The grumpy thread

[RedSparrow]

My boss is a detestable prick.

[dollywobbler]

On another grump, my internet has stopped working. Checked the Plusnut site and it appears to be a wide ranging network problem

 

Oh yeah. Like last weekend. The network started playing up on the Sunday but it took until 1pm on the Tuesday for those useless Yorkie b'stards to think it might be worth raising the issue with their supplier. Two days of people phoning up to complain about shite service until they did anything about it. I'm not impressed, though our internet is back up to speed now.

[eddyramrod]

Grump 1: the state of GB. It was bad enough when I left, and now I'm having to return, which is bad enough, but what am I returning to? It doesn't exactly sound healthy.

 

Grump 2 follows. It's going to be a long post so while I type, carry on chaps...

[eddyramrod]

Grump 2. Fish and chips.... with beer batter.

 

It's Friday, it's a nice day, if a bit windy, so we thought it would be pleasant to drive to another town and sit by the beach with fish and chips. After the winter we've had, Mrs R deserves a little treat here and there, fish and chips doesn't seem unreasonable. We've seen a chippy at Latchi on the north coast so we thought we'd try that. Drove all the way there, ordered a large portion of fish'n'chips to share (romantic sod ) and the Brit lady behind the counter starts pouring Carlsberg into a batter tub.

 

"Is that for my batter?" (I'm quick, me...)

"Yes, that's right luv."

"Oh... we're alcohol-free."

"All the alcohol burns off."

 

Er, no. Chefs have been telling me that for years. Either they're lying to me, in which case they don't deserve my custom and won't be getting it; or they're telling the truth, in which case, why the fuck are you pouring a bottle of expensive beer into my batter mix just for it to burn off? My instinct is to believe the former.

Does not liking the taste really make me such an unnatural freak?

Does nobody consider the medical imperative? Mrs R, who used to like a drink, has been told not to have any, ever again, it will kill her. Well there's a no-brainer if ever I saw one. Surely she's not alone? So why is beer batter a default setting? OK, have it as an option on the menu if you like; could even charge extra for it, but there's no need to make it the standard setting.

I was particularly unimpressed at her attitude when I queried it. No attempt to give the customer what he wants. "It burns away." Yeah right. WELL FUCK THAT RIGHT OFF! Tammy's in Latchi gets no business from me, today or any other day.

 

Unfortunately, chippies being thin on the ground over here, it took us two hours to drive to the next one, a place we've used before, in Paphos. A place that doesn't use beer in the batter (I asked).

[Cavcraft]

Galloway is a detestable fucking hateful twat. I'm all for freedom if speech but he manages to come across as an arrogant gobshite. I'd pay good money to watch someone knock him clean out with a punch.

 

It's great (as others have said) that the three 'main' parties have a lot of egg on their faces but a shame it took that odious shitehawk to do it.

[eddyramrod]

Total agreement, Billy!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Fuck! I've just written the Scorpio off. I now belong to the small group of "special needs" people who have managed to lose control of a car travelling at the legal limit on a dry motorway (long story short, car in front braked, I decided to change lanes in order to avoid braking, noticed someone in my blind spot, overcorrected and fell victim to RWD GR9 4 DRIFTIN). At least nobody was hurt and somehow (a divine intervention by the Flying Spaghetti Monster?) no other cars were involved, which means that, unlike my car, my NCD is intact!

 

Off to look for some hen's teeth, I mean old LPG barges.

[eddyramrod]

Oh that's bad news Luxo. On the bright side, at least you're here to tell us about it. Best of luck with the hunt.

[cort16]

Glad your okay luxo, sounds like a close one (make sure you check for locking nuts on your next car).

[rml2345]

Bloody hell Luxo! Glad you're here to tell us though, could have been rather a sore one...

Good luck with the hunt... Have you thought about an old Volvo?

[Ross_K]

Well, no problems with fuel shortages here.

 

It cost €102 to fill the car this morning though...

