The grumpy thread

[Markeh]

33 minutes ago, Tickman said:

Time for a bit of coasting and job hunting then.

Oh absolutely, work laptop went off for the weekend as soon as I was off the call (manager even offered me a reference, decision was out of his hands), straight on LinkedIn and other sites looking, removed Teams and Outlook from my phone and when I'm back at work on Tuesday they'll be finding out precisely how many things they've now got to take responsibility for because I won't be doing it any more. I'd have said it today but don't want it to come across as a kneejerk reaction.

[Matty]

On 29/02/2024 at 05:56, worldofceri said:

I'm calling it a day.  Not making ends meet any more, unfortunately.  I did send a message out to all my clients, including many on here that have used me regularly and/or recently - apologies if I missed anyone.  I'll still be on the forum (mostly lurking) and haven't discounted making a comeback at some point, but I just don't know yet - all the balls are very much up in the air at present.

Just seen this. Crying shame pal. You were superb with me, as I'm sure you were with your other work. Shame another reliable professional has to call it a day. Best of luck with the next step.

[DavieW]

They're "wheels", not f*cking "rims" 🤬

[Remspoor]

Spain: The fruit trees are in blossom, the grass needs another cut, leaves are coming out. But it snows

[hairnet]

so faithful gloves died (after 10 years) and wanted a pair of proper leather not fake or lorica

sportsbike shop have stock but their closest shop to me is leeds

no way

i have to try them on cos on the page even before you get to review it says customer say smaller than expected per size

so i want to try them

theres one in reading on the way down to brighton tomorrow but found out reading are at home

and the shop is up the street from the ground - completely fuck that

but theres one in bletchley which ive been to before (hi @Six-cylinder) 

but from here its 25 miles the wrong way home on sunday

ffs

theres a j and s not quite in oxford or the one in northwich (thats closer to chester than my house) but they have no stock

ffs x2

*drinks tea

[auntiemaryscanary]

58 minutes ago, hairnet said:

so faithful gloves died (after 10 years) and wanted a pair of proper leather not fake or lorica

sportsbike shop have stock but their closest shop to me is leeds

no way

i have to try them on cos on the page even before you get to review it says customer say smaller than expected per size

so i want to try them

theres one in reading on the way down to brighton tomorrow but found out reading are at home

and the shop is up the street from the ground - completely fuck that

but theres one in bletchley which ive been to before (hi @Six-cylinder) 

but from here its 25 miles the wrong way home on sunday

ffs

theres a j and s not quite in oxford or the one in northwich (thats closer to chester than my house) but they have no stock

ffs x2

*drinks tea

Sportsbikeshop does free returns if your order is over £25. Order 3 sizes and return the other 2. I ordered 2 pairs of bike gloves and returned the pair I didn't need. It's all online and seems to be automatic. Of course you have to pay for the full order upfront.

[sheffcortinacentre]

6 hours ago, DavieW said:

They're "wheels", not f*cking "rims" 🤬

There not hoops either.

[Pieman]

6 hours ago, DavieW said:

They're "wheels", not f*cking "rims" 🤬

On similar lines - when you take something such as an exhaust pipe off a car, you "remove" it, not "delete" it.

And something going vaguely sideways is not "drifting".  (A guy on my Facebook says stuff like this all the time and shares unintelligible chavspeak "quotes", he likes to think he's some hard-man "gangsta" but is really a silly little chav-boy who lives with his mum and if ever he tried to act hard in front of anyone would just be laughed at and melt quicker than an ice cream in July.)

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

There not hoops either.

Rim ( or bare rim) distinguishes between a wheel without a tyre and a wheel with a tyre. Just avoids confusion especially on eBay .

[myglaren]

Wheel.

Wheel & tyre.

Tyre.

I blame the Americans.

[Saabnut]

On its own - Wheel rim

Similarly Tyre

Together - Wheel

That is how I understand it

[lesapandre]

On 06/03/2024 at 19:51, RoverFolkUs said:

Popped into a charity shop this afternoon and witnessed a delightful* lady hurling abuse at one of the poor volunteers

She'd picked up some pathetic item of bric-a-brac from a 4 for £1 bin, it scanned through the till at 50p so presumably it's 50p each or 4 for £1.. makes sense to me

She's not happy that's it's scanned through at 50p

"But it says 4 for £1 on the bin" 

Volunteer - "yes, but you've selected one item so it's 50p" 

"But 4 for £1 is 25p each, so if I'm having one then it should be 25p" 

Volunteer - "it's 50p and that's what it's scanned through at, I can't do anything about it I'm afraid"

"Well this is ridiculous, what difference does it make to you?" 

