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

[Jurek]

I travelled from Brussels to STP on Eurostar yesterday, with the Pretty Bike. I was relived of 5 CO2 cannisters, three when I put my bar bag through the scanner and two taken from the saddle pack I'd put in the bike box.  I wouldn't have minded if I'd been warned I wasn't allowed to take them but there's no mention on the Eurostar website. No shooters, anti personnel mines or CS spray is made clear, but CO2, no.

I asked the Nice Man driving the scanner what the reason was. Apparently "there's a lot of pressure on the train". Uh huh. My oxometer* started twitching and I've grinked Eurostar. They says it's down to "Border control", which I take to mean Border Force but have said they'll forward my suggestion to their web team about actually having some words on the website that CO2 isn't allowed.


* detects bullshit. Obvs.

Like this?

[Manotea]

I'm getting fed up with receptionist - an dthe world generally - responding to requests with 'No Problem'

I much prefer the Cylon salutation....

BY YOUR COMMAND!

[ian]

Huzzah, it's the annual green-waste-truck-runs-over-our-roadside-bollard festival of fun. I saw the lorry parked outside but was on a call so it's not like I didn't know they'd done something. Anyway, they didn't drive over just a little bit, they tore it out, forty-odd kg of concrete base and all. Top marks for putting it back in the hole, I suppose, presumably in the hope I wouldn't notice. I guess if they hit a car, they just balance the bits that fell off on top and scarper.

You know, it's not the bollard per se, it's that grim sense of creeping despair that comes from knowing you have to deal with the local council and – this is no joke – a Biffa Senior Waste Management Executive.

[Mr Larrington]

I travelled from Brussels to STP on Eurostar yesterday, with the Pretty Bike. I was relived of 5 CO2 cannisters, three when I put my bar bag through the scanner and two taken from the saddle pack I'd put in the bike box.  I wouldn't have minded if I'd been warned I wasn't allowed to take them but there's no mention on the Eurostar website. No shooters, anti personnel mines or CS spray is made clear, but CO2, no.

I asked the Nice Man driving the scanner what the reason was. Apparently "there's a lot of pressure on the train". Uh huh. My oxometer* started twitching and I've grinked Eurostar. They says it's down to "Border control", which I take to mean Border Force but have said they'll forward my suggestion to their web team about actually having some words on the website that CO2 isn't allowed.


* detects bullshit. Obvs.

The Man at Thiefrow once took exception to the base of Emily the TwatNav as it's filled with lead shot.  What was I going to do, slice it open with a (plastic) knife, make the pilot eat the contents and wait?

[Beardy]

I travelled from Brussels to STP on Eurostar yesterday, with the Pretty Bike. I was relived of 5 CO2 cannisters, three when I put my bar bag through the scanner and two taken from the saddle pack I'd put in the bike box.  I wouldn't have minded if I'd been warned I wasn't allowed to take them but there's no mention on the Eurostar website. No shooters, anti personnel mines or CS spray is made clear, but CO2, no.

I asked the Nice Man driving the scanner what the reason was. Apparently "there's a lot of pressure on the train". Uh huh. My oxometer* started twitching and I've grinked Eurostar. They says it's down to "Border control", which I take to mean Border Force but have said they'll forward my suggestion to their web team about actually having some words on the website that CO2 isn't allowed.


* detects bullshit. Obvs.

The Man at Thiefrow once took exception to the base of Emily the TwatNav as it's filled with lead shot.  What was I going to do, slice it open with a (plastic) knife, make the pilot eat the contents and wait?

They were concerned that you would use the lead shot as ammunition for the slingshot you were going to make,out of the elastic from your y-fronts.

[ElyDave]

I once had a Swiss Army knife confiscated at Lunnun City "but I took it through Thiefrow last week!" I whined

"tough, we're different, we only allow 3cm blades - look where we are!"

WTAF?

Then there were the Norwegians at Stavanger, perfectly happy about the knife (I'd posted it back to myself from Lunnun) but the saw was a big issue.

"Oh no, that makes it a tool and we can't have that" said with a typical Norwegian smile as they whack you in the nuts with a moose antler

[Jurek]

I once had a Swiss Army knife confiscated at Lunnun City "but I took it through Thiefrow last week!" I whined

"tough, we're different, we only allow 3cm blades - look where we are!"

WTAF?

Then there were the Norwegians at Stavanger, perfectly happy about the knife (I'd posted it back to myself from Lunnun) but the saw was a big issue.

"Oh no, that makes it a tool and we can't have that" said with a typical Norwegian smile as they whack you in the nuts with a moose antler

Some would pay for that.

[ElyDave]

I did - £25 for a new knife

[Edd]

I once had a Swiss Army knife confiscated at Lunnun City "but I took it through Thiefrow last week!" I whined

"tough, we're different, we only allow 3cm blades - look where we are!"

WTAF?

Then there were the Norwegians at Stavanger, perfectly happy about the knife (I'd posted it back to myself from Lunnun) but the saw was a big issue.

"Oh no, that makes it a tool and we can't have that" said with a typical Norwegian smile as they whack you in the nuts with a moose antler

I remember accidentally leaving some tools in my rucksack before a flight 2005ish (well I hadn't remembered at the time of course). They confiscated the phillips head but I was allowed to keep the 5mm allen key, the adjustable spanner and the cycle patches.

[hellymedic]

Bristol Parkway has been improved! It is still horrible.

This review plagiarised from one of Mordor Central

Mordor Central is not exposed to the elements.
BPW is.

Mordor has its own awfulness but BPW has this isolated outpost sensation absent at Mordor.