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Bloody hell Luxo! Glad you're here to tell us though, could have been rather a sore one...

Good luck with the hunt... Have you thought about an old Volvo?

 

I would quite like an old Volvo, but it has to be LPG to please the fascists in the local shitty cuntcil. Found a decent-looking Lexus GS300 and will be venturing all the way to Brum tonight in order to view it before anyone else does.

[ProgRocker]

Bad luck, Luxo. Shame about the Scorchio but at least you were OK.

The GS300 sounds like a lush replacement.

 

I quite like George Galloway - he has a 'no bullshit' approach that I wish other politicians would adopt. Good luck to him in Brandford West.

 

I did lose some 'Respect' (no pun intended) for him when he did Big Brother. I don't think the constituents of Bethnall Green and Bow were impressed that he wasn't around to represent them. And that farkin' green leotard!

[lancashireclamper]

Sorry to hear about your mishap Luxo, glad your ok but by God your luck doesn't seem to alter does it.

Anyway, saw this on t'bay and wondered if it might be of interest;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-51-REG-V ... 35baa76247

 

Factory lpg Volvo S40, classified ad, £1150

[Guest]

Bradford West would vote for a lithograph drawing of Paul Daniels doing wheelies on a quad if it had an anti-Israeli/anti-war/pro-immigration agenda. The whole party seems to revolve around huge national/international issues which it isn't in much of a position to do anything about, instead of tackling things which it might be in a position to actually do (e.g. making their wards less horrible).

[pompei]

Glad you are ok, Luxo, that must have been a scary moment ...

 

If the Lexus has an LPG conversion make sure it has a flashlube or similar system installed as well. I've read stories about catestrophic valve/valve-seat failure on these.

[jayroller]

Eddy - alcohol burns off, the beer flavour remains.

 

Not so:

 

The conventional wisdom accepted by just about everyone in the food world is that all the alcohol you add to a dish evaporates or dissipates during cooking. It’s wrong. In fact, you have to cook something for a good three hours to eradicate virtually all traces of alcohol.

 

Source = http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

 

I can't be arsed with beer-battered arseyness anyway, just make the batter up (use some fizzy water if you really want the bubbles), leave the booze in the bottle, and bring it to me with the food. Easy.

[myglaren]

Dsiability may not mean you struggle to get out of the car, for example some people can walk comfortably for short distances. That said, from your description he was probably a prick using gran's badge.

My wife has a disabled blue badge as she is classifiaed as clinically blind.

never uses it though.

[myglaren]

Got the Merc started, after much faffing around, with the help of its previous owner who'd run it out of diesel before so knew how to get it going again. The computer still has the virus though, and AVG doesn't seem to have picked it up, so I might end up having to follow one of those online guides and bugger about in the registry, which I hate doing. Mind you, this computer is six years old now and is starting to struggle to keep up, so it might be time for an upgrade anyway.

 

If you have the discs, reinstall it. Simplest way to be off with a difficult virus and to speed the thing up at the same time.

Keep the shovelware to a minimum, helps a lot.

Install Microsoft Security Essentials - depending on the spec of the machine it will either work well or stop it altogether, if it works it is quite decent.

Also install Spybot Search & Destroy, invoke the 'Immunize' function, then go to the 'Advanced Mode' and, ignoring the warnings, invoke the 'download Spybot Hosts File', which will go a long way to preventing the problems you are currently enjoying.

If you use Firefox, in the tools is an option to prevent redirects.

Also, if you have CCleaner, that does a good job of clearing crap out (hence the name) and has a registry tool to.

[wuvvum]

That's a good point actually - I do have CCleaner but haven't ever used the registry tool. AVG now seems to have got rid of the functional part of the virus after all though as my Google searches are now back to normal, but there are probably still some nasties hidden away somewhere...

[jayroller]

^^ If I may make a suggestion: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware should see you right - I've just used it to tidy up a mates' pc that was riddled with all sorts of redirecting nasties/icky trojans. Easy to use, pretty damn good at what it does, and it's free too!

