The grumpy thread

[New POD]

7 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

MK3 daughter has an NHS dentist, but is also seen by Addenbrookes Hospital Dental team because she was born with a cleft palate, and one of the problems with that is poor quality tooth enamel.

Issue I have is we then get two conflicting sources of information!

I just go with the hospital 

My son's tooth enamel "fell off" with his first teeth and the dentist tried to tell my wife it was all our fault for giving him sweets and pop and not getting him.to brush properly.  Which didn't go down well as we were ultracareful from a baby. .  He ended up having 8 teeth out in hospital aged 7.  He's not had one filling on his adult teeth and he's now 31. 

[wuvvum]

7 hours ago, myglaren said:

it looks like the practice has a Chinese dentist now, well recommended so will try there.  

I understand that you can only get appointments there at certain times of day, generally in the early afternoon.

[myglaren]

3 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I understand that you can only get appointments there at certain times of day, generally in the early afternoon.

I'm sure that I am missing something there.

[wuvvum]

Went online to check my credit report, given that there's a chance I might be applying for car finance soon.  My credit score on Equifax has gone down since I last looked, and one of the warnings that came up was for "too many unsecured loans" - on checking the details I have two device plans with Vodafone showing up as loans.  Which would be fine, except that I paid the plan for my old phone off on 5th January, shortly after I upgraded.  That should have updated by now (they say 5 weeks max) so I'm going to have to try and get hold of someone at Vodafone who isn't completely clueless to sort out whatever hasn't happened at their end that should have.  So that'll be fun.

[artdjones]

8 hours ago, Stanky said:

 

This is my approach as well. My wife and eldest daughter go to an NHS dentist who gives them a crap service and frequently messes them around. I think the 'best' experience has been that they only got rescheduled (on the morning of the appointment) twice before being seen. The worst was 5 times. They HAVE to go twice yearly or they get struck off the patient list so it costs me them £53.60 plus whatever charges/treatments* they deem necessary x2 per year.

I go to a private dentist and take my youngest daughter. The requirement is to go once per year as we have good teeth, total cost is about £95 for the pair of us (I know hers is half what mine cost as she's under 16). We get outstanding service, can book at a time that suits us, and never get rescheduled. 

Its a shame its come to this, but I'd rather pay a little bit more (actually less, annually) and get a decent standard of service from the service provider. If I don't like it, I can vote with my wallet and go elsewhere.

In my youth children had dental work gratis at the local health clinic. Which may sound like Utopia, but when I was around 9 I went in, and wouldn't sit still to the dentist's satisfaction. Also he was irritated by having his small daughter running around the treatment room. He relieved his feelings by removing two perfectly healthy molars. Every dentist I've attended since has asked me why I have the gaps, as I have all the rest of my teeth in good condition, except for a few small fillings, apart from one which had to be capped and later extracted when the root cracked.

Not much point having free rubbish treatment.

[Cavcraft]

11 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Just got an email from ECP this morning thanking me for collecting my order.

I have not collected my order.

Fuxsake.

I bet they showed up on another depot's stock, then they went to collect via interbranch and it wasn't there.  Not that that's excusing it.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

I'm sure that I am missing something there.

Sorry, should probably have been more specific.  14:30.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, myglaren said:

I'm sure that I am missing something there.

Equidistant between 2 & 3. In chinglish.

[reb]

5 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Equidistant between 2 & 3. In chinglish.

I still don't get it.

[High Jetter]

16 minutes ago, reb said:

I still don't get it.

Tooth hurtee. 

[myglaren]

I did find it rather obscure.

[bramz7]

On 22/02/2025 at 11:58, bramz7 said:

Boiler failed it's safety inspection on Thursday so I've had no hot water since. Luckily, or not, I have a power shower. Except the pressure is like being dribbled on. The other, better shower, runs off the boiler supplier hot water. 

Neither my landlord or letting agent have been in contact. Now I'm not expecting it to be fixed right away, but a courtesy email would have been nice, especially when they want to increase the rent yet again in April. The house next door, which he also owns, has been empty since the last tenants left a month ago, maybe partly because the rent is too high and the heating is controlled by a range cooker! Quaint in the countryside I'm sure, but in Basingstoke it's borderline mental. 

 

 

As a follow up to this, still heard nothing. So I emailed my letting agent to see what was going on, turns out they hadn't been told either. 

