The grumpy thread

[Negative Creep]

Spent all day sitting in waiting for the courier to delivery my new alloys, and still missed him. Nearest depot is in Exeter and I'm back to work tomorrow, so the only thing I can do is ask them to leave them outside and home no passing pikeys notice

[warren t claim]

Car insurance renewal.

[warren t claim]

Rapidly coming to the conclusion that if I cant get a decent insurance quote I'll flog/frag my fleet and give up cars. I can by a sensible, 80mpg bike of about 250cc and tax and insure it for under £100.

 

Fuck 'em!

 

Enterprise will rent me a Matiz for virtually fuck all on the odd occasion I need a car for a weekend. Maybe use Whipcar now and again as well.

[Negative Creep]

Considering it's a mandatory requirement, the cost of insurance is nothing short of a scandal. Every time I see one of those personal injury forms advertising on tv it makes my blood boil

[Morgan84]

Rapidly coming to the conclusion that if I cant get a decent insurance quote I'll flog/frag my fleet and give up cars. I can by a sensible, 80mpg bike of about 250cc and tax and insure it for under £100.

 

Fuck 'em!

 

Enterprise will rent me a Matiz for virtually fuck all on the odd occasion I need a car for a weekend. Maybe use Whipcar now and again as well.

 

Or get a pre 1973 Car and have free road tax

[Lankytim]

Some guy reconed he witnessed the accident my Mum was involved in and was with her when she died, but the police have been unable to contact him to get a statement. They have spoken to his Girlfriend a few times but he's always unavailable and now he just won't answer his phone at all. Turns out he wasn't there at all and is some sort of sick fantasist!

 

Some people really need a good shoeing before being allowed out into the real world!

[Morgan84]

Some guy reconed he witnessed the accident my Mum was involved in and was with her when she died, but the police have been unable to contact him to get a statement. They have spoken to his Girlfriend a few times but he's always unavailable and now he just won't answer his phone at all. Turns out he wasn't there at all and is some sort of sick fantasist!

 

Some people really need a good shoeing before being allowed out into the real world!

 

People like that need locking away

[retrogeezer]

Sorry to hear about your mum Tim, I guess I must have missed an earlier post. Sincere condolences mate.

 

Bloke needs prosecuting for wasting police time at least.

[Autoplas]

A car dealer who advertises in our local paper, you know the type 'finished in giffer beige metallic', ' contrasting tan suede trim', but the description that really annoys me every time I read his adverts (purely to annoy myself) is the description 'fitted automatic gearbox' or 'fitted manual gearbox'.

 

What, as opposed to the cars you sell where you remove the gearbox and put it in the f-ing boot before selling the car to a customer ?

 

Twat.

[Cavcraft]

Why do these sick bastards do this sort of thing? He does indeed need a good shoeing Tim, but also he should be charged with wasting time as well.

[cms206]

I am now two teeth and several dollarpounds down thanks to my first trip to the dentist in fourteen years. One more (healthy ) tooth to come out and a filling then I'll be back on six monthly visits it appears... on top of that the anaesthetic is wearing off but the numbness hasn't, and as a result I can't take painkillers cos I'm still drooling like a grunting mong.

[Mr H Sceptre]

Some guy reconed he witnessed the accident my Mum was involved in and was with her when she died, but the police have been unable to contact him to get a statement. They have spoken to his Girlfriend a few times but he's always unavailable and now he just won't answer his phone at all. Turns out he wasn't there at all and is some sort of sick fantasist!

 

Some people really need a good shoeing before being allowed out into the real world!

 

 

What a sick bast*rd.

[eddyramrod]

+1 on that. He needs his head banging on the wall untill all that's left is a red mark.

 

Meanwhile... I've been offered a lush (and cheap to run) barn find at a highly suitable price, but with no vehicles sold, I can't afford to do anything about it.* Fortunately the present owner isn't in much hurry.

 

*My usual position, tbh, but particularly painful at the moment as it's something I'd like to bring back with me and use, as cars are meant to be!

[Angrydicky]

Bollocks. I've been caught speeding, in my company van. 38 in a 30. Came around a corner and saw the two policemen with the hairdryer a bit too late. I now have to go on a 'Speed Awareness Course' which takes half a day and apparently costs £95, as an alternative to having points/fine. Not happy.

[eddyramrod]

two policemen with the hairdryer

 

And I thought it was just me calling it that... Sorry, i know I shouldn't laugh. You'll be talking about "temporary triffic lights"* next!

 

*As in, every time they stop you, you can be heard to mutter "oh triffic" especially if there's no oncoming traffic.

[dollywobbler]

38 in a 30? Hard to feel sympathetic I must admit. Sorry.

[Angrydicky]

38 in a 30? Hard to feel sympathetic I must admit. Sorry.

 

Ha, fair enough. Bang to rights. Still a pain in the arse though.

[trigger]

I'd be more impressed if you was caught doing 80mph in a 70mph in the Austin Cambridge.

[dollywobbler]

To be honest, wasn't unknown for me to hit 80mph in a 40 zone when I was a 19yo van driver. Gawd knows how I got away with never getting caught! The most stressful job I've ever had, for probably the least income. Volkswagen T4 Turbo diesels can bloody shift, and they corner exceedingly well too. I look back on those times and shudder, while being very glad that I never had a serious accident.