She storms off to the 4 for £1 bin, selects 3 more items at random and takes them to the till again. 

She quietly, smugly pays her £1 for the 4 items. 

She snatched them away from the counter, storms out, and chucks the 3 items back in the bin.. 

Eh, what the actual fuck? 😂

Firstly who goes into a charity shop and quibbles over 25p, and what sort of batshit crazy logic is that? 😂

Sadly quite a lot of people. They think 'charity' applies to the buyers instead of it applying to the cause in which they are sold.

[lesapandre]

On 07/03/2024 at 18:26, DavieW said:

My broth in law is doing the London marathon later this year and raising money for his company's chosen charity.

I went onto the donation page (not Just Giving), filled out the form and made my donation, all good. The next page has a box "do you want to make a donation?" and gives a selection of amounts.  I've just given so why the f*ck would I want to make a donation on top of the donation I've just done? 

I've noticed similar in charity shops - go to the till, pay for your purchase, then the volunteer asks "do you want to make a donation?" Er, I just gave you £xx - if that's not a donation, I don't know what is.

Money grabbing barstewards.

This is now more common. It's the US 'tipping culture' making it's first tentative steps into UK life.

Tesco do it on their self service tills and it's turning up in other locations too.

Look up US tipping culture on 'tweb.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/16/tipping-culture-in-the-us-is-out-of-control-were-even-asked-to-tip-self-checkouts

May be understandable for charity shops but not elsewhere...

WH Smith - "so you want chocolate..."

Superdrug  - "do you want this product..."

Any coffeeshop - "can I get you anything else..."

Etc etc. 

It's another version of the hidden add on - like 'booking fees' etc.

Give it 5 years and it will be everywhere like the US. I've already seen the prompt on tap- in payments in coffee shops. 

[artdjones]

It was refreshing to be in Portugal recently, where no-one seems to expect a tip, although we did tip 10% as service was always really good. Before we left my wife looked up suitable tipping for cleaning staff at hotels and it's considered nice to leave €1 per day you stayed, which we improved on a bit. But it wasn't taken for granted, and we were thanked, not in a servile way, just a thank you from one person to another.

I could live in Portugal.

[sheffcortinacentre]

21 hours ago, Pieman said:

On similar lines - when you take something such as an exhaust pipe off a car, you "remove" it, not "delete" it.

And something going vaguely sideways is not "drifting".  (A guy on my Facebook says stuff like this all the time and shares unintelligible chavspeak "quotes", he likes to think he's some hard-man "gangsta" but is really a silly little chav-boy who lives with his mum and if ever he tried to act hard in front of anyone would just be laughed at and melt quicker than an ice cream in July.)

Used to know someone who never had a puncture was always a blowout, in roughly 40 years of driving I've had one blowout.

[Zelandeth]

Fscking weather.

Me: Wants to put the Trabant back together.

Weather: Hah!  *Rains all day.*

Guess that'll be waiting till tomorrow if I can find time then.

[Morris 63]

The shonky Shogun of shame needs both front drop links replacing before the MOT in a couple of weeks. They'll need the angle grinder as they're properly rusted on.

Instead of doing that in the drizzle I'm potting up 130 plants my OH ordered as she's in the US. Fair enough, her dad's very ill so it's a last minute rush over there, but dear God I hate gardening. Knowing my luck I'll stick them in upside-down!

[sheffcortinacentre]

Fuxsake didn't you check orientation first.

[myglaren]

Had BT here on Friday, they have been coming since November.  Installed a new master socket, a hybrid thingumyjig and a wifi repeater.

Convinced it has been even slower since and today it has been getting slower and slower.

Ran bleachbit (like CCleaner) and rebooted and it has taken ages to get anything going, especially the BT site, hasn't got into that at all.

I'm convinced it is the rain slowing down the internet electrons.