 

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

[chaseracer]

I'm relieved Luxo is OK after his misfortune, but a little surprised that there has been no suggestion to hammer a smaller Ford over the Scorpio...

[Negative Creep]

On another grump, my internet has stopped working. Checked the Plusnut site and it appears to be a wide ranging network problem

 

Oh yeah. Like last weekend. The network started playing up on the Sunday but it took until 1pm on the Tuesday for those useless Yorkie b'stards to think it might be worth raising the issue with their supplier. Two days of people phoning up to complain about shite service until they did anything about it. I'm not impressed, though our internet is back up to speed now.

 

 

Back up and working now. Other than that it's been fine for me, and at least if there is a problem you get to speak to someone in the UK.....

[scaryoldcortina]

I'm relieved Luxo is OK after his misfortune, but a little surprised that there has been no suggestion to hammer a smaller Ford over the Scorpio...

 

I was going to offer a non-crashed sierra with no running gear, but I'm not sure now.

[Rover414]

Well today I've learnt it turns out South Liverpool is a diesel free zone. Whilst some of us genuinely are at the bottom of our tanks, I just wonder how many were over half way and just had to take the diesel because the "fuel crisis".

[M'coli]

Glad to hear you're ok, Luxo, but what's happening to the car itself? Can you not salvage the LPG kit out of it?

[Pete-M]

Well today I've learnt it turns out South Liverpool is a diesel free zone. Whilst some of us genuinely are at the bottom of our tanks, I just wonder how many were over half way and just had to take the diesel because the "fuel crisis".

 

The petrol station by the Jolly Miller always has diesel....

[Pete-M]

Fuck! I've just written the Scorpio off. I now belong to the small group of "special needs" people who have managed to lose control of a car travelling at the legal limit on a dry motorway (long story short, car in front braked, I decided to change lanes in order to avoid braking, noticed someone in my blind spot, overcorrected and fell victim to RWD GR9 4 DRIFTIN). At least nobody was hurt and somehow (a divine intervention by the Flying Spaghetti Monster?) no other cars were involved, which means that, unlike my car, my NCD is intact!

 

Off to look for some hen's teeth, I mean old LPG barges.

 

At least you didn't manage to hammer a smaller car over the Scorpio.

 

Damn it. Andy beat me to this....

 

Glad you're ok.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Much appreciated

 

My life's always been like that- loads of instances of bad luck, but most of them without any serious repercussions. Although I guess that the job thing is starting to have a psychological impact- a few days ago, I was rejected for a job even though I was more than qualified for it because of them being "unsure as to whether you would manage to fit within the team in terms of personality". I thought the interview had gone well, and they didn't hire anyone for the position, so I don't suppose that I had been up against serious competition, either. Incidentally, I crashed on my way to an interview which I am not sure whether I will manage to rearrange.

 

I was thinking about removing the LPG kit. It was a top-of-the-range sequential job. The car is safely parked at the Burrows Recovery depot, I will be back there on Monday to figure out exactly what we're doing with it.

 

By the way, it's worth mentioning that the Scorpio was absolutely fantastic in terms of crash absorption etc. By the time I crashed into the barrier, my speed would have probably been in the 30s. There was obviously no intrusion into the passenger cabin, the airbag didn't blow up in my face, and I bet that the car could be fixed without any safety-related worries (although doing so would, of course, amount to financial suicide). I will definitely buy another one someday.

 

I have agreed to buy the Lexus. To be honest, I didn't really find it very appealing, but it was in decent condition and, being a Toyota, it should not have any reliability issues and be easy to sell on if I ever have a job, some parking and/or other luxuries which would allow me to choose a car of my liking. There'll be a separate thread on that when I pick it up.

[retrogeezer]

bollox! forgot about that aerodeck finishing on ebay this morning and it only went for £420 friggin quid.....arse!