The grumpy thread

[Joey spud]

3 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

A cobbler should have them back together in no time.

Would it be cost effective compared to buying a new pair? Possibly not, but as a member of this forum repairing old tat instead of doing the sensible thing and buying new is in your blood.

I'd clean for gotten about cobblers. I think there maybe aTimpsons (or similar) in nearby Strood.

Obviously I haven't bought a pair of shoes for decades and have no idea of their cost nowadays but I would happily pay £20 or so to fix them rather than endure the torture of going shopping for new shoes.

[Popsicle]

2 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Any suggestions of what I can use to glue them back together with so I can get another twenty years out of them ?

Contact adhesive has held mine together for a few years of minimal use or you can get proper shoe cement, but it is expensive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374741981353?epid=5042215996

[ETCHY]

On 03/05/2024 at 12:43, Dyslexic Viking said:

I had the fun of doing the worst job on a gen 2 i10 now, changing the daytime running light lightbulbs.

This involves removing the wheel and loosen the front of the arch liner so sticking your hand into the back of the bumper without seeing much and tearing off large amounts of skin on your hands while fighting a light bulb holder that won't go off or on again. I replaced both bulbs with new ones from Osram which will hopefully last a long time so I won't have to do this again anytime soon. And I got a little angry so I destroyed an arch liner so need to change that also.

Those who work as mechanics who have to do this daily have my greatest respect.

I've said it before & i'll say it again. We have rules & regulations for bloody everything on cars but none for basic safety shit like light-bulbs being able to be changed easily. It should be mandatory that all bulbs can be changed easily with minimum effort & tools at the roadside. It's common-sense & it's heavily linked to safety.
Will it happen ? Fucking never.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I'd clean for gotten about cobblers. I think there maybe aTimpsons (or similar) in nearby Strood.

Obviously I haven't bought a pair of shoes for decades and have no idea of their cost nowadays but I would happily pay £20 or so to fix them rather than endure the torture of going shopping for new shoes.

Are Timpsons proper cobblers these days? Last time I was in there ( for shoes laces £3.99!, no thanks 2 for 79p in Home Bargains), they just seem to sell shoe related items  like that and polish, and cut keys. 

[Metal Guru]

22 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Got the news today that my Nan passed away early this morning.  Not too broken up over it to be honest as firstly I really wasn't all that close.  Secondly it really didn't come as a surprise.  She was 97 of my math is right, and has had endless medical issues, especially over the last 10 years and has been resolutely miserable for at least that long, so something of a mercy in some ways.  It's also felt like it was going to happen at any minute for years.  

Timing could be better though...I've one of the two big events I've been looking forward to this year coming up over the last Thursday to Tuesday in May.  I'd be putting really good odds on either the funeral or other legal bits and pieces going on over that period...

I at least used to be noted as the executor or her will, though we're waiting for confirmation on that as as her husband put it "She was endlessly messing with things" so that could well have changed since it was last mentioned to me about 20 years ago.  Either way there will be some input required from my part I'm sure.  On the plus side they're only an hour or so from here so it's not like I'm going to need to endlessly run backwards and forwards up and down the country.  Plus she had actually written and properly registered a will, and everything relating to it is apparently pretty black and white so shouldn't be any squabbling between the remaining family at least.  Hopefully.

If there’s money involved , there WILL be arguments, usually because the lazy greedy  bastards who visited only in the last days , get as much if not more than those who cared for the deceased over many years.

[vulgalour]

29 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Are Timpsons proper cobblers these days? Last time I was in there ( for shoes laces £3.99!, no thanks 2 for 79p in Home Bargains), they just seem to sell shoe related items  like that and polish, and cut keys. 

Some Timpsons do cobbling, some don't, depends on the one you find.  Bigger ones do keys, engraving, cobbling, watch batteries, and dry cleaning, smaller ones tend to just do one or two things.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

If there’s money involved , there WILL be arguments, usually because the lazy greedy  bastards who visited only in the last days , get as much if not more than those who cared for the deceased over many years.

Well if I do end up getting roped in that will be for the legal advisors to handle as per the instructions set out in the will.  We learned the lesson that it's absolutely worth paying someone a cut to handle that nonsense in having helped out with similar duties following the passing of a friend a couple of years ago.  We largely handled that ourselves and swore never again.  Folks who were lost directly involved in that are away until tomorrow, so I'll be picking their brains when they're back. 