[Bren]

Booked a dentist appointment a couple of months ago. For April. The best they could do.

I got a letter today informing me the appointment was cancelled. Nothing to even say " arrange new appointment."

[sierraman]

On 09/03/2024 at 01:14, Pieman said:

On similar lines - when you take something such as an exhaust pipe off a car, you "remove" it, not "delete" it.

And something going vaguely sideways is not "drifting".  (A guy on my Facebook says stuff like this all the time and shares unintelligible chavspeak "quotes", he likes to think he's some hard-man "gangsta" but is really a silly little chav-boy who lives with his mum and if ever he tried to act hard in front of anyone would just be laughed at and melt quicker than an ice cream in July.)

I’ve noticed a lot of kids use Americanisms these days, I’ve had to reprimand my own for using ‘windshield’ and ‘sidewalk’ in the past. 

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, Bren said:

Booked a dentist appointment a couple of months ago. For April. The best they could do.

I got a letter today informing me the appointment was cancelled. Nothing to even say " arrange new appointment."

NHS? My wife and eldest daughter go through this hoo-har virtually every time. They have 6-monthly appointments (mandatory, to remain on the books) except 75% of appointments get cancelled, often on the day of the appointment. Then several weeks later they get a new appointment and the merry-go-round starts again.

I got so sick of it all I went private about 10 years ago, I have a choice of private practices within a 10 minute walk, I can get appointments within 72 hours if needed, can book months ahead and be assured that the appointment will never be cancelled and I pay no more than they do to be treated like lepers at the NHS dentist - because I only need to go once a year, whereas they must go twice or be struck off.

Just tell them to FRO and go private, yeah, we all pay taxes and NHS dentistry should be better than this in the 5th richest economy on earth, but you're only frustrating yourself by persevering with the shit service. Go private and you won't look back. Fully appreeciate it should be better than this, but it isn't, so do something about it. 

If you're a private patient then tell the practice to FRO and go elsewhere. Money talks.

 

[sierraman]

10 minutes ago, Bren said:

Booked a dentist appointment a couple of months ago. For April. The best they could do.

I got a letter today informing me the appointment was cancelled. Nothing to even say " arrange new appointment."

Probably some better paying private work came in. 

[Bren]

13 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Probably some better paying private work came in. 

A lot cannot afford private work. I can't see that there would be enough private work to keep them all going.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Meatballs should have been square

[horriblemercedes]

1 minute ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Meatballs should have been square

Meatcubes?

[Dan29]

On 09/03/2024 at 14:29, artdjones said:

It was refreshing to be in Portugal recently, where no-one seems to expect a tip, although we did tip 10% as service was always really good. Before we left my wife looked up suitable tipping for cleaning staff at hotels and it's considered nice to leave €1 per day you stayed, which we improved on a bit. But it wasn't taken for granted, and we were thanked, not in a servile way, just a thank you from one person to another.

I could live in Portugal.

Yeah I love it, I think it's the perfect country to live in, my best mate is hopefully moving there in the next couple of years so I'm planning to be visiting a lot 🙂

[Dan29]

14 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Meatballs should have been square

Mini Meatloaf?

[sierraman]

57 minutes ago, Bren said:

A lot cannot afford private work. I can't see that there would be enough private work to keep them all going.

Oh there is! Plenty out there will be a few thousand quid to get it sorted, I can see why they do it, the NHS wants them rammed back to back constantly, of course they’re gonna look to private work. No help to you or me though! 

[Zelandeth]

Give me strength...

Just had another letter from the Council.  Apparently they're under the impression that I have started operating a vehicle restoration or repair business out of my property, in contravention with the local planning regulations.  They are investigating the matter and invite me to provide evidence to prove that I am not in fact operating said business.  Um, how exactly am I supposed to provide evidence of NOT doing something?

Guess that's going to be a fun hour sitting on hold tomorrow trying to get through to speak to an actual person.

This is in addition to the planning enforcement notice received from them a few weeks ago about us having apparently built a fence on their land - despite every single set of plans I've had sight of (including from the land registry) clearly showing our boundary to butt up right against the footpath.  Still waiting for them to confirm the details on that one, though at least they have acknowledged they've received my initial response.