The grumpy thread

[loserone]

Excellent work.  And now your index fingertip can't go rusty

[andy18s]

9 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

I found some 50's style pruners, rusted shut.

I've spent ages cleaning and freeing them off.

They're great, chop through almost anything, really sharp.

I found this out by chopping the top of my left hand index finger off😱

What a fucking Muppet!

And you know the Tetanus jab will hurt more.   

[High Jetter]

8 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

I found some 50's style pruners, rusted shut.

I've spent ages cleaning and freeing them off.

They're great, chop through almost anything, really sharp.

I found this out by chopping the top of my left hand index finger off😱

What a fucking Muppet!

Shit, really? Hope you're not a southpaw

[comfortablynumb]

No, I'm just lazy! It's not too bad, just took ages to stop the bleeding, not great when there's no flap of skin to pull over it.

Kitchen roll and masking tape it is then 🤣

[myglaren]

The bloke that built this place:-

 Tjolöholms Slott,

John Dickinson, a Scot domiciled in Sweden where he was a exporter of timber for pit props in the UK, the 'castle' was just about finished when he was mowing a lawn and cut his finger. 

At that time pop bottles had a lead cap that was easy to tear off and he used onesuch to stem the flow of blood then wrapped it in a hankie (IIRC)

Died of blood poisoning a couple of days later.

Much the same as my grandfather in 1953.

[comfortablynumb]

Hope there's no lead in those secateurs then 🥺

Unwrapped it and checked this morning, taken part of the nail too,but clean enough, not really swollen and not really painful or red.

Redressed it, left it alone 🤞

[myglaren]

Wasn't the lead, was germses.

[UltraWomble]

Further HMRC shittery.

After speaking to a zillion people all of whom gave conflicting advice about child benefit and earnings for 2024-25 (when I drew my pension) I registered for self assessment - putting in the information from my P45 and two P60 forms I went from me owing the tax man the thick end of £3000 to him owing me £78.

Now I have a letter demanding me to put in a tax return for 2023-24 and telling me I'll be fined if its submitted late (ie after January 31st 2025)

Fucking bastards.

[UltraWomble]

54 minutes ago, myglaren said:

Wasn't the lead, was germses.

Would have been (marginally) better with silver stuffed in the wound.

[IronStar]

On 19/11/2025 at 00:02, IronStar said:

Display on Bravo’s stereo decided to quit. I already replaced one of these for the exact same reason, and here we are again.  

This is making me very sad. Guess that doubling as clock for 25 years is not making wonders for making it last forever. 
I’ll try cleaning and reseating the flex cable but….

I ordered a modern Android CarPlay thing off Aliexpress, but I really liked the original look.  

Goddamit this looks shit, complete with the chin-shelf. Fiat did a mega job of making sure their stereo can’t go into anything else if someone nicks it. Unfortunately , they did an equally good job of making it impossible to replace without making it look gopping. 

[comfortablynumb]

No words needed

[chaseracer]

I think I see what the problem might be... 😉

[warch]

4 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

No words needed

At least that's one of the cheaper and easier to repair engines when that sort of thing occurs (only eight valves for a start). Plus the belt is easier to access outside of the vehicle.

[comfortablynumb]

Fortunately ( if you can call it that) it was at very low revs, the damage seems to be mainly the pushrods, the camshaft and gear( the bolt had worked out, despite being torqued with a new wrench) and the cam has walked backwards into the block.

It'll be getting a Complete rebuild.

Less fortunate is the fact that it was on the third floor of a multi storey carpark in Nottingham at the time, and resulted in rows with recovery agents, a £90 taxi fare and bed at 3am 🤬

[warch]

24 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

Fortunately ( if you can call it that) it was at very low revs, the damage seems to be mainly the pushrods, the camshaft and gear( the bolt had worked out, despite being torqued with a new wrench) and the cam has walked backwards into the block.

It'll be getting a Complete rebuild.

Less fortunate is the fact that it was on the third floor of a multi storey carpark in Nottingham at the time, and resulted in rows with recovery agents, a £90 taxi fare and bed at 3am 🤬

My Dad's 2 and a quarter diesel had a similar issue, but the camshaft went the other way (broken thrust plate). 

[comfortablynumb]

I think it's wound its way back, you can see witness marks in the timing cover where the bolthead has been rubbing.

It's knackered the Woodruff key, and slots in the gear and camshaft

[Yoss]

On 08/12/2025 at 14:08, comfortablynumb said:

I found some 50's style pruners, rusted shut.

I've spent ages cleaning and freeing them off.

They're great, chop through almost anything, really sharp.

I found this out by chopping the top of my left hand index finger off😱

What a fucking Muppet!

I managed that with a Stanley knife last year. 

 

It bled quite a lot 

 

And looked like this after about a week. 

I still have part of my fingerprint missing. 