[hellymedic]

No, Evening Standard, Willesden Magistrates Court is NOT in North-East London!

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/brent-stabbing-man-fighting-for-life-after-being-stabbed-repeatedly-near-willesden-magistrates-court-a4164936.html

[Kim]

Bristol Parkway has been improved! It is still horrible.

This review plagiarised from one of Mordor Central

Mordor Central is not exposed to the elements.

Oh, absolutely.  About the only thing they have in common (apart from being rubbish places to have to change trains) is that they've undergone improvement works that have failed to improve the underlying horror.

[ian]

The TSA in Phoenix once confiscated a teeny snow globe off me (a friend of mine collects them, she has Parkinson's and likes to hold them in her hand and go LOOK I'M MAKING IT SNOW WITH MY MIND which, if nothing else, ensures the local children run away and makes dinner parties just slide by). I wouldn't mind but I had bought it in the gift shop by the security point. Right there.

What those TSA officers don't realise is when they die, my connections in Hell are going to ensure they spend the rest of eternity in a vigorously shaken snow globe.

[ElyDave]

well, the aliens have stopped trying to escape from my nose, which is good.

Instead, they are hammering away at the inside of my skull with pneumatic drills and scraping at my throat with their tiny JCBs

[Martin]

just got back from Spain to find I've been charged €95 for not picking up the hire car I drove for 3 days. Is this some sort of scam? I was expecting to get a pre-printed rental agreement but it was all hand written. I do have proof I was there at the time as they took a charge on my credit card for fuel

[rafletcher]

Just had the following from my now-old energy supplier...my bold

I can confirm the account has been closed as of 31st May 2019.  We aim to have the final bill sent out 6-8 weeks of the account closure, the final bill will cover all use up to 31st May and will confirm the account balance.

I can imagine their reaction if I'd offered to pay my bills 6-8 weeks in arrears. 

[Legs]

I once had a Swiss Army knife confiscated at Lunnun City "but I took it through Thiefrow last week!" I whined

"tough, we're different, we only allow 3cm blades - look where we are!"

WTAF?

Then there were the Norwegians at Stavanger, perfectly happy about the knife (I'd posted it back to myself from Lunnun) but the saw was a big issue.

"Oh no, that makes it a tool and we can't have that" said with a typical Norwegian smile as they whack you in the nuts with a moose antler

I remember accidentally leaving some tools in my rucksack before a flight 2005ish (well I hadn't remembered at the time of course). They confiscated the phillips head but I was allowed to keep the 5mm allen key, the adjustable spanner and the cycle patches.

I realised yesterday morning that I'd inadvertently flown to Ireland on Wednesday with a Phillips screwdriver in my hand luggage, and came back yesterday with the same.  I got questioned both ways about the vernier calipers, but not about my jagged-edged and much more dangerous tape measure...

[Ham]

Oh jesus. Sweet Jesus.

Concur.

Just that.

Be so very thankful if you don't know what I am talking about.

[ElyDave]

I know what you're talking about

luckily "I just can't get it to work on my laptop"

[Tim Hall]

I travelled from Brussels to STP on Eurostar yesterday, with the Pretty Bike. I was relived of 5 CO2 cannisters, three when I put my bar bag through the scanner and two taken from the saddle pack I'd put in the bike box.  I wouldn't have minded if I'd been warned I wasn't allowed to take them but there's no mention on the Eurostar website. No shooters, anti personnel mines or CS spray is made clear, but CO2, no.

I asked the Nice Man driving the scanner what the reason was. Apparently "there's a lot of pressure on the train". Uh huh. My oxometer* started twitching and I've grinked Eurostar. They says it's down to "Border control", which I take to mean Border Force but have said they'll forward my suggestion to their web team about actually having some words on the website that CO2 isn't allowed.


* detects bullshit. Obvs.

The next exciting installment in the saga of the confiscated cartridges: Having been told by Eurostar that the scanners are operated by Border Control/Force and that I could find contact details on a .Gov.uk website, I sent a nice email to complaints@homeoffice. I've just had a reply saying, just like an episode of That's Life or Not The Nine O'clock News, "it's nothing to do with us" and suggesting perhaps the dastardly Belgians are to blame. The thick plottens.

[ian]

Oh jesus. Sweet Jesus.

Concur.

Just that.

Be so very thankful if you don't know what I am talking about.

If it's any consolation, I cancelled a conference booking a month or two back, they'll refund this month. So a refund will go back on my card, and at a different FX rate. All of which will feed into Concur.

I don't want to think what this will do to Concur. I can imagine what it will do to me.

I had a five country trip to book last year. Took one look at Concur and emailed the travel agent. It was a decision well worth the memo about 'booking directly.'

[spesh]

Is there any mileage in the theory that if you have to advertise software on commercial radio - as Concur has been - then maybe it's not all that good to start with?

[TheLurker]

Concurse

And I have my suspicions about where they dredged up the 1st syllable of the name.

[andrewc]

It’s June, what passes for summer, so the air con in my office has gone to Max and I’m having to wear a cardigan 

[Basil]

Currently sitting in the British Oak in Stirchley where I just about managed to not show myself up by saying "How bloody much?" when asked for £4 for a very ordinary ale in a very ordinary pub.  The food was also shit.
Probably should have gone to the Country Girl, but #1 son refuses to go there due a recent shit service experience.
Looking forwarding to the drive home tomorrow morning. I really don't miss Brum at all.

ETA.  The bogs are also a fucking disgrace.
*goes back to son's to go to bed*