The grumpy thread

[hairnet]

Bull ring can fro

New st can fro

[Markeh]

11 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I'm not sure if this applies to all instances but there's a car park near me for a convenience store and charity shop which is a 40 minute maximum stay, with no return in 2 hours. If you wish to stay for longer, or return, then you just need to give your number plate to any of the shops who will "sign you in"

This happened to my folks recently - the car park signs said register your car inside at the tablet on the bar (this was for a pub), they go inside and no tablet - they asked about it and were told oh there's no need. So imagine their surprise when they got a ticket.

Turns out the truth is you don't need to register for less than 3 hours, if you're staying longer you have to scan a QR code and register there.

[captain_70s]

Pulled over by the police last night, for the second time ever. (First time was a decade ago when I was driving around Aberdeen at 1am with my lights off. A common occurrence for Mk2 Yaris drivers due to the permanently lit digi-dash according to the copper).

Namely as the Acclaim flagged as having not had an MOT for a year.  It is MOT/tax exempt, of course, but the coppers had never dealt with a car registered as "historic" before and it still comes up on the system as "MOT expired" despite still being taxed at a cost of £0.

Luckily I know the rules pretty much off by heart so could explain my position and am not the sort to get flustered easily, despite being on the hard shoulder of the M80 at 1am, and they radioed into the station to confirm everything.
I'd be concerned about folks not being as clued up though, as I was told by the copper that my car should have black/silver numberplates if it was historic. Not correct, but something that would have easily tripped up Girlfriend_70s if she was driving, as she isn't a terminal numberplate bore. 

The offices were nice enough fellas and everything was wrapped up in 10 mins and we were back on our way but I still feel vaguely irritated for having laws that don't exist quoted at me by somebody in a position of power which I had to politely correct. Obviously the laws are a bit of a clusterfuck, as MOT exemption and the laws around numberplates have been in flux and are pretty unclear at the best of times, generally just a crap system...

[Zelandeth]

13 hours ago, Pieman said:

How does that work if it's a tradesman doing a job that needs several trips there to get parts and equipment?

Not a clue.  Guessing the answer is simply that it doesn't.  Unless there's some registration done at the trade counter I guess.  I rarely use the place anyway unless it was one of those cases where I wasn't sure exactly what I actually needed so wanted to go have a rummage in the aisle with the fasteners and such like.  Plus being so close it was useful for those situations where you get halfway through something and then realise you can't find exactly the right drill bit or something daft like that.  

Toolstation and Screwfix now get 99.99999999% of my business.  

[horriblemercedes]

10 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

I was told by the copper that my car should have black/silver numberplates if it was historic.

WTF...that's a very odd claim for the officer to make. Any car can wear white/yellow plates with black characters, only some can wear black plates.

 

You don't have to be a number plate bore....it's just common sense that the newer style can be applied to older cars but not vice versa as the new style superceded the old.

[cobblers]

30 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

WTF...that's a very odd claim for the officer to make. Any car can wear white/yellow plates with black characters, only some can wear black plates.

 

You don't have to be a number plate bore....it's just common sense that the newer style can be applied to older cars but not vice versa as the new style superceded the old.

I was pulled over in my old T25 about 5 years ago, they dipped me for red diesel despite it being a petrol van 🤷‍♂️ 

Then they went sniffing round it and moaned that the number plates didn't have the makers postcode on the bottom or a BS mark, so they were illegal. They were the original dealer plates, fitted when the van was new.

 

[Cavcraft]

Without wishing to make light of anyone's situation, getting a fine for parking at B&Q is still going to be a whole lot better, cheaper and more pleasurable than having any dealings with those thundercunts Wickes.

 

In other news, Mrs Can'tBeArsed at everyone's favourite* car parts supplier 'cheerfully' informed me that the popular sized battery I wanted wasn't available,  that there were none in stock anywhere and they 'might be able to get one in at a minimum 14 days time, but only if enough other people want one.  And even then, maybe not' 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

The offices were nice enough fellas and everything was wrapped up in 10 mins and we were back on our way but I still feel vaguely irritated for having laws that don't exist quoted at me by somebody in a position of power which I had to politely correct. Obviously the laws are a bit of a clusterfuck, as MOT exemption and the laws around numberplates have been in flux and are pretty unclear at the best of times, generally just a crap system...

thats quite shit! it annoys me, just from me myself being a number plate bore, what if that was someone else who got spooked by it, and chucks away their lovely 40-50 year old original pressed or raised digit retroreflective plates for some cheap awful eBay non BS145 marked silver on black plates?

also the laws around number plates have thankfully been clarified in frozen years and they froze white on black plates to 1979 or older IIRC (even tho I dont quite understand how it got unfrozen from 1973 in the first place) but yeah, now it is frozen again, so it would not even have been legal for your acclaim to wear them, so the copper is giving *entirely* false information, which is rather worrying!

https://www.mgcc.co.uk/dvla-release-new-laws-on-black-and-white-number-plates/

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Pulled over by the police last night, for the second time ever. (First time was a decade ago when I was driving around Aberdeen at 1am with my lights off. A common occurrence for Mk2 Yaris drivers due to the permanently lit digi-dash according to the copper).