 

[comfortablynumb]

It's better than last time 

I used a circular saw then....😱

[myglaren]

8 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

It's better than last time 

I used a circular saw then....😱

Me too

[DavieW]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

Less fortunate is the fact that it was on the third floor of a multi storey carpark in Nottingham at the time, and resulted in rows with recovery agents, 

Years ago my Seat Leon shat it's diff on the top floor of a multi. As soon as I mentioned where I was, the AA said "we'll get a contractor out to you". Not interested in the job themselves.

[comfortablynumb]

3 minutes ago, DavieW said:

Years ago my Seat Leon shat it's diff on the top floor of a multi. As soon as I mentioned where I was, the AA said "we'll get a contractor out to you". Not interested in the job themselves.

We were told "It'll be tomorrow" at 10pm. MK2 son ( his car, RRC) said we'd get it out and would they recover it then?

"Yes"

So we got it out with help from a friendly P38 owner.

" It'll still be tomorrow"

WTF?

Even if they'd got one of those tracked lifts, there wasn't the clearance to pick it up.

He even said he'd remove the props and they could tow it out.

Complaint gone in

[Lord Sterling]

So, the XJ still isn't back and still hasn't had a test (I've checked the MoT checker site), I did call yesterday and the day before, they keep telling me they'll call back.....

Also, work. Been given a position I didn't want because no one else would do it. Its basically some admin work and my usual job. It's not managerial but I do have some oversight. 

My old manager has been shit scared to give me this position and apparently it seems like there is some trouble brewing. 

I'm already in contact and on good terms with his manager, so I'll be contacting him and my union of this pops off. I doubt it as I know higher managers don't like having to deal with shit like this. I just don't need to be dealing with shit like this, its why I took my other job on in the first place, I get left alone.

[hairnet]

On 09/12/2025 at 13:33, UltraWomble said:

Further HMRC shittery.

After speaking to a zillion people all of whom gave conflicting advice about child benefit and earnings for 2024-25 (when I drew my pension) I registered for self assessment - putting in the information from my P45 and two P60 forms I went from me owing the tax man the thick end of £3000 to him owing me £78.

Now I have a letter demanding me to put in a tax return for 2023-24 and telling me I'll be fined if its submitted late (ie after January 31st 2025)

Fucking bastards.

tell them fuck you wheres my 78 quid

[hairnet]

friend posted a pic of them in the bleachers at a stereophonics gig i thought was either yesterday or today in sheffield

shit if id known about that i woulda gone - not seem them in a while

looked at (spit) ticketmaster and theres manc tonight (ive only seen it in the last half an hour)

could make that but its coop live - shittest new venue ever - so no

theres birmingham (no) then liverpool

looked at the liverpool one and only resale tickets - fine - so click through and 65 quid

thats not so bad and the train is only 4 quid each way

click and it goes up to 76 (ffs)

but see the totter on the right and theres 3 entries

ticket

handling fee

service charge

ticket was 97

fuck that

[Fumbler]

Today took a major turn for the worst. I got a phone call from a friend letting me know another friend had died on the hard shoulder, far away from home, struck by an artic.

[comfortablynumb]

On 10/12/2025 at 17:05, comfortablynumb said:

We were told "It'll be tomorrow" at 10pm. MK2 son ( his car, RRC) said we'd get it out and would they recover it then?

"Yes"

So we got it out with help from a friendly P38 owner.

" It'll still be tomorrow"

WTF?

Even if they'd got one of those tracked lifts, there wasn't the clearance to pick it up.

He even said he'd remove the props and they could tow it out.

Complaint gone in

Further to this, we're getting a refund for the £90 taxi and £40 rail fare, because LV have agreed that we didn't get the service we should have.

Thank god for that!

[Pieman]

6 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Today took a major turn for the worst. I got a phone call from a friend letting me know another friend had died on the hard shoulder, far away from home, struck by an artic.

Fuck, that is AWFUL.  Sending my condolences to you and your friends.

[Fumbler]

18 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Fuck, that is AWFUL.  Sending my condolences to you and your friends.

Thank you sir. It's been a tough day. The Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin set up a donation page for his family and his injured coworkers. They also included a brief obituary for further reading if anyone is interested. 26 is too young to die.

https://pffwcf.networkforgood.com/projects/266783-honor-tom-diener-supporting-carter-haen-robbie-betts

 

[Spiny Norman]

This actually made me laugh so not sure it's actually a grump as such but...

Car & Classic - Are you fucking serious? 
Tried putting the CRV in an ad on there, gave them all the usual shite I know fine well they'll sell on, decent copy for the ad, nice pictures and they send me back this. 

 

 

I haven't seen a 'Tits with date stamp or GTFO' kind of post since I used to go onto some shoddy chatrooms back in the day. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

OK, so it's to be expected but...

Mug of coffee, checkout the news headlines and The Fear! The Fear!
Thank you, Mr BBC News. Why in God's name do you have to feed the insecurities and stoke the catastrophising of today's society?

I know - "if it bleeds, it leads" but, FFS, calm down a little, less of the clickbait until you actually have some facts*