The Good News / Bad News Thread

[hellymedic]

GN: We are in the Premier Inn, Christchurch, fed and watered.

BN: 14.10 taxi never materialised. Took bus partway to Kingsbury station was pushed the rest in cold drizzle. Rather slow progress to Waterloo, where we arrived 7 min before train departure.

GN: Family with buggy stepped out of lift to allow us to rush to train.
GN: Station staff helpful. We caught train.

BN: Accessible toilet out of service.
GN: Guard allowed us to use station toilet at Winchester, holding train while I made my visit.

BN: Missed connecting train at Southampton (no direct trains due to restricted timetable/strike) 200 frustrated passengers…

BN:3 wheelchair users need to travel on a train with only two wheelchair spaces. Train packed to gunwales.
GN? Other wheelchair user able to transfer to train seat and stow his folded chair behind mine. His helpful care bought us a sandwich at Southampton. David used his RADAR key to let chap into loo at Southampton.

I used to enjoy travel...

[Wowbagger]

Central heating stopped functioning this morning. I can’t get anyone to look at it until Tuesday. I believe the condensation conduit to have become blocked. I’ve put a take-away plastic box under the boiler to catch the drips. I noticed last week that we had a damp patch on the outside wall where the boiler is mounted.

I checked the header tank this morning. There is still plenty of water in that.

Fortunately we can heat two rooms to a comfortable temperature with a fan heater and two oil-filled radiators. It could be a lot worse.

[Kim]

Our combi has a fault in the wossname that detects the flow of hot water, such that it only makes an effort if the tap is wide open.  This is irksome, as it means I've been washing up in very splashy luke-warm water, and showering under the pissy trickle afforded by an 8kW electric shower in the depths of winter, but at least the heating still works.

The diagnostic manual suggests that the flow sensing is achieved by means of a little turbine thingy, combined with what I infer from the plumber-speak to be a Hall sensor, rather than the easily-replaced microswitch that was responsible for our previous boiler having this fault.  As such, I've opted to leave it well alone, and will invoke the agency in the new year.  I predict a drawn-out saga of landlord quotes and a new boiler, as this is now well out of warranty and shows signs of combustion chamber corrosion.

[hellymedic]

GN: We are in the Premier Inn, Christchurch, fed and watered.
BN: 14.10 taxi never materialised. Took bus partway to Kingsbury station was pushed the rest in cold drizzle. Rather slow progress to Waterloo, where we arrived 7 min before train departure.
GN: Family with buggy stepped out of lift to allow us to rush to train.
GN: Station staff helpful. We caught train.
BN: Accessible toilet out of service.
GN: Guard allowed us to use station toilet at Winchester, holding train while I made my visit.
BN: Missed connecting train at Southampton (no direct trains due to restricted timetable/strike) 200 frustrated passengers…
BN:3 wheelchair users need to travel on a train with only two wheelchair spaces. Train packed to gunwales.
GN? Other wheelchair user able to transfer to train seat and stow his folded chair behind mine. His helpful care bought us a sandwich at Southampton. David used his RADAR key to let chap into loo at Southampton.
I used to enjoy travel...

Return journey:
GN: Scheduled 13.10 train ran on time.
BN: 2 wheelchair users already occupying bays on train & guard wouldn't let us on.
GN: Station staff at end of shift arranged taxi to take us to Southampton. Meter read £100 by the end of trip, but on SWR's tab...
BN: He'd already locked up loo. Had very uncomfortable taxi ride.
GN: I didn't wet my pants.
GN: Onward train to London had wheelchair space.
BN: Commuter type train. I sat facing sideways and many passengers walked into my feet.
GN: I didn't need toilet on that train.
BN: Toilet door would not close from inside so other passengers had to close the cubicle from without.
BN: Accessible toilet inside 'Waterloo' taped shut.
GN: Accessible toilet on cab rank road seemed OK, once you'd found it, the RADAR key & battled the heavily-sprung door.
BN: Total journey time more than 2 hours greater than usual.

We are car-free because David can't drive and I'm not safe but...

[Canardly]

Oh dear Helly, I think that you have just summed up the UK in 2022/3.

[barakta]

Compound factors isn't it...

Disgrace that there's so few wheelchair accessible spaces on any trains. Often only 2-4 in a several hundred seater train.

