The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Feanor]

Junior the younger is currently working in a hotel here in Edinburgh, a temporary job whilst he decides what to do next.
He cycles there and back, and leaves bike locked up around the side of the building.
He finished his shift, and came out to find the front wheel had been nicked.
Just the front wheel, not any of the more usual nickables like lights etc.

He went back inside and had a grumble about it to other staff.
"Hmm, that's funny, I noticed a bike wheel out the back!" says one.

Sure enough, there is a near-identical 700c QR wheel with similar size tyre, but flat!
Looks like someone nicked his wheel to get home, abandoning their own punctured wheel out of sight! They could have just left it beside the bike!

So he now has someone else's now-repaired wheel on the front of his bike!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Security skewers ftw. Or even just a zip tie round the through skewer lever and round fork leg, as a friend does on a BSO.

[canny colin]

Oh look , look its Aidan f . oh its not . In the shadow of giants . 

[T42]

Currently listening on speaker to hold music that slowly fades out to nothing then, just as you're beginning to think that it has automatically hung up and lift the phone to your ear, comes back full blast.  Should know better than to try and call a pensions agency at 09:30 on a Monday.

[Basil]

I've put a fold kink into the tube of one of my hearing aids.
Rather than post it, I have brought it in myself to save time.

If you want to get a parking space at Glangwili Hospital, you have to arrive at sparrow fart.
I you arrive at sparrow fart, Audiology reception is not yet open.
So I'm now sitting with a foul coffee.

[Beardy]

I've put a fold kink into the tube of one of my hearing aids.
Rather than post it, I have brought it in myself to save time.

If you want to get a parking space at Glangwili Hospital, you have to arrive at sparrow fart.
I you arrive at sparrow fart, Audiology reception is not yet open.
So I'm now sitting with a foul coffee.

Ipswich Hospital audiology department don’t do walk in repairs so I’d have had a three week wait for the next repair appointment. But they do have a drop off box and I had the repaired HA back within two or three days.

[Basil]

It's not really a walk up repair service. I pop them into a sturdy envelope.  On the outside, I write my name, dob, nhs number, full address and the repair required.
Same as posting it, but much quicker and safer.

[barakta]

The loss of drop ins for audiology is a HUGE pain, they act like it's for efficiency but it's not better for patients who as you say end up with a wait for quite a while or trying to schedule it round work etc. I don't really trust postal repairs as they often come back not working right - BAHAs are very very hard to get right and I am very very acutely able to spot errors. Even in-person collection had a 50% "not repaired correctly rate" in my childhood. My first hearing aid technician was lovely about it when I was 5 and did not have tact, he once sent a HA back 3x before someone discovered a loose wire (analogue days).

I once used the former drop in 3x in 2 weeks when my BAHAs failed and they only had dodgy loaners which kept failing too. It was 10 min walk from work so I could go in for 9am, and get into work by 9:30. I hear nothing without my BAHA, if I don't have a working one, I literally can't do 50% of my job or much else. One reason I keep 2 BAHAs even tho 99% I use 1, is that I have a spare (although I now have 2 fully working old ones and one half working old one which I will also keep).

At least I learned Audiology can reprogram a set of BAHAs for my needs without my physical head which confuses me as the shape of my head affects the reverb, but I suspect cos they're all digital the variation between individual aids is minute (which is nice as I no longer have a 2 week adjustment period for a new physical aid) so the original my-head programming should work.

My boss hates loss of drop in audiology repair cos she's super busy, so ends up struggling to get her aids repaired without missing out on work, whereas with dropin she could turn up first thing and only have to juggle an early part of a day so do a meeting remotely from her car/hospital or move it.

My mum is a former teacher of the deaf so she knows how to do tube replacements, but she's 73 and struggling with the vision/dexterity needed to do tubes properly for her own hearing aids which she's had for 11 years now. I think the loss of places in the community someone can just drop into, is a huge loss and a mistake as it'll result in people getting out of the habit of wearing their hearing aids or feeling they're too difficult to manage.