Namely as the Acclaim flagged as having not had an MOT for a year.  It is MOT/tax exempt, of course, but the coppers had never dealt with a car registered as "historic" before and it still comes up on the system as "MOT expired" despite still being taxed at a cost of £0.

Luckily I know the rules pretty much off by heart so could explain my position and am not the sort to get flustered easily, despite being on the hard shoulder of the M80 at 1am, and they radioed into the station to confirm everything.
I'd be concerned about folks not being as clued up though, as I was told by the copper that my car should have black/silver numberplates if it was historic. Not correct, but something that would have easily tripped up Girlfriend_70s if she was driving, as she isn't a terminal numberplate bore. 

The offices were nice enough fellas and everything was wrapped up in 10 mins and we were back on our way but I still feel vaguely irritated for having laws that don't exist quoted at me by somebody in a position of power which I had to politely correct. Obviously the laws are a bit of a clusterfuck, as MOT exemption and the laws around numberplates have been in flux and are pretty unclear at the best of times, generally just a crap system...

A late friend of mine ran a small bus company with a few Routemasters. He did a deal to loan a couple out to another company in Bournemouth, one of which had no MOT so he booked it in for an MOT in Bournemouth (he was based in Watford). We had arranged to meet at Rownhams Services and I was going to follow in the car and give him a lift back. 

I arrived at Rownhams to find a couple of policemen looking round the buses. They had found one had no MOT but was quite legitimately booked in for one. They then started giving them the once over determined to find something that they could throw the book at him for and when they couldn't Colin told them it was their job to enforce the law as it stands, not make up new ones as they see fit! 

They didn't like that but there was nothing they could do. I've always remembered that quote word for word and wished I could use it myself but the situation has never arisen to do so. 

[richardmorris]

7 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Without wishing to make light of anyone's situation, getting a fine for parking at B&Q is still going to be a whole lot better, cheaper and more pleasurable than having any dealings with those thundercunts Wickes.

 

In other news, Mrs Can'tBeArsed at everyone's favourite* car parts supplier 'cheerfully' informed me that the popular sized battery I wanted wasn't available,  that there were none in stock anywhere and they 'might be able to get one in at a minimum 14 days time, but only if enough other people want one.  And even then, maybe not' 

Tayna.co.uk

[sheffcortinacentre]

9 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Pulled over by the police last night, for the second time ever. (First time was a decade ago when I was driving around Aberdeen at 1am with my lights off. A common occurrence for Mk2 Yaris drivers due to the permanently lit digi-dash according to the copper).

Namely as the Acclaim flagged as having not had an MOT for a year.  It is MOT/tax exempt, of course, but the coppers had never dealt with a car registered as "historic" before and it still comes up on the system as "MOT expired" despite still being taxed at a cost of £0.

Luckily I know the rules pretty much off by heart so could explain my position and am not the sort to get flustered easily, despite being on the hard shoulder of the M80 at 1am, and they radioed into the station to confirm everything.
I'd be concerned about folks not being as clued up though, as I was told by the copper that my car should have black/silver numberplates if it was historic. Not correct, but something that would have easily tripped up Girlfriend_70s if she was driving, as she isn't a terminal numberplate bore. 

The offices were nice enough fellas and everything was wrapped up in 10 mins and we were back on our way but I still feel vaguely irritated for having laws that don't exist quoted at me by somebody in a position of power which I had to politely correct. Obviously the laws are a bit of a clusterfuck, as MOT exemption and the laws around numberplates have been in flux and are pretty unclear at the best of times, generally just a crap system...

But remember there cop out ( no pun intended) ignorance of the law of no defence.

[maxxo]

Had to deal with my dads mother aka horrible grandma 

I’d been pestered for weeks to go and change a light bulb for her so that was done 

then she was saying how she was ripped off by a plumber

he had the cheek to charge her £250 to supply and fit a new bath with taps etc

she droned on about it for a good hour until I said actually that sounds quite reasonable

it was like a bomb went off with her having a go at me

apparently as the bath is plastic it should have only cost her £50 supplied and fitted

well my yearly visit is done now time for a drink

[paulplom]

Probably less than £100 labour. He's done it for fuck all.