I've not really ever been that close, and it's a fair while since I've seen her in person though we spoke on the phone every week or two.  I'm really not expecting anything much out of things, and I'm fine with that.  It was her decision to chose how to split up anything she left.

[maxxo]

Helping my elderly grandparents out today by replacing a light switch in their kitchen 

turns power off etc all going to plan

removes old switch 

sees there’s a lot of slack on the cables

excellent I’ll just straighten them out 

you can see where this is going

crap I thought

oh well I’ll just cut off the rotten part and use the good stuff for the switch

oh mega crap

so that’s the entire cable fucked then

thankfully they have a pair of old fluorescent lights fed from another switch this was just for another light on the ceiling

but still annoying 

we all decided to just not bother repairing it and I’ve made it safe and put a blank over it

[Dick Cheeseburger]

20 minutes ago, maxxo said:

Helping my elderly grandparents out today by replacing a light switch in their kitchen 

turns power off etc all going to plan

removes old switch 

sees there’s a lot of slack on the cables

excellent I’ll just straighten them out 

you can see where this is going

crap I thought

oh well I’ll just cut off the rotten part and use the good stuff for the switch

oh mega crap

so that’s the entire cable fucked then

thankfully they have a pair of old fluorescent lights fed from another switch this was just for another light on the ceiling

but still annoying 

we all decided to just not bother repairing it and I’ve made it safe and put a blank over it

If that's a general representation of the state of the wiring in your grandparents house, I'd be insisting they get the place rewired before the lot burns down. That looks like a disaster waiting to happen. 

[Remspoor]

4 hours ago, ETCHY said:

I've said it before & i'll say it again. We have rules & regulations for bloody everything on cars but none for basic safety shit like light-bulbs being able to be changed easily. It should be mandatory that all bulbs can be changed easily with minimum effort & tools at the roadside. It's common-sense & it's heavily linked to safety.
Will it happen ? Fucking never.

There is still a law, here in Spain, that you have to carry a set of spare bulbs in the car. I have never been checked by the law to see if I actually have a set, but I do. However, I cannot change some beside the road without tools and there are too may different types for the box.

[maxxo]

26 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

If that's a general representation of the state of the wiring in your grandparents house, I'd be insisting they get the place rewired before the lot burns down. That looks like a disaster waiting to happen. 

They won’t get it rewired

ive checked everything I can today and made whatever I can as safe as possible

its absolutely horrendous tbh

[High Jetter]

Tell them you're fitting an alarm, but subtly re-wire the place?

[omegod]

Fucking Covid !

It's still a thing people !!  I felt wiped out since Friday evening then my breathing went crap, penny dropped  last night and I rummaged around and found a test, bumhats 

[richardmorris]

16 minutes ago, omegod said:

Fucking Covid !

It's still a thing people !!  I felt wiped out since Friday evening then my breathing went crap, penny dropped  last night and I rummaged around and found a test, bumhats 

Government hasn’t mentioned it for years, but my parents (80) are having a booster vaccination this week.

[myglaren]

Was mentioned on the Beeb news website a bout six weeks ago.  I had mine last Thursday.

[Spiny Norman]

I had it (again) last year. For me it's been no worse that a horrible cold that's lasted 10 days rather than 5  but I still feel morally obliged to keep away from people. Gives me an excuse I suppose...

[loserone]

5 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

still feel morally obliged to keep away from people.

Like we all should when we have stinking colds, right?

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 hours ago, myglaren said:

Was mentioned on the Beeb news website a bout six weeks ago.  I had mine last Thursday.

In laws had their boosters (Cornwall) last week too. Here (Wales) it's over 65 s so I'm not yet quite qualified

Wife & Sproglette went up to that there London on the last weekend in April and came back with a nice present. All three of us ended up with some learghy that was either Covid or a flu type thing. I was physically polexed until yesterday - still not quite with it yet. 
Bit of an arse tbh.

[MikeR]

Some sniffling coughing twat in the library hunted me out last week ,I was all hidden way in a corner,  now I have some horrible lurgy ... Why can't people just stay at home and die off ... 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I am absolutely useless with people.