Supposedly 'parts are on order' and I'll be contacted by the engineer in kind. I don't want to kick up any fuss, but tbh it's a pretty poor show all round so far. I wish I wasn't feeling too lazy to move house.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

I did find it rather obscure.

Am surprised, tbh. Long running christmas cracker 'joke', thought it was widely known.

[Zelandeth]

It's been a few years since I last used one.  Good lord I'd forgotten how utterly pointless most filling station forecourt jet washes are.  I'd have been better just spitting on the car and smearing it around with a finger.

Only thing I've achieved is wasting £2 and getting wet feet.  The car isn't visibly any cleaner.

[reb]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

It's been a few years since I last used one.  Good lord I'd forgotten how utterly pointless most filling station forecourt jet washes are.  I'd have been better just spitting on the car and smearing it around with a finger.

Only thing I've achieved is wasting £2 and getting wet feet.  The car isn't visibly any cleaner.

You've got to use the scratch-o-matic foamy brush for them to work at all well

[iainrcz]

Decided to clean our glass hob splashback.

As it was a pleasant day I left it outside to dry off whilst I gave the wall a final coat of paint, then I was going to re fit it.

Took the dog out for a walk, can you guess what happened?

So now we need a new one 🤣

[GrumpiusMaximus]

1 hour ago, iainrcz said:

Decided to clean our glass hob splashback.

As it was a pleasant day I left it outside to dry off whilst I gave the wall a final coat of paint, then I was going to re fit it.

Took the dog out for a walk, can you guess what happened?

So now we need a new one 🤣

A new dog?  Poor Jarvis.  I know he’s a dickhead but the brown bin is a bit of a superfluous indignity.

[iainrcz]

Just now, GrumpiusMaximus said:

A new dog?

We lost the receipt unfortunately.

Anyway, I've got it on Facebook at the moment - Tempered glass splashback for sale, some assembly required.

[Andyrew]

I'll just clean up the gunk inside these 52 year old fog lights. Wcpgw 

Fucksticks 

[iainrcz]

21 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

A new dog?  Poor Jarvis.  I know he’s a dickhead but the brown bin is a bit of a superfluous indignity.

Dickhead is too polite a phrase.

[captain_70s]

37 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

I'll just clean up the gunk inside these 52 year old fog lights. Wcpgw 

Fucksticks 

Been there, done that...

Admittedly only 40 years old, but still £200 odd a set!

[Split_Pin]

Since it was announced that I'm  being made redundant a month ago, I've applied for 25 jobs. About half of these I don't hear anything, I did get one interview but never heard anything back and the rest have been straight declines. I've spent a great deal of time on these applications as well, I wouldn't be so bothered if I'd just been firing my CV out.

I'm now starting to panic a bit that I'm going to have to give up my home and sell most of our stuff (as you need a home to keep it in!). 26 years I've been working in financial services and it's taken a lot of work and earning qualifications to get where I am. I could not face having to throw all that away.

All coinciding with almost a year since my dad passed away.

Smashing.

[chadders]

19 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Since it was announced that I'm  being made redundant a month ago, I've applied for 25 jobs. About half of these I don't hear anything, I did get one interview but never heard anything back and the rest have been straight declines. I've spent a great deal of time on these applications as well, I wouldn't be so bothered if I'd just been firing my CV out.

I'm now starting to panic a bit that I'm going to have to give up my home and sell most of our stuff (as you need a home to keep it in!). 26 years I've been working in financial services and it's taken a lot of work and earning qualifications to get where I am. I could not face having to throw all that away.

All coinciding with almost a year since my dad passed away.

Smashing.

Aren't you getting a decent payoff?

A month is no time at all in my experience, I was made redundant 3 times.

Sit down and look at your outgoings and see what can be cut back or cancelled, look at what you can claim from the government and review your fleet of cars.

If you might need to remortgage do it now, if there's time.

It's a long time since it happened to me so I've no doubt forgotten some things.

The key thing I remember was not to panic as my missus and kids would do the same and that's the last thing you need in my opinion. It'll work out so why have them worried?

[Tickman]

44 minutes ago, chadders said:

 

Sit down and look at your outgoings and see what can be cut back or cancelled, look at what you can claim from the government and review your fleet of cars.

This is the best advice as you then know what is needed and what is wanted.

