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

[Clare]

Well, if you insist on putting brown drink inna TEA mug you shouldn’t be surprised that it commits suicide

 

Brown drink goes in a tea mug, black drink goes in a coffee mug.

[De Sisti]

Somehow I was given a £20 note (a few weeks ago), which is no longer legal tender.
I unwittingly tried to make a purchase with it, only to suffer embarrassment with it not
being accepted.

[hatler]

A bank will exchange it for you.

[Beardy]

What is this £20 note you speak of? I have vague rememberings of them, but can’t quite put my figure on anything.

[Basil]

What is this 'bank' of which you speak?

[Mr Larrington]

Well, if you insist on putting brown drink inna TEA mug you shouldn’t be surprised that it commits suicide

 

Brown drink goes in a tea mug, black drink goes in a coffee mug.

No, no!  Tea goes in a tea mug!  Black drink goes in a pint glass, as any fule Guinness drinker kno.

[Clare]

Guinness, as any individual with an iota of taste learns very quickly, goes down the drain.

 

[SoreTween]

To book an appointment at the frikkin tip:

<type> fdean.gov.uk
<click> Reject All
<click> Close sidebar
<click> Bins & Recycling
<click> Recycling Banks & Centers
<click> Book an appointment
<click> Use necessary cookies only
<click> Close shitmail popup
<click> Car & van bookings for an HRC
<click> Make a car booking
<click> Yes I have understood
<click> No I am not a robot
<8x click today> Click the pics (recaptcha)
<click> Submit
<click> Next
On the cookies popup - <click> Change my preferences
<click> Functionality cookies
<click> Off
<click> Tracking cookies
<click> Off
<click> Targeting and advertising cookies
<click> Off
<click> Submit my preferences
<click> Yes I have read 10,000 words of BS
<click> Next
<click> Oak quarry (at last! That's the name of the recycling center I want to use)
<click> Next
<click> Date
<click> Time
<click> Next
<type> fill out details (type of waste, name, vehicle reg, postcode (<click> lookup <click> select address), phone number, email, email again)
<click> Next
<click> Submit form.

Sigh.

[Rod Marton]

To book an appointment at the frikkin tip:

<type> fdean.gov.uk
<click> Reject All
<click> Close sidebar
<click> Bins & Recycling
<click> Recycling Banks & Centers
<click> Book an appointment
<click> Use necessary cookies only
<click> Close shitmail popup
<click> Car & van bookings for an HRC
<click> Make a car booking
<click> Yes I have understood
<click> No I am not a robot
<8x click today> Click the pics (recaptcha)
<click> Submit
<click> Next
On the cookies popup - <click> Change my preferences
<click> Functionality cookies
<click> Off
<click> Tracking cookies
<click> Off
<click> Targeting and advertising cookies
<click> Off
<click> Submit my preferences
<click> Yes I have read 10,000 words of BS
<click> Next
<click> Oak quarry (at last! That's the name of the recycling center I want to use)
<click> Next
<click> Date
<click> Time
<click> Next
<type> fill out details (type of waste, name, vehicle reg, postcode (<click> lookup <click> select address), phone number, email, email again)
<click> Next
<click> Submit form.

Sigh.

So you live in Gloucestershire too.

The only plus side is that the tip is much less crowded than it used to be.

[ian]

And my regular shout-out for websites that don't let the autofill work, refuse to allow copy and paste, and of course, throw up a cryptic error when you have the temerity to include a space in the sixteen digit number you've forced me to type.

A terrible, terrible eternal damnation awaits the people who design and maintain these forms. Just saying because I'm the executive consultant on that project.