Sadly NHS ICB commissioning groups have outsourced a lot of "basic" audiology to highstreet Boots/Specsavers/Scrivens which I remain unconvinced is a good thing for quality.

[Beardy]

Outsourcing is a great idea for small to medium enterprises where they don’t have sufficient work to keep various specialist fully employed. Even then, the calculations are not as clear cut as they might first seem. Outsourcing in larger organisations will ALWAYS result in reduced service or reduced pay for those delivering it (and thus probably reduced service) because outsourcing companies have a legal requirement to make a profit from the reduced costs they will be charging to have got the work in the first place. Why this is not clearly evident to all involved is beyond me.

<fx/ climbs off soapbox>

[Regulator]

Outsourcing is a great idea for small to medium enterprises where they don’t have sufficient work to keep various specialist fully employed. Even then, the calculations are not as clear cut as they might first seem. Outsourcing in larger organisations will ALWAYS result in reduced service or reduced pay for those delivering it (and thus probably reduced service) because outsourcing companies have a legal requirement to make a profit from the reduced costs they will be charging to have got the work in the first place. Why this is not clearly evident to all involved is beyond me.

<fx/ climbs off soapbox>

There is no legal requirement for a company to make a profit.  In fact, there are such things as ‘not for profit’ companies.

In quoted companies there may be pressure from shareholders to create a profit - but it’s still not a legal requirement. 


There are a number of outsourcing companies that are ‘not for profit’, particularly in health and social care. 

[Polar Bear]

There are different types of companies with different primary responsibilities.  For instance, public limited companies are primarily disposed to create shareholder value.  This can be in both share value and profit.  Partnerships are expected to make a profit but partnerships are not public limited companies.

There are many more business vehicles including "not for profit" but that also requires "not for loss".  The loss of course can be covered in many ways.

[Beardy]

Outsourcing is a great idea for small to medium enterprises where they don’t have sufficient work to keep various specialist fully employed. Even then, the calculations are not as clear cut as they might first seem. Outsourcing in larger organisations will ALWAYS result in reduced service or reduced pay for those delivering it (and thus probably reduced service) because outsourcing companies have a legal requirement to make a profit from the reduced costs they will be charging to have got the work in the first place. Why this is not clearly evident to all involved is beyond me.

<fx/ climbs off soapbox>

There is no legal requirement for a company to make a profit.  In fact, there are such things as ‘not for profit’ companies.

In quoted companies there may be pressure from shareholders to create a profit - but it’s still not a legal requirement. 


There are a number of outsourcing companies that are ‘not for profit’, particularly in health and social care.

Whether a company is legally required to make a profit or not wasn’t really the thrust of my rant and even a not for profit is going to lead to a reduction of service due to a reduction of revenue within a sub sector while duplicating overheads. Unless you are suggesting that some health organisations pay more than their internal costs to bring in not for profit outsourcing partners.

It used to be argued that specialist organisations could be more efficient due to economies of scale and less less waste because they understood their sub sectors better than others. This may have been true once, but my 40 years of watching outsources reduce service levels AND the pay and conditions of the TUPEd employees would suggest this has always been, at best, a false dream.

[Basil]

I've put a fold kink into the tube of one of my hearing aids.
Rather than post it, I have brought it in myself to save time.

If you want to get a parking space at Glangwili Hospital, you have to arrive at sparrow fart.
I you arrive at sparrow fart, Audiology reception is not yet open.
So I'm now sitting with a foul coffee.

[ungrumble]
Wow. Hearing aids arrived in the post early this morning.  New tubes, plus spares so that I can do the job myself next time.
Great service.
[/ungrumble]

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've put a fold kink into the tube of one of my hearing aids.
Rather than post it, I have brought it in myself to save time.

If you want to get a parking space at Glangwili Hospital, you have to arrive at sparrow fart.
I you arrive at sparrow fart, Audiology reception is not yet open.
So I'm now sitting with a foul coffee.