I've been made redundant a couple of times, first time was after my apprenticeship because the whole market changed, the second time was because the accountant was at it and got found out.

Both times it wasn't the end of the world and just took some time and luck to get where I needed to be.

[Bfg]

On 26/02/2025 at 07:05, Split_Pin said:

Since it was announced that I'm  being made redundant a month ago, I've applied for 25 jobs. About half of these I don't hear anything, I did get one interview but never heard anything back and the rest have been straight declines. I've spent a great deal of time on these applications as well, I wouldn't be so bothered if I'd just been firing my CV out.

I'm now starting to panic a bit that I'm going to have to give up my home and sell most of our stuff (as you need a home to keep it in!). 26 years I've been working in financial services and it's taken a lot of work and earning qualifications to get where I am. I could not face having to throw all that away.

All coinciding with almost a year since my dad passed away.

Smashing.

I've been made redundant six times, so I'm glad to now be retired, but number of things I might add to Chadders good advice ..

a). look within the company you're presently with,  to see if there's any possibility of transferring to another department.  That may not sound an attractive proposition after you've worked to get to where you are, but if nothing else it may buy you more time to find another job, in the financial sector, sometime later in the year.   The advantages are that ; you have contacts within your own company ..and hopefully a respectable reputation, so may be able to talk to your company directors personally.  Any employer would prefer to re-locate / re-train a proven loyal-to-the-company employee than a stranger.   

b). Use your network of contacts within other companies to see what opportunities may not otherwise be known about.  And ask your own company's Directors to use their network of contacts to find you a new position.  You may not know, if they too may be facing redundancy. If they are looking for a new job too, then they may be glad to take an ally with them.

c). when the cloud of redundancy looms, &/or the market is in downturn .. you look for a job below your present pay scale and experience.   Only when you're in a strong position &/or the market is in upturn do you look for a step up  in pay-grade / promotion / growing company.   

d). small businesses and self employed tradesmen constantly struggle with accounts and financial services.  Consider what you have to offer them if you were to go freelance / self-employed yourself / start up your own company.  It may mean a change in direction from financial services to accounts, but consider the prospect of becoming financial director to half a dozen small businesses, which with good financial advice and book keeping - one or two may grow into something bigger.  Talk to the Chamber-of-Commerce / and any Business Start-up Initiatives to see if what they can do to put you in touch.   

 

Regarding Chadder's advice, 'not to panic the missus and kids' .. I'd disagree.   Rather I'd recommend you sit down and talk to them as adults (whatever their age) and calmly explain that any and all non-essential spending has to be curbed immediately, and any hope of a big holiday is likely be cancelled.  Forget the alpha-male bullshit.  It's honestly better not to wait until the shit really hits the fan ..when you then become at fault  - the cause of misery !     Instead - Talk to them rationally. Ask what they would do ..and listen to them. Trust in their love and involve them.  Avoid the 'shame' and treat it as a life lesson, where family pulls together and becomes closer for having been through it together.   

Do not delay.. make the first sacrifices yourself, sell cars and other stuff that you would have liked to keep - had times been better.  If you do have to relocate then storage would be a hassle and cost anyway. Again put aside the 'shame' and get to the Benefits Office with a financial projection of where you will be, if you don't get a job soon.  Better that you have that conversation in advance, especially if your family home is at risk.

Wishing you a calm head and good luck.  It's a testing time but others have said - we do come through it.

Pete

 

[Split_Pin]

Thanks folks, much appreciated.

[comfortablynumb]

Not redundancy, but I had to stop working when swombo became ill and unable to cope without a carer-me obviously.

Ive also got disabled children, so care became more important.

I'd agree totally with the 'dont be ashamed ' line, things happen, you just have to make the best you can of it.

Dealing with DWP is a bit problematic, but financially we are now pretty stable, certainly better than some who are working for minimum wage .

Good luck to you, I hope it works out 🙏 

[Remspoor]

Not really an important issue in the grand scheme of things. Why did they bury the pollen/cabin filters into a inaccessible part of the car ?

To make it worse the YT videos make it look oh so easy, when it is not.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

4 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Not really an important issue in the grand scheme of things. Why did they bury the pollen/cabin filters into a inaccessible part of the car ?

To make it worse the YT videos make it look oh so easy, when it is not.

MK2 Focus.  Never again.

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Not really an important issue in the grand scheme of things but why do we need cabin filters?

EFA