[Mrcento]

Have i really been out the loop that badly for that long with tax?

Like... when the actual fuck did a 1997 1.6 petrol car cost the same to tax as some 3.2 litre Merc Turbo Diesels from peak 'bend over and take it' tax rates between 2006-2016?

They were like £180 to tax last time i checked.... £345 now????

[MikeR]

16 hours ago, Mrcento said:

Have i really been out the loop that badly for that long with tax?

Like... when the actual fuck did a 1997 1.6 petrol car cost the same to tax as some 3.2 litre Merc Turbo Diesels from peak 'bend over and take it' tax rates between 2006-2016?

They were like £180 to tax last time i checked.... £345 now????

we used to have a 1.6 , can say it would have gone with that tax rate , its all gone silly now .

I have a "get your tax free ticket " off the DLA for a family member  , but I dont use it because of the stipulations over the use of MY car , they would make you a criminal just for using for your own car by yourself ..   so for 20 notes a year I cant be bothered ..   tax system is great .. not

[TataBobu]

On 06/05/2024 at 14:20, Joey spud said:

 

Gutted doesn't even cover it. 

Any suggestions of what I can use to glue them back together with so I can get another twenty years out of them ?

There was a type of glue over here, called "prenadez", which was used specifically for mending shoes. I think it's a generalcobtact adhesive, something with "chlorine"-something (in Romanian it's "cloropenic", have no idea what's in English) and caoutchouc as in the natural rubber. Clean, apply, press for 12 hours and you're set for another 20 years.

On 06/05/2024 at 21:00, Remspoor said:

There is still a law, here in Spain, that you have to carry a set of spare bulbs in the car. I have never been checked by the law to see if I actually have a set, but I do. However, I cannot change some beside the road without tools and there are too may different types for the box.

Over here it's the same. And I wonder how would it apply to the led matrix brigade. They need to carry spare headlights?

[myglaren]

I saw on Quora an advert for 'Oily Glue' or Tree Frog Glue'.

It was a video clip that couldn't be copied or downloaded but showed it being used to repair all sorts of things including cycle innertubes.

eBay ad

Not the one I bought but the same stuff.  Prices vary widely and the one I bought had a very misleading ad.  I thought that I was buying 5 30 ml bottles but one 50 ml bottle turned up, which I haven't used yet so can't vouch for it.

 

[Yoss]

On 05/05/2024 at 08:01, Chas4545 said:

Off topic but anyway...  Ive had to stop watching the PO enquiry as its winding me up too much, but one thing leaves me puzzled. 

Why are there no youtube videos of a certain ex PO boss preaching?

It would be interesting to see her talk about how we should behave.

I thought the point of a public enquiry was to find out what happened but seeing as all these Post Office bosses have conveniently forgotten* everything that that happened then the whole thing seems pointless. 

[Pieman]

Maybe Photonicinduction's Big Boy Power Supply hooked up to their nether regions might make them remember...

(Did anyone find out why he disappeared, reappeared, then disappeared suddenly again from YouTube?)

[Popsicle]

The only local take it off yourself breakers is closing, Albert Looms in Spondon. Sad times, its been running for over a 100 years and I've kept various shite going with bits and bobs since my Dolomite in the 80's.

[chadders]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I thought the point of a public enquiry was to find out what happened but seeing as all these Post Office bosses have conveniently forgotten* everything that that happened then the whole thing seems pointless. 

I disagree as one of the key things these sort of people are concerned about is their image. They're being publically humiliated, day in, day out, and proved to be liars. Their future career hopes lie in tatters in my opinion.

To me it's pretty clear what happened, I don't need them to confirm it.

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, chadders said:

I disagree as one of the key things these sort of people are concerned about is their image. They're being publically humiliated, day in, day out, and proved to be liars. Their future career hopes lie in tatters in my opinion.

To me it's pretty clear what happened, I don't need them to confirm it.

You're right, it is very satisfying watching them squirm but it's still not technically the point of a public enquiry.

[chadders]

1 minute ago, Yoss said:

You're right, it is very satisfying watching them squirm but it's still not technically the point of a public enquiry.

But as I see it it's pretty irrefutable what happened so it's achieved the objective of a public enquiry albeit by a somewhat circuitous route.