 

My grump is fairly minor, as it's hardly the end of the world. A sickness bug struck my f-i-l the night before we held a family gathering at our house. Not a lot we could do really, seeing as everyone had driven many miles to get here so we went ahead. Bug now doing the rounds. I had to write-off yesterday entirely and barely ate, so have been feeling pretty dreadful today for the most part. Just what I needed before a busy weekend of shite-shows!

[Pillock]

Car insurance renewal.

 

Santander wanted £452 to insure me (7 years NCB) on my Leon. It was £419 last year, plus I've moved house losing the driveway in the process which added £25 mid-year so it's not that far out.

 

I added my GF to the policy (no NCB in her own name, and had a non-fault crunch 3 years ago) and it's taken it down to £320. I can only assume that as a single man I was a potential liability, now I live with someone of the opposite sex I am now much calmer.

 

A guy at work also told me that he put his dad on his policy as a named driver, which saved him £100.... fair enough, but after 6 months when he took his dad back off it, he got a cheque for £100 because the insurance had gone down.

[Negative Creep]

38 in a 30? Hard to feel sympathetic I must admit. Sorry.

 

Ha, fair enough. Bang to rights. Still a pain in the arse though.

 

 

Depends on the road. Plenty of 30 zones that could easily be 40

[dollywobbler]

38 in a 30? Hard to feel sympathetic I must admit. Sorry.

 

Ha, fair enough. Bang to rights. Still a pain in the arse though.

 

 

Depends on the road. Plenty of 30 zones that could easily be 40

 

Yes, but they're not. There are lots of illiterate idiots selling stuff on Ebay who it should be legal to remove from society, but sadly, laws are laws.

[Angrydicky]

I was caught in Thorpe Hall Avenue, Southend, heading north just past the railway bridge if you want to check it on Streetview. It's a 30mph dual carriageway.

[AnthonyG]

Bollocks. I've been caught speeding, in my company van. 38 in a 30. Came around a corner and saw the two policemen with the hairdryer a bit too late. I now have to go on a 'Speed Awareness Course' which takes half a day and apparently costs £95, as an alternative to having points/fine. Not happy.

 

People say these are 'really good' but the one I had to go on was 'rather wank', mainly because the 'advanced driving instructor' didn't actually know much about any of the laws he was going on about, and told people to look things up on the internet, which as you can imagine went down well with a bunch of Welsh farmers (it was held in Aberystwyth).

 

He still 'passed' everybody at the end of the day though (there's no real test or anything), so I reckon you would have really have to kick off (or be very thick) to 'fail'. It might cost £5 more than a fine but the clean licence is worth it.

[retrogeezer]

Where I used to live in Farnborough, Hants there is a stretch of dual carriageway with barriers between the road and the path with a 30 limit. Half a mile down the road where it is single carriageway near a sixth form college and loads of people walking along the footpath (no barriers) it is a 40 limit.........crazy.

[M'coli]

Depends on the road. Plenty of 30 zones that could easily be 40

They probably were 40s at some point, but does the 40 limit ever get adhered to? No - it gets the piss ripped out of it, just like the 30 limit will do. So why drop it to a 30 if that's not going to be adhered to either? It probably has something to do with less paperwork after accidents at lower speeds.

[Negative Creep]

Depends on the road. Plenty of 30 zones that could easily be 40

They probably were 40s at some point, but does the 40 limit ever get adhered to? No - it gets the piss ripped out of it, just like the 30 limit will do. So why drop it to a 30 if that's not going to be adhered to either? It probably has something to do with less paperwork after accidents at lower speeds.

 

 

The fact a speed limit is ignored should be a message that it's too low, but the Council can claim to be "green" and "protecting children" by lowering the limit. There's a 20 section on my way to work which is virtually ignored by everyone, bus drivers and police included.

 

The local scamera van has been seen out recently, normally parked in a bus bay and in such a way you don't see them until you're close

[skattrd]

The local scamera van has been seen out recently, normally parked in a bus bay and in such a way you don't see them until you're close

 

I've seen quite a few around over the last week or so, I think it's the season for them.

[boobydoo]

I did one of these awareness courses a couple of years ago in Luton. I really enjoyed it! Its 30 years since I passed my test and it was good to have a few reminders.

The guy we had was a really good speaker with a good balance between light-heartedness and serious. It was only a half day and I've not had a single point since!

[M'coli]

Depends on the road. Plenty of 30 zones that could easily be 40

They probably were 40s at some point, but does the 40 limit ever get adhered to? No - it gets the piss ripped out of it, just like the 30 limit will do. So why drop it to a 30 if that's not going to be adhered to either? It probably has something to do with less paperwork after accidents at lower speeds.

 

 

The fact a speed limit is ignored should be a message that it's too low, but the Council can claim to be "green" and "protecting children" by lowering the limit. There's a 20 section on my way to work which is virtually ignored by everyone, bus drivers and police included.

You could set the speed limits to 70/80/90 or whatever, it'll still get ignored because people think that it doesn't apply to them and that limits only really matter if you get caught - just look around you at the general public if you want any more evidence.