture arrives Ill order a couple starters for it and be on my way

 

but It took them well over a week just to dispatch the starters, let alone for them to then make themselves through the postal system, I legitimately would of probably been better off ordering the starters from Japan with the fixture, both time and price wise

to make matters worse, the lighting wholesaler also had another type of fluorescent starter I required, for some special high power fluorescent tubes which I have that I wish to start in the most gentle way possible,  so i thought great lets tag these onto the order as well while im at it

now I think you will all agree thats a fairly unique looking starter right? its fucking translucent purple has "EFS600UVX" written in fucking gold down the side of it

 

but this is what was in the bag instead, just regular old fairly generic glow starters

twenty fucking quid I had just spent with this wholesaler on some fucking fluorescent tube starters, that fucking stings in itself, so you think they could of done the decent thing and sent me the specialised starters that they had listed which I had explicitly ordered...

so now I have had to faff about sending them back asking explicitly for the right item, and only today in-fact several weeks later after placing the order have I got another order dispatch notification from them

fuck knows what will actually turn up this time!

 

at least the Japanese starters where correct so I was able to light the fixture

[Wack]

7 hours ago, Wibble said:

And what becomes a single carriageway exit is a joke too.

2018 I went to Normandy in the car, 2 weeks of driving bliss, I shit you not, no traffic jams at all, not one 

Got back to Southampton and it took me an hour to get out of the port to the M27 

[Zelandeth]

11 hours ago, Yoss said:

 

It's of no use to you now I realise but the 490 bus goes from T5 to T4 (and on to Hatton Cross, Feltham and Richmond) and takes about 10 minutes. It's a normal TfL service but is free within the airport as are all TfL services from Hatton Cross to anywhere within the airport.

If I'm using Heathrow I just park in Hanworth where there is unrestricted parking, then get the bus in. The 490 goes to T4 and T5, and the 285 goes to T1,2 and 3. Both are 24 hour services so even at 4am on a Sunday they run at 30 minute intervals and obviously much more frequently during the day.

I know that won't work for everyone but coming from Southampton it's five minutes off the the end of the M3 to where I leave the car. At £1.75 each way why on earth would you pay to park at the airport?

See, now all they needed was someone or even a sign at the platform or by the machines you needed to get the (free) tickets for the train from explaining the train wasn't running and to get the 490 bus from wherever instead.  Rather than having half the people trying to leave the airport going on a giant treasure hunt to try to work out how to get back to their car.  

I think that's what annoys me even more is that it's a situation that was so infuriating and could have been avoided by something so simple!  Granted, nobody we asked (including at the main information desk) knew of any way other than the train to get between the terminals either, so having someone there who actually knows would be a good start.

[Metal Guru]

12 hours ago, rattlecan said:

Which is why in my ‘old age’ (59 last week) I’m digressing into hating everyone & everything about the modern world. (Bit ironic saying that on the internet, but clearly none of you are actual people, just replies, I can dip in & out of) I don’t live in a particular over populated area but I am genuinely spending more time looking at houses in the middle nowhere, so I don’t have to put up with cunts

Saw the first ever episode of One Foot in the Grave the other day. After a few minutes realised Victor Meldrew was portrayed as being 60 and I passed that a few years ago. 

[mercedade]

On 16/02/2024 at 12:36, Rust Collector said:

I was chatting to my Dad last night, he's been in the NHS all his working life and was a senior manager for some time. His advice was to stick post-it notes round the side of my laptop screen with short notes based around the answers I'm expecting to have to provide. 'Just make sure they can't see them on the webcam' 😂

I turn up to every interview, in person or online, with a (professional, smart looking) notepad in which I've written out 10-12 examples of Things Wot I've Done, laid out in bullet points, one scenario per page. Each page is headed with at least 3 cues (eg 'time management' or 'resolving conflict') it could be relevant to.

When I'm asked the 'could you give me an example of a time when you've managed a challenging situation?' I then explain that I'm just going to see which of these examples best fits the question and then answer. When I'm done flicking through, I always ask them to repeat the question before giving my anecdote.

Interviews aren't a memory test, they're an opportunity to demonstrate you have the skills they need and I would never have an issue with someone giving themselves the best chance of giving a good answer. Twenty years of reasonably senior public sector roles (including NHS) and the only feedback I've ever had about the notepad from interview panels was "that's a really nice idea".

[loserone]

That's a really nice idea.  Mrs L1 and I both have interviews on Tuesday next week, I'll be stealing that

[jakebullet]

Had Ma kick off about the box in hall she wants taking to idiot sister's house. Contents: flat packed table & chairs, two person lift, fucking heavy. Been here months, as idiot sister has come up with the cunning plan of send all parcels here so she can fuck about freely while we deal with deliveries.

So dragged the fucker on my own, dumped at sister's house. Ma angry 'cos what if I've damaged it? Who gives a fuck, should have collected it then. Told IS, stop sending shit here. She's pissed and coming up with bullshit that she's been trying to collect it for months but Ma won't let her.

Yes, I know the solution and will be implementing it starting today. Parcel for Idiot Johnson? Nah mate, she doesn't live here. Return it to sender plz.

[andyberg]

Hate to say it chap but you need to kick back and say fuck off to it all. I know we all tell you this but really, you should do it. There is no point moaning about it if you are going to simply keep on doing it. You will feel much better when you do. 

Stress, running about, pissed off= early time in the ground.

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

See, now all they needed was someone or even a sign at the platform or by the machines you needed to get the (free) tickets for the train from explaining the train wasn't running and to get the 490 bus from wherever instead.  Rather than having half the people trying to leave the airport going on a giant treasure hunt to try to work out how to get back to their car.  

I think that's what annoys me even more is that it's a situation that was so infuriating and could have been avoided by something so simple!  Granted, nobody we asked (including at the main information desk) knew of any way other than the train to get between the terminals either, so having someone there who actually knows would be a good start.

I doubt anybody at the airport knew this either. And whilst the tubes, buses and Elizabeth Line are all run by TfL I don't think they talk to eachother. 

And to be honest if somebody at the airport did start telling everybody where the 490 is it would get totally overwhelmed as it's only a single decker, Dennis Dart or whatever the modern equivalent is. The 285 to T1,2,3 is a full size decker so a bit more useful. But I can tell everybody on Autoshite without it overwhelming the service.

But for future reference it goes from right outside the T5 entrance about 1 minute walk from where the escalator comes up from the Underground. It really is very convenient. Which is annoying as British Airways seem to have moved their European flights to T3 which is in the arse end of nowhere. It's about a ten minute walk along multiple moving walkways from the so called T1,2,3 Underground station

Last time I used it was at 5am on a Sunday and it was full and standing by the time we got to Feltham. They must be the only buses in the country that are running full at that time of day. It seems to be mostly staff at that time.