[Metal Guru]

59 minutes ago, paulplom said:

Probably less than £100 labour. He's done it for fuck all.

Cheapest standard bath £150, taps £50, waste £20, side panel £35. That’s £255 already. He fitted it free and she still owes him a fiver.

I’d say he’s lost money on that job.

[maxxo]

Exactly what I tried to explain to her

she had been asking me to do it, but I don’t do jobs for her anymore 

she’s a nightmare, absolute nightmare

[Cavcraft]

One of our skanky neighbours round the corner (who last year was throwing McDonald's wrappers from her bedroom window to her garden) has started lobbing rubbish over their fence. It's like fucking ping-pong, I throw it back, next day it's there again. Only trouble (for them) is that it's mostly polystyrene. Yesterday I ground it down as much possible and 'made it snow' in the lazy bastard's garden.   

It's not come back over yet.

[cobblers]

A couple of years ago I accidentally popped one of the rear driveshafts out of my T6 while doing some suspension work, and I lost a bit of diff oil.

I was having it serviced by a mate a few days later, so I just asked him to top it up. I've got a feeling he didn't, because my 60,000 mile rear diff is whining it's head off all of a sudden.

£5k for a new one. £650 for a mystery ebay one. ffs

[maxxo]

My own bathroom related shenanigan today At the new house

had a nice shower before heading out this morning

just got back now and upon walking up the stairs

bugger

ive left the immersion on since 9am this morning

that’ll be nice when the bill comes

well if anyone wants a bath ive got enough hot water to sink a ship

[myglaren]

Probably won't be that bad as once the water is hot it should stay that way with only a bit of maintenance wattage.

Presume the tank has a jacket and is in a cupboard to keep the heat in.

[goosey]

 

struck out today, went to fit a new set of mud  guards to the trailer, all hardware siezed up solid bots snapping or rounding off so threw the old guard back on with new hardware 🙄

it’s just not fair!!!

[AnthonyG]

On 04/11/2024 at 11:02, Pieman said:

Over the last three days I have driven on the M42, M6, M1, M25, M20, M26 and M2.

ALL of them, for most of their length, were covered with 50mph average speed cameras. It actually felt unfamiliar when I went onto A-road dual carriageways and was able to do 70.

Shall we just give up and make the nationwide speed limit 50? Or is that the eventual plan?

Average speed on the M1 is the lowest ever at 60.7mph for 2023.

The Times had an article about it Saturday - the DVLA stats for the other ones mentioned both in your post and the article are M6 - 58mph, M25 - 53.6mph, M20 - 59.3mph, and the overall national average is 60.2mph. 

Fastest is the M40 at 65.6mph. No prizes for guessing, of course the M25 is the slowest! 

[Talbot]

5 hours ago, cobblers said:

A couple of years ago I accidentally popped one of the rear driveshafts out of my T6 while doing some suspension work, and I lost a bit of diff oil.

I was having it serviced by a mate a few days later, so I just asked him to top it up. I've got a feeling he didn't, because my 60,000 mile rear diff is whining it's head off all of a sudden.

£5k for a new one. £650 for a mystery ebay one. ffs

It's also possible it's been topped up, but with the wrong (incompatible) oil.  Had this once on a D2 gearbox.  Wrong oil used for top-up and it started whining like a bastard and jamming in gears after long motorway stints.

Drained, flushed and the correct oil installed... the whine went away (over a month or so) and it performed a lot better.  5k miles later you would never have known it sounded like it was about to explode.

[bunglebus]

Fucksakes. I'm having a disaster.

This morning my ancient, but usually reliable printer just wouldn't turn on when I needed to print some eBay postage labels. Seemed like it was the transformer dead, but there are various broken bits like the scanner cover etc, and I've been pondering an upgrade anyway, this has just forced my arm. Managed to work out how to do a QR code and get labels printed at the Post Office as it's only two parcels.

Then a guy messaged me about something he's bought, seems I didn't put everything in his parcel so I apologise and try and get a new postage label through eBay, but of course I can't print the damn thing and there's no option of QR code for some reason.

Then a couple of people buy multiple items, and when I go to pack them, I can't find everything - I quite often sell items that are identical to ones I've previously listed, there's an option to list an identical item, looks like I've used that but forgotten to change the amount I actually had, so I've sold things I don't possess! More apology messages to buyers.

