The grumpy thread

[Guest]

However, this time I'll probably take the Galant so I can just hop in that and drive around aimlessly all day. Not happy though.

Hey Hirst, look on the bright side, at least you can get a decent amount of shite spotting in. Skegness is probably full of old bilge, I reckon it's saturated with rotting old campervans like Bedford CFs and that.

[pogweasel]

More likely to find a heap of 51-plate Astras with snapped cambelts that are still on tick to CarCraft. I pity you Hirst.I find 'family' events to be excruciating at the best of times, let alone one in a windswept shithole by the North Sea in March. Truly grim. Oh and as for the 'sunday shopping' thing, I shall continue to ignore it and hope it goes away. In my brain it is still 1983. The shops are shut with the exception of the garden centre and the paper shop. The perfect sunday is a trip to the pub for a beef carvery dinner and two glasses of ale followed by a potter at the garden centre. That's as 'consumer' as I get. On the very very rare occasion I have been forced by SWMBO to some soul-less retail park on a sunday, I really feel like shouting at the cretinous dead-eyed retards who are busily handing over their hard earned for things they do not need "IT IS SUNDAY FFS! WASHING THE CAR, CARVERY DINNER, GARDENING"Keep sunday special. Not for that 'god' bollocks, but just for the nice things rather than the drudgery of modern britain.

[seth]

Bad news Hirst!Worst I get is long weekends in Manchester with the in-laws. I get on well with them, its just I've got nothing to do up there so whereas at home I'm always busy doing this and that up there I get bored. Over the holidays I took advantage of this fact though and was ill spending most of a few days in bed. Better than being ill at home with work/tinkering to be getting on with!

[pompei]

I've been fairly lucky in the family stakes - there were only a few of us and apart from my 2 year old son (and I still can't believe I'm a dad after all these years ) I've only one surviving blood relation and she's nearly 90 and lives 3 hours away.Friends, the ex Mrs P ( ) and colleagues all have had hideous times with families. Just look at the moronic wastes of carbon you see fighting on Jeremy Kyle. Look at the f***ing ethos of putting at-risk children with their families because "family is best". Well no it f***ing isn't unless you are very lucky.

[Volksy]

I think that they could do a full series of Jerry springer or equivalent with my family, I'm the youngest out of 9 (so far) and others keep popping up out of the woodwork

[Guest]

Cheers for the support!Skegness isn't too bad for shite-spotting to be honest, I have a picture of a brown Citroen CX in my old holiday snaps somewhere which I'll dig out later. The problem is that largely you end up trapped within the compound which is a fair walk away from Skegness itself, which to be honest I think is a pretty decent place off-season. Why people choose to be inside Butlins when they could go to Skegness proper is beyond me, I can only assume that they offer payment via benefit deductions or something.Pog's comment rings true somewhat, I think the thing I dislike most is the idea of having a weekend all planned out with proper tasks to be done, when I hear the extended family planning their day it makes me feel incredibly glad that I won't be hanging around with them for the bulk of it - it's all swimming, Lazerquest, stage shows and "going out". If I've got a whole day of free time I either want to be working on the fleet to the point where I get a satisfactory amount of work done or having a lazy day where I essentially do nothing of note - watch some ropey old TV shows, bit of Autoshite, wash a car, drive out to the off-licence for some cheap ale for later, put a film on, etc. Bit like being retired. The key thing is that there's no stress either way, no big trips out, no shopping that can't be done within 5 minutes and not much of a schedule to keep to.Instead I'll have to spend a weekend trying to avoid people I don't like, paying over the odds for everything and getting thoroughly annoyed throughout. The sooner people realise that not everyone has the same idea of fun, the better.

[Volksy]

I'd rebel, claim i'd left a knife in the fork section of the cutlery tray or something and hi-tail it dans Galant to the horizon!

[garycox]

Argh, I HATE Butlitz! I even hated it when I was a kid, it's all so regimented and organised so that you can't possibly do anything even remotely interesting.I went to Skegness Butlitz last year (there was a music festival on, my friends' band were playing, I got free tickets) and it was shite. They do appear to have smartened it up a bit but apart from the bands, who were pretty good, there was zero fun to be had. Fuggin miles from where I live too!

[Mike D]

Yo Hirst Man, Skeggy is only down the road from me, take a drive and bring one of your motors down for some fettling

[pompei]

Beloved went to a disco festival seventies long weekend thing there a few weeks ago - work trip out. Most of them came home early ...

[Mr Lobster]

What makes it worse is that Butlins is filled with people exactly like them, it's essentially a dumping ground for the most cretinous members of society. I'm not just saying that for effect - it truly is. Blokes with no shirts on when they probably should do, sink estate wives puffing on rollups, shrieking little shitbag kids everywhere, it's an utter nightmare. The place itself is absolutely dismal too.