Wheelchair users make up 1 in 55 of the population and in my view are more likely to have to rely on public transport for disability not being able to drive reasons. Therefore we need public transport to be providing 2-5% wheelchair spaceable slots per transport vehicle at the very least.

We also need to improve railway toilet access so there's plenty that are open and working and backups if one is out for repairs. They should be checked regularly and repairs done swiftly. My friend Doug Paulley has an ongoing fight with Euston about their changing places toilet as his wheelchair doesn't fit in the other ones. He's found the shower out of use despite suing them twice or more over it.

While you might be OK in a taxi, I know several wheelchair users who are too tall and can't transfer safely, so a taxi trip is an exercise in lack fo safety and or severe discomfort.

The government knows what the issues are but chooses not to invest in resolving them 

[JellyLegs]

GN : Last tax year’s self assessment return (the joys of having multiple jobs on the go at the same time) done between Xmas and New Year with over a month to spare before deadline.  Payment of small amount of tax owed not at all painful.

BN: Within 48 hours of submission, I receive an email telling me that HMRC estimate I will owe them a large wad of cash by the end of this tax year¹ and have adjusted my tax code to reclaim the whole chunk in the next 3 months.

¹ I won’t owe them anywhere near what they say, but using their quoted timescales for answering communications and allowing for the usual back and forth by snail mail before they adjust their estimates, the quickest way to get my cash back will be to suck it up, wait for the end of the tax year and submit my Self Assessment return asap.

[Polar Bear]

Compound factors isn't it...

Disgrace that there's so few wheelchair accessible spaces on any trains. Often only 2-4 in a several hundred seater train.

Wheelchair users make up 1 in 55 of the population and in my view are more likely to have to rely on public transport for disability not being able to drive reasons. Therefore we need public transport to be providing 2-5% wheelchair spaceable slots per transport vehicle at the very least.

We also need to improve railway toilet access so there's plenty that are open and working and backups if one is out for repairs. They should be checked regularly and repairs done swiftly. My friend Doug Paulley has an ongoing fight with Euston about their changing places toilet as his wheelchair doesn't fit in the other ones. He's found the shower out of use despite suing them twice or more over it.

While you might be OK in a taxi, I know several wheelchair users who are too tall and can't transfer safely, so a taxi trip is an exercise in lack fo safety and or severe discomfort.

The government knows what the issues are but chooses not to invest in resolving them 

The government likes to publicly brand disabled people as workshy scroungers and plays to it's radicalised fascist base at every opportunity.  And then they play to the anti woke brigade because having compassion for disabled people is just "woke".  WTF !!!

Glad that you got home eventually Helly.  You simply should not have to suffer such shithousery. 

[MikeFromLFE]

BN:
Turned on the kitchen sink tap this morning and a connector blew apart under the sink. Water everywhere in the couple of minutes it took to turn the stopcock off.

GN:
The only plumber I know (who did our bathroom last year) was round within the hour on his way to work. Fixed the connection within minutes.
VGN:
He refused to take any payment
(I'll bung a few quid to Mind)

Bonus:
He left me a couple of spare connectors in case it happens again.
And.... The kitchen floor is clean

[Cudzoziemiec]

We also need to improve railway toilet access so there's plenty that are open and working and backups if one is out for repairs. They should be checked regularly and repairs done swiftly. My friend Doug Paulley has an ongoing fight with Euston about their changing places toilet as his wheelchair doesn't fit in the other ones. He's found the shower out of use despite suing them twice or more over it.

I've not used the new shuttle trains between Reading and London, which I think are run by TfL, but I've heard they have no toilets whatsoever. Apparently this is okay because it's not a normal train, it's a "metropolitan" service. 

[barakta]

No toilets at all is an age, sex/pregnancy and disability issue...

Lots of pregnant people, older people and some disabled people have conditions that mean they can need the toilet more often than average and or at short notice... It's just selfish not to provide toilet facilities. Especially for someone who can't just jump off at a station without assistance so can't even nip off to the loos at a station and get the 'next train'.