Thinking I've managed to sort everything, just about to sit down and watch a bit of TV and notice a small black dot on the (almost brand new)  carpet, probably a bit of fluff off a sock? Except when I go to pick it up, my fingers turn black. WTF? It's where I had the printer earlier, and it dawns on me that it's ink, and it's somehow now on my fingers, my best hoodie, in the bottom of the wardrobe where I store the printer, everywhere. The mrs is trying to use wet wipes on the carpet while I'm trying to get some washing up liquid on my hoodie, but it's just going everywhere as it gets on my fingers then transfers to everything I touch. Chucked the hoodie in the washing machine on "do or die" mode and grabbed the wet vac. An hour later I'm going cross-eyed trying to see if there's still ink on the carpet or if it's the pattern. I think I've got the majority of it out but I've got a horrible feeling it's deep in the pile and will be like one of those ink stamp pads and get drawn out when I stand on it. I've very carefully transported the printer to the outhouse, there's ink dribbling out in several places, never seen this happen before. It's using a Tesco remanufactured cartridge, most of the time they're good but this one has played silly buggers since day one, I've had to remove and refit the thing numerous times as the printer kept getting upset with it. 

Just to add insult to injury, I tried to switch my lamp on so I could read my debit card details while ordering a new printer, and the bulb went ping. Of course it's some obscure thing I'll struggle to replace now. Argh...

[High Jetter]

Ctrl, Alt, Del - wake up refreshed tomorrow.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I've said it for years that printers are inherently evil.  I didn't need any more proof but there it is.  They don't need technicians, they need priests.

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I've said it for years that printers are inherently evil.  I didn't need any more proof but there it is.  They don't need technicians, they need priests.

My Brother just works, has done for 15+ years

[bunglebus]

55 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Ctrl, Alt, Del - wake up refreshed tomorrow.

Well my hoodie appears to be OK at least, I don't know what sorcery is built into "Stain Expert" mode on the washing machine, but that and a load of Fairy seems to have done the trick

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Just to add insult to injury, I tried to switch my lamp on so I could read my debit card details while ordering a new printer, and the bulb went ping. Of course it's some obscure thing I'll struggle to replace now. Argh...

hmmm?  

 

let me know what bulb it is/take a picture of it/any writing on it and I can probably point you in the right direction to get a suitable replacement  

[Remspoor]

8 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Fucksakes. I'm having a disaster.

This morning my ancient, but usually reliable printer just wouldn't turn on when I needed to print some eBay postage labels. Seemed like it was the transformer dead, but there are various broken bits like the scanner cover etc, and I've been pondering an upgrade anyway, this has just forced my arm. Managed to work out how to do a QR code and get labels printed at the Post Office as it's only two parcels.

Then a guy messaged me about something he's bought, seems I didn't put everything in his parcel so I apologise and try and get a new postage label through eBay, but of course I can't print the damn thing and there's no option of QR code for some reason.

Then a couple of people buy multiple items, and when I go to pack them, I can't find everything - I quite often sell items that are identical to ones I've previously listed, there's an option to list an identical item, looks like I've used that but forgotten to change the amount I actually had, so I've sold things I don't possess! More apology messages to buyers.

Thinking I've managed to sort everything, just about to sit down and watch a bit of TV and notice a small black dot on the (almost brand new)  carpet, probably a bit of fluff off a sock? Except when I go to pick it up, my fingers turn black. WTF? It's where I had the printer earlier, and it dawns on me that it's ink, and it's somehow now on my fingers, my best hoodie, in the bottom of the wardrobe where I store the printer, everywhere. The mrs is trying to use wet wipes on the carpet while I'm trying to get some washing up liquid on my hoodie, but it's just going everywhere as it gets on my fingers then transfers to everything I touch. Chucked the hoodie in the washing machine on "do or die" mode and grabbed the wet vac. An hour later I'm going cross-eyed trying to see if there's still ink on the carpet or if it's the pattern. I think I've got the majority of it out but I've got a horrible feeling it's deep in the pile and will be like one of those ink stamp pads and get drawn out when I stand on it. I've very carefully transported the printer to the outhouse, there's ink dribbling out in several places, never seen this happen before. It's using a Tesco remanufactured cartridge, most of the time they're good but this one has played silly buggers since day one, I've had to remove and refit the thing numerous times as the printer kept getting upset with it. 

Just to add insult to injury, I tried to switch my lamp on so I could read my debit card details while ordering a new printer, and the bulb went ping. Of course it's some obscure thing I'll struggle to replace now. Argh...

If you print so often then why are you using an ink jet?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

18 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

If you print so often then why are you using an ink jet?

I don't print that often but as what I would need is just black and white I bought an old (2006-ish) HP laser printer on eBay a few months back.  It needed a new tray roller (5 Quid) to feed properly but came with a toner cartridge.  Old laser printers are basically the only thing that is worth recommending as they come pre-exorcised from the factory.