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

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I believe that Scotrail does.

[mcshroom]

Chiltern and Transpennine Express also use the mixing deck system for their tickets. Unfortunately many of the other operators seem to be 'upgrading' to worse systems

[Kim]

Virgin Trains East Coast website had the useful feature of being able to book a bikespace on line.   They've revamped the site & removed it 


Do any of the online booking sites still have this ?

http://tickets.tpexpress.co.uk/tpe/en/journeyplanning/mixingdeck

They're so old-fashioned that they'll still send you your tickets by first-class post for free.   

[andrewc]

Virgin Trains East Coast website had the useful feature of being able to book a bikespace on line.   They've revamped the site & removed it 


Do any of the online booking sites still have this ?

http://tickets.tpexpress.co.uk/tpe/en/journeyplanning/mixingdeck

They're so old-fashioned that they'll still send you your tickets by first-class post for free.   

That'll save on standing in Lime St station juggling a phone & credit card to get orange cardboard out of the machine with a muttering queue behind me 

[David Martin]

Ob trains. Some scrote had nicked signalling wires from Inverkiething (again). SO the trains were all screwed up. Got to Edinburgh OK and handed a felling axe[1] to my son.
THen the train was late leaving, late arriving at York so I missed the connection. Fortunately the next train was even later so I got that and it was late enough to allow the purchase of comestibles and the washing down of same in the York Tap before departing for Derby. At which station I arrived 90 mins later than planned. 
Pleasant AirBnB. Delay-repay form completed.[2]

[1] Carefully wrapped to look like an innoccuous parcel. Wielding a bladed tool in a station crawling with armed coppers wasn't thought to be a smart move
[2] Happily informed other passengers of delay-repay.

[pucklie24]

Oneof my bonsai hand carving tools seems to have gone rusty in the shed over winter. I seem to have been able to restore the edge, but it looks scruffy now.

What shed do you have? I bought a bike shed where I also place my gardening tools.  I got The BillyOh Apex Bike Store 4 X 7 from  http://whatshed.co.uk/bike-sheds/. You can check it out. It has enough space inside for a bike and tools. The strong wood structures keep tools and bike away from this weather. I will still advise you to buy additional bot or padlock to be more secure from thieves.
I got mine for 3 years now and still very functional.

I also have 5 Japanese bonsai and a Chinese elm Bonsai tree. What do you have?

[Cudzoziemiec]

You can also book bike spaces on GWR.

[hellymedic]

Virgin Trains East Coast website had the useful feature of being able to book a bikespace on line.   They've revamped the site & removed it 


Do any of the online booking sites still have this ?

http://tickets.tpexpress.co.uk/tpe/en/journeyplanning/mixingdeck

They're so old-fashioned that they'll still send you your tickets by first-class post for free.   

That'll save on standing in Lime St station juggling a phone & credit card to get orange cardboard out of the machine with a muttering queue behind me 

Attempting similar antics from a wheelchair with luggage on my lap is why I opt for orange cardboard in the post. Not all TOCs offer this, with or without postal charges. They have lost my custom.

[ElyDave]

Oneof my bonsai hand carving tools seems to have gone rusty in the shed over winter. I seem to have been able to restore the edge, but it looks scruffy now.

What shed do you have? I bought a bike shed where I also place my gardening tools.  I got The BillyOh Apex Bike Store 4 X 7 from  http://whatshed.co.uk/bike-sheds/. You can check it out. It has enough space inside for a bike and tools. The strong wood structures keep tools and bike away from this weather. I will still advise you to buy additional bot or padlock to be more secure from thieves.
I got mine for 3 years now and still very functional.

I also have 5 Japanese bonsai and a Chinese elm Bonsai tree. What do you have?

I call it the shed, but it's really an extension of a brick built garage, doubled in size last winter.

I think the issue was the added dampness due to the concrete still setting.

In terms of bonsai, I have lots. 

In pots I have several maples, plums, azalea, elms, pyracantha, cotoneaster, hawthorn, fuschia. plus lots under training and some sat in the ground waiting to be trained.

One of my winter projects will be to use some of the trees in training to refurbish an area of the garden as a Japanese-style gravel garden. 

[andrewc]

Grumble.  just got a text from United Utilities,   there may be a problem with the water in your are.  Just checked & not a trickle 

[T42]

Missing S?

[Ruthie]

We don’t have enough women in the cycling club to make it worthwhile getting women-specific club kit   

[T42]

We used to have a supplier in Alsace who would produce kit to our own design with a minimum of 5 jerseys mixed male/female. That was 10 years ago, though.

[fimm]

Oh yes, says my colleague, it won't take long for the special access you need for this special environment to come through.
1.5 hours later I'm still twiddling my thumbs waiting for it. And I don't want to start doing something else because that's the point when I will get the access.

[Cudzoziemiec]

We don’t have enough women in the cycling club to make it worthwhile getting women-specific club kit   

Maybe if you order two of everything... or maybe not.