Public transport is not fit for purpose and government is not listening to people who represent people who do and want to use it for what we need in order to be able to use it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Crossrail is what I'm thinking of. Apparently the trains are "Class 345" and it confirms in Wikipedia what I've heard elsewhere:

The 70 units are formed from a total of 630 carriages.[49][3] Like many other contemporary designs for commuter rolling stock, the trains feature open gangways between carriages. There are no toilets on board. Trains have a mix of longitudinal and transverse seating, all of which is standard class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_345
AIUI the justification for no toilets is that it's like an underground train or a bus, even though it's eg an hour from Twyford to the City. Actually I've heard there are also no toilets on the "South Downs" trains (don't know whether this is the same rolling stock) and these trains are popular with people heading home to Surrey and Kent towns after a Friday night on the piss in London, hence reliably full of vomit and pee.

[barakta]

I work with many people who are stuck unable to go out much because access to toilets in public is so poor. Especially if there's compound toilet fail e.g. you can't go to the loo at the station cos they're out of order, or you had to rush onto infrequent train, and then no bogs on train... Only takes a bit of delays and that 1 hour is 2 or 3.

[Kim]

BN: The boiler appears to be leaking (probably condensate).
GN: It's already been declared beyond economic repair on account of a b0rked diverter valve.
BN: The landlord is being stubborn about authorising a replacement because he doesn't like pipes.
GN: There is no more good news.  That's what you get for not being old enough to own houses.

[Mrs Pingu]

I assume the buggered boiler comes under some sort of gas safety thing that the landlord must rectify tout suite. Still a pain in the bahookie though.

[barakta]

Not so much gas safety but access to hot water yes.

Problem is, rules in England for landlords are shit and enforcement is worse. We'd get evicted if we kicked off.

And to be fair, it won't turn into months of fail cos the agency will sort it, but it's slower than it should be cos the landlord is a rich wanker.

[Jayjay]

BN: Wardrobe rail needs fixing; I believe because I shoved the hangers sideways a bit hard, liberating the tiny screws.
GN: Mum gets cake today at the care home, birthday No. 92, we visited extra long.
BN: Need nail glue, splitty thing.
BN: SWMBO has a torn bleedy hand.
GN: A top I ordered 4 December has arrived, fits and looks better than the illustration.

[Mr Larrington]

Bah: tickets for Half Man Half Biscuit gig a week on Friday missing from usual gig ticket storage location 

Hurrah: tickets located down the back of the Shelves Where Shoes Go To Die

[Kim]

GN: Phone call from gas man.
BN: Agency are still working on the landlord.  It seems likely that he'll want to get some quotes.

[CAMRAMan]

Bah: tickets for Half Man Half Biscuit gig a week on Friday missing from usual gig ticket storage location 

Hurrah: tickets located down the back of the Shelves Where Shoes Go To Die

BN: I'm not going to the Laaarndun HMHB gig next week.

GN: I've got tickets for the Stowmarket gig at the John Peel place in April.

[rafletcher]

GN: My wife is flying back from Tenerife today, landing at Gatwick around 6pm
BN: It's a really shitty looking day to be driving half way round the M25
GN: I've subcontracted that task to a nice man in a Mercedes limo.
BN: It'll cost me an arm and a leg
GN: It's (and she's) worth it!

[Wowbagger]

Central heating stopped functioning this morning. I can’t get anyone to look at it until Tuesday. I believe the condensation conduit to have become blocked. I’ve put a take-away plastic box under the boiler to catch the drips. I noticed last week that we had a damp patch on the outside wall where the boiler is mounted.

I checked the header tank this morning. There is still plenty of water in that.

Fortunately we can heat two rooms to a comfortable temperature with a fan heater and two oil-filled radiators. It could be a lot worse.

New boiler time. Heat exchanger leaking. Oddly, it's intermittent and our Man explained that it's down to the extra pressure when the water is at its hottest.

It's PITA because I was hoping this boiler would see us through this winter then I'd research air source heat pumps. But we can't be doing without for the next few months. It looks as though we are going for a Baxi 800 with a 10 year guarantee. Hopefully this bugger will see me into my 80s.

[Mrs Pingu]

Could you get a 2nd hand boiler to keep you going a couple of years (assuming you're wedded to an ASHP and insulated enough)?

[chrisbainbridge]

No hope of a new heat exchanger? 

[mrcharly-YHT]

No hope of a new heat exchanger?

If Wow can find a plumber willing to fit it . . .

That could get expensive. Modern boilers are a bit like modern cars; difficult to dismantle and fit parts.