[ungrumble]
Wow. Hearing aids arrived in the post early this morning.  New tubes, plus spares so that I can do the job myself next time.
Great service.
[/ungrumble]

There's a thread for that. Albeit not the one I was thinking of: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=76032.msg1562599#msg1562599

[hellymedic]

Over on the Facebook Audax group, I have advised a newbie Audax rider to avoid using flashing lights as they are irritating and don’t help other road users judge speed and position.

Somebody is arguing. I just can’t be bothered to engage but stand by what I have posted.

[barakta]

Ugh, we got blinded by some fuckwit with a flashing white front light (no other light) the other night wheeling me home from the sports centre (on the uni campus). Twat was also cycling up the pedestrian footpath and not up the fucking road which was empty... I may have commented intentionally loudly about how fuckwitted flashing white front lights are.

[hellymedic]

I can’t be bothered to engage with idiots!
Sorrynotsorry!
This chap is asking for ‘evidence’ flashing lights are bad for helping others judge speed & position.
I don’t know of any.
I don’t care!

Flashes irritate.
[Message to Newbie and everyone]

Please don’t use flashers.

That is all.

End of.

[Beardy]

This ^

[mrcharly-YHT]

Over on the Facebook Audax group, I have advised a newbie Audax rider to avoid using flashing lights as they are irritating and don’t help other road users judge speed and position.

Somebody is arguing. I just can’t be bothered to engage but stand by what I have posted.

Real Audaxers aspire to PBP
Flashing lights are not permitted on PBP.
End of discussion.

[Hot Flatus]

I disagree with the notion that flashing front lights do not help with safety.

There's nothing like a bright flashing front light to get attention from drivers, particularly those waiting to pull out from sideboards. I use one all the time now because I think they are more visible than bright clothing.

Rear flashers too. I'm not particularly sold on the ability to judge distance as being that important. Its far more important that a driver sees you from as far away as possible so that they can factor you into their calculations. As I driver, I appreciate it when cyclists have bright flashing lights.

I agree that bright lights on cycleways are both unnecessary and annoying. Less so on the road, particularly the sort of rural/urban commuting I do where Im unlikely to have anyone on my wheel. I wouldn't use a flashing rear in a group ride at night of any sort, and on the basis of having a group of front lights I tend to turn the front flash off at night on group rides.

[Cudzoziemiec]

There's nothing like a bright flashing front light to get attention from drivers, particularly those waiting to pull out from sideboards.

It's the drivers in the kitchen cabinet you've got to look out for.

[SoreTween]

I disagree with the notion that flashing front lights do not help with safety.

There's nothing like a bright flashing front light to get attention from drivers, particularly those waiting to pull out from sideboards. I use one all the time now because I think they are more visible than bright clothing.

Rear flashers too. I'm not particularly sold on the ability to judge distance as being that important. Its far more important that a driver sees you from as far away as possible so that they can factor you into their calculations. As I driver, I appreciate it when cyclists have bright flashing lights.

I agree that bright lights on cycleways are both unnecessary and annoying. Less so on the road, particularly the sort of rural/urban commuting I do where Im unlikely to have anyone on my wheel. I wouldn't use a flashing rear in a group ride at night of any sort, and on the basis of having a group of front lights I tend to turn the front flash off at night on group rides.

I completely agree with every single part of this^
I'll add that I'm confident flashing lights will be seen illuminating hedges & trees far more reliably than a static light alerting oncoming drivers when you are still obscured round a bend.  My flasher is always on my head not on the bars and I look down as soon as the oncoming driver dips their lights.

[Jaded]

There's nothing like a bright flashing front light to get attention from drivers, particularly those waiting to pull out from sideboards.

It's the drivers in the kitchen cabinet you've got to look out for.

When I read this I thought, screwdrivers.

[T42]

Getting the buggers into the kitchen cabinet to start with is unsimple.  Those big chest freezers are much more practical.

[Hot Flatus]

When I read this I thought, screwdrivers.

When I read this I thought B&W