[ElyDave]

Bloody BA, winter timetable, I now have flights to Aberdeen on a Monday at 1600 - means leaving the house at noon, or 2100 - means arriving at 2230.  They have conveniently dispensed with the flight in the middle


EDIT - but bizarrely it's back the following week

[orienteer]

Mrs O had an appointment at the local hospital for an examination, arranged by her GP. The hospital letter confirming it emphasised that failing to keep an appointment cost the NHS £105. As her condition improved, Mrs O decided not to proceed, so wanted to cancel it. The three methods of cancellation given in the letter included:

1 Go to a website: it wasn't available (and in view of 2, below, would probably have demanded an unknown password)
2 Telephone: an automated response system which demanded a password. What password? Never been given one.
3 Through the GP: receptionist refused to help saying Mrs O had to do it herself, she was too busy, and only after much argument and being shown the letter, reluctantly said she'd "see what she could do".

Is it any wonder there are so "unkept" appointments?

[Mr Larrington]

When the oven/microwave device has finished its pre-heating sequence it goes "BEEP".  Too quietly to be heard from the Great Hall when the distascope is on

Speak up, you stupid machine!

[Paul]

The E, I, O, S, D, F, L, C, V and N have all worn off the keyboard, so (because I can't touch type) svdrythong os takcng md 1.5 tomdd lingdr ti typd.

 

[hellymedic]

When the oven/microwave device has finished its pre-heating sequence it goes "BEEP".  Too quietly to be heard from the Great Hall when the distascope is on

Speak up, you stupid machine!

Suspect the PING on my poptyping is more effective.

[essexian]

I’ve got quite a bad headache at the moment……so bad, I have even taken some painkillers!

This headache stems back to a lack of sleep which was not caused by going to bed late: I was tucked up in my pit by 9pm as normal, nor due to drinking anything with alcohol in as I don’t do so unless it’s a very special occasion like winning Euromillions…goes off to check…. Sadly, the new bike is still a pipe dream. No, my headache is caused by laying in bed at 3am listening to CBH breathing and wishing she would stop…..doing it so loudly!

Now, I don’t know if it’s just me, but when I can hear someone breathe, for some reason my breathing changes from automatic to try and match the other person’s respiration rate. In CBH’s case, she breathes a lot quicker than me so I got to a stage where I was over breathing, so tried to slow my breathing down, only to get into a state where I didn’t know if I was coming or going.

Several cups of tea later, it was 5am so back to bed I went to try once again to sleep…. Nope, CBH was still breathing heavily….that’s where the pillow came in…..I picked my pillow up and moved into the spare room, only to find the spare bed taken up by three cats who refused to move....yes, they do rule our house. In the end, I slept for an hour on the floor in the living room.

Hurry up Noon so I can go out on my bike as riding tends to remove headaches. Now, to ask CBH to stop breathing so heavily.....wish me luck on that one!

[T42]

The E, I, O, S, D, F, L, C, V and N have all worn off the keyboard, so (because I can't touch type) svdrythong os takcng md 1.5 tomdd lingdr ti typd.

 

Oh gawd.  I use a German QWERTZ KB, missus uses a French AZERTY one.  Mine's a normal one, hers is a M1cr0$0f7 Twisted-and-Lumpy-in-the-Middle one.  I use Windows, she uses Ubuntu. We both touch type, but half the characters are worn off hers.  I'm the official computer tweaker, tho' my UNIXworld skills are 20 years out of date (anyone for C-Shell?)

When she hits a grolly it's utter hell to fix. And right now her printer won't print.

[Pickled Onion]

The E, I, O, S, D, F, L, C, V and N have all worn off the keyboard, so (because I can't touch type) svdrythong os takcng md 1.5 tomdd lingdr ti typd.

 

I've never managed to wear the letters off a keyboard, though I regularly wear the nobbles off the F and J keys. Being able to touch type means it's a right pain switching from one keyboard to another. I took my own keyboard to work and use MapKeys to put the keys where I want them. To avoid any confusion when anyone else uses my keyboard^[1] I took out the keys that were remapped and put in blank ones. Now I get "Where the hell is the '2' key??" – err, it's between the '1' and the '3', where would you expect it to be?


[1] _{Any excuse - everyone loves to use it^[2], it's got a proper mechanical action and so different to the spongey standard-issue ones.}
[2] _{Why they don't get their own I don't know. If your job is to type all day, every day, the expense is minimal. If you were a chef you'd bring your own knives to work, etc.}

[Polar Bear]

I took a very nice Cherry keyboard to a small office (3 people) where I was working.   It mysteriously disappeared.  So annoying.

[Kim]

We don’t have enough women in the cycling club to make it worthwhile getting women-specific club kit   

But do you have more women than people called John?

(This is my cycling version of the Bechdel-Wallace test.)