[Kim]

To book an appointment at the frikkin tip:

<type> fdean.gov.uk
<click> Reject All
<click> Close sidebar
<click> Bins & Recycling
<click> Recycling Banks & Centers
<click> Book an appointment
<click> Use necessary cookies only
<click> Close shitmail popup
<click> Car & van bookings for an HRC
<click> Make a car booking
<click> Yes I have understood
<click> No I am not a robot
<8x click today> Click the pics (recaptcha)
<click> Submit
<click> Next
On the cookies popup - <click> Change my preferences
<click> Functionality cookies
<click> Off
<click> Tracking cookies
<click> Off
<click> Targeting and advertising cookies
<click> Off
<click> Submit my preferences
<click> Yes I have read 10,000 words of BS
<click> Next
<click> Oak quarry (at last! That's the name of the recycling center I want to use)
<click> Next
<click> Date
<click> Time
<click> Next
<type> fill out details (type of waste, name, vehicle reg, postcode (<click> lookup <click> select address), phone number, email, email again)
<click> Next
<click> Submit form.

Sigh.

Still better than sitting in a queueueueueueueue of idling cars on Lifford Lane for 45 minutes.  Especially when you're not going to the tip.

[robgul]

To book an appointment at the frikkin tip:

<type> fdean.gov.uk
<click> Reject All
<click> Close sidebar
<click> Bins & Recycling
<click> Recycling Banks & Centers
<click> Book an appointment
<click> Use necessary cookies only
<click> Close shitmail popup
<click> Car & van bookings for an HRC
<click> Make a car booking
<click> Yes I have understood
<click> No I am not a robot
<8x click today> Click the pics (recaptcha)
<click> Submit
<click> Next
On the cookies popup - <click> Change my preferences
<click> Functionality cookies
<click> Off
<click> Tracking cookies
<click> Off
<click> Targeting and advertising cookies
<click> Off
<click> Submit my preferences
<click> Yes I have read 10,000 words of BS
<click> Next
<click> Oak quarry (at last! That's the name of the recycling center I want to use)
<click> Next
<click> Date
<click> Time
<click> Next
<type> fill out details (type of waste, name, vehicle reg, postcode (<click> lookup <click> select address), phone number, email, email again)
<click> Next
<click> Submit form.

Sigh.

So you live in Gloucestershire too.

The only plus side is that the tip is much less crowded than it used to be.

The booking system seems to be working here in Warwickshire - they use the cheapie EventBrite ticket system - clunky but fairly brief.    BUT we seem to have had an increase in fly-tipping out in the sticks, possibly because of the need to book?

[Beardy]

Yeah, but fly tipping isn't the problem of the company that runs the tip, so thatsnot an issue they are going to worry about fixing.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The entire rubbish collection and disposal system needs rethinking, from domestic refuse collection (could we find a way to collect it without cluttering up pavements?) to hazardous waste and beyond.

[SoreTween]

So you live in Gloucestershire too.

The only plus side is that the tip is much less crowded than it used to be.

Yep and Yep

Still better than sitting in a queueueueueueueue of idling cars on Lifford Lane for 45 minutes.  Especially when you're not going to the tip.

Also yep.  There regularly used to be queues outside Oak Quarry, mostly they were predictable so easily avoided but you could get caught out at unexpected times.  Now it's a queue of 2-3 cars if you turn up at the start of your 30 minute slot but otherwise straight in.

Hereford is worse, after registering there you're only allowed 10 visits a year.  That's not going to encourage fly tipping at all.

[robgul]

Yeah, but fly tipping isn't the problem of the company that runs the tip, so thatsnot an issue they are going to worry about fixing.

It's the LA that runs the booking - and I'm pretty sure that the operatives at the sites are their employees - the contractors just take the giant skips away.

[arabella]

The entire rubbish collection and disposal system needs rethinking, from domestic refuse collection (could we find a way to collect it without cluttering up pavements?) to hazardous waste and beyond.

Well, there would be plenty of space to not clutter up the pavements by putting bins in the road outside château arabella and not on the pavement, except that the pavement is used as a car park.
So I (and many other) pedestrians end up walking down the road ...

But yes, unlike that Europe where users may have to take rubbish to some communal bin at 100 yards metres away, and collect post from a post office, we insist on door to door here (well, for now at least ...)