I perceive CentreParcs to be very much the same except aimed more at the middle classes so therefore more pretentious and more expensive. I just don't understand that sort of 'holiday' where everything is preplanned and you do an assortment of wildly priced activities. Just let me get away from all the plebs and actually relax.Hirst, that sounds absolutely awful. I feel your pain! I hate the enforced family get togethers, spending time with distant relatives you don't see from one year to the next. Moving to the other side of the country may be the answer. Then it is easier to pretend you are busy.

[Richard]

You should see Legoland. Posh parents take their kids there because Lego is an educational toy and the chav families go there because it's a theme park. They have signs up telling people to keep their shirts on.

[Guest]

Yo Hirst Man, Skeggy is only down the road from me, take a drive and bring one of your motors down for some fettling

That is a corker of an idea! I will find out the proper date at some point.

[andrew e]

Centre Parcs is great! I'm going next month with my parents and my brother and sister in law - really Hey I love family gatherings, possibly because there is a generic dna trait that means the whole lot are at odds with society, I mean the last family do I found out my uncle had rolled a Fiat 128 3p coupe

[155V6]

Have we had HiD headlights yet?

I've just fitted HiDs to the MG :lol:However,The originals were rubbish, I've got electric adjustment, The HiDs are white,not blue or purple, No-one has flashed me yet In the old days,I would of just fitted a pair(or two)of Cibie Oscars,but it's not as easy with plastic cars.

[Pete-M]

If you want to experience a total disaster, go to Flamingo Land nr Scarborough. When I was driving Limos I was unfortunate enough to get a job to there, punters wanted to go and see Girls Aloud and a few other popular beat combos. Somewhat amusingly it had all been booked months in advance and Sir Bob scuppered the event by staging Live8 on the same day.Cue 32ft of Lincoln turning up to FlamingoLand just in time to spy a monumentally pissed off Girls Aloud member trying furiously to get out of the contract and flouncing everywhere as they expected 10,000 people and had a 'crowd' of approximately 800. Some chap called "Lemar" or summat on stage crooning at a load of amused grandmothers, one of Girls Aloud apparantly sulking in a Porsche Cayenne in a field, The catering people going nuts at the park people and loads of very unhappy kids.I retired to the limo and watched Live8 on telly in the back for a couple of hours. I won't be returning to Flamingoland as it looked pretty ramshackle and this was meant to be their 'big event'.

[andrew e]

I have a sneaking suspicion you knew it was shite before you arrived

[Pete-M]

I have a sneaking suspicion you knew it was shite before you arrived

Who? Me? I was glad I didn't miss Live8, and Flamingo Land will always make me chuckle at the memory. I found it all most amusing.The poor girls who'd spent 3 hours each way in the back of a limo with flaky AC in the middle of summer travelling to go and see an utter disaster of a 'concert' in the middle of a travesty of a theme park weren't so happy.Sitting in a limo watching telly while Girls Aloud were playing on stage 200 metres away (and in full view to me) is something I'm infinately proud of. Especially as I was paid for the day.

[Richard]

I've seen clips of Girls Aloud performing live, they are monumentally awful.

[simmo]

Went not a touristy attraction in N.Devon in 07 and right in the middle of it all were 20+ old Scooters apparently from a defunct museum.

 

[pompei]

A friend of The Fuhrer works for an entertainment company - she gets to see and meet quite a few famous acts. She took her kids to a Girls Aloud event and told us they all had an epicly awful time - spoilt brats, up their own chuffs etc, and not too good at performing either

[Guest]

I reckon Girls Aloud have quite wonky looking faces.

[Guest greenvanman]

Went not a touristy attraction in N.Devon in 07 and right in the middle of it all were 20+ old Scooters apparently from a defunct museum.

 

Bloody hell, a Laverda Mini! Score yourself 1000000 shite points right there!

[55bloke]

I reckon Girls Aloud have quite wonky looking faces.

I think you need glasses!!

[AnthonyG]

Who or What are 'Girls Aloud'? Are they related to one of these awful TV talent shows?Is or was Cheryl Cole one of them? As you can tell, I haven't any interest in modern 'pop' 'music'.

[seth]

Who or What are 'Girls Aloud'?

 

Are they related to one of these awful TV talent shows?

 

Is or was Cheryl Cole one of them?

 

As you can tell, I haven't any interest in modern 'pop' 'music'.

In the interest of research for you Mr G I've just been perusing photos of these young ladies. They do indeed appear to have been "found" on a talent show.

 

[Guest]

I don't care how pisspoor their stage shows are, nor how stuck up they are. I'd tap any one of them

[Mr Lobster]

^ YumzI wouldn't be even slightly bothered about how well or otherwise they sing tbh. That is not why I have an interest in them (apart from the one in the middle who is strangely unappealing)

[CortinaDave]

I wouldnt do the ginger one... not because she is ginger, but because she just isnt hot.any of the others however.. (particularly Kimberley) mmmmm....

[r.welfare]

Pandamonium will be along shortly to tell us he thinks the ginger one is "hot".