[ian]

I am sure I read that somewhere (Liverpool, I think) was trialling centralized rubbish storage and collection, with some success. It may challenge the British mindset of chucking it outside their front door and it instantly becoming someone else's problem.

Our local municipality, the Jungles of Surrey, is apparently mulling a step back from the wheelie bins that have been increasingly fecund in recent years, spawning a range of additional wheelie bins, so a household can max out at four (ok, one caddy, one garden waste, one recycling, and one general rubbish). I'd like to say this is because they give a shit about blocked pavements, but if they did, they might be tempted to do something about the endemic pavement parking that quite often doesn't leave enough space for a wheelie bin.

I recently found out the cost of a bulky waste collection, which was a grand £53 quid for a broken exercise bike and a few other bits and pieces (about eight years ago when we moved here, they would collect three items a year for free). I can't imagine why most people just leave it on a corner or down a country lane. Of course, if you have a car, the refuse centre is free.

[Kim]

On a related note, our new washing machine was finally delivered yesterday.  I'll skip the grumble about manufacturers lying about the depth of their machines, and the one about lowest-bidder landlords' contractors installing stupid pipework that wastes too much of the limited space.

Anyway, I'd successfully deposited the old machine on the pavement, attached a note to the effect of "knackered bearings, otherwise works, please take", and was in the process of folding up the wheelchair ramp when a WVM winds down his window and asks if it's scrap.  That's about 2 whole minutes slower than last time.

[perpetual dan]

Brighton has communal bins in the street. I don’t live there, but it looks like they mostly work. Though there is sometimes some bits left beside the bin, for the seagulls to explore.

[woollypigs]

Oh nice they even asked, here I had put the washing machine out in the backyarden, ready to take over to SiL. A lad just open the back gate and walked in to look at it. Didn't even knock or ask.

[phantasmagoriana]

The entire rubbish collection and disposal system needs rethinking, from domestic refuse collection (could we find a way to collect it without cluttering up pavements?) to hazardous waste and beyond.

Well, there would be plenty of space to not clutter up the pavements by putting bins in the road outside château arabella and not on the pavement, except that the pavement is used as a car park.
So I (and many other) pedestrians end up walking down the road ...

But yes, unlike that Europe where users may have to take rubbish to some communal bin at 100 yards metres away, and collect post from a post office, we insist on door to door here (well, for now at least ...)

We have large street bins for areas where there are lots of flats (on roads, not pavements - much to the annoyance of some drivers! ). They would be great if (1) people actually used them correctly and didn't dump rubbish next to the recycling bins and vice versa, and (2) the council emptied them more frequently.

People do flytip next to the bins on a regular basis. On the plus side, I picked up slightly tired bathroom storage unit of exactly the size I was looking for, cleaned it up and painted it and it's having a new life in my bathroom. On another occasion, I got 4 wheeled wooden underbed storage boxes.

[Cudzoziemiec]

There are a couple of places in the posh bits of Bristol where a conglomeration of student flats has led to large wheeled skips being put into designated places on the road – not pavement. I don't know but suspect this counts as commercial waste, which is collected separately (you have to make your own arrangements).

And of course blocks of flats have similar arrangements.

Still, it's better than the systems in urban India (dump everything on the street corner and let the cows and crows eat it) or rural Poland (good collection if you choose to pay for it – but most people don't, so they burn it all, including plastics, in domestic boilers intended to run on coal).

[Cudzoziemiec]

The entire rubbish collection and disposal system needs rethinking, from domestic refuse collection (could we find a way to collect it without cluttering up pavements?) to hazardous waste and beyond.

Well, there would be plenty of space to not clutter up the pavements by putting bins in the road outside château arabella and not on the pavement, except that the pavement is used as a car park.
So I (and many other) pedestrians end up walking down the road ...

So much this...

[hatler]

Is there anywhere that operates a commmunity exchange scheme, where there's a designated area for people to put something they no longer need but which is perfectly serviceable ?