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

[Cudzoziemiec]

I see that the nostalgia for the good old days of 1973 has finally turned into action with major postal and rail strikes.

The Daily Mail and Brexit crowds should be in clover. Rationed clover, of course. Merry old, nostalgia-tinted Blighty, unspoiled by all that modernity. I'm going to leave my doors unlocked all night and kill as many foxes as I want.

Clover: something to roll in that it is almost the same as but vitally different from hay.

[SteveC]

Signing Christmas cards. Not one of my favourite pastimes. And I've got craft herpes glitter all over me and the desk.

Don't know what it is about signing cards. But I really don't enjoy it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I dunno what it is about Christmas this year, but the closer it gets, the less I'm looking forward to it.

I've not done any christmas shopping. Don't feel like doing any. Feel like walking away until it is over.

[spesh]

craft herpes glitter

I am so stealing that. 

[Mr Larrington]

craft herpes glitter

I am so stealing that. 

AOL, +1 ect. ect.

[SteveC]

Not my original, but please feel free! 

[Marco Stefano]

'Tis the season to be nagged at work for

 - not wearing a Christmas jumper today (I should have one, apparently, filling the world with more tat)
 - not going for the Christmas lunch today (not overly keen on it as a meal, and I am on a good day on the 5+2)
 - not extending the department Christmas evening meal next week into a weekday drinking session in a town where I don't live (Mrs Marco has offered to drive a 60 mile round trip to get me, but I'll be knackered from customer audits and would rather go home for a quiet tipple).

I hate this insidious pressure to join in when I don't want to. Just leave off, will you?

[Legs]

To the pillock who was out dog-walking at 7:30 on our lane without any lightly-coloured (let alone reflective) clothing, nor a torch, it's not surprising that I didn't see you until I was pretty close.  If I run over you (or your mutts) in the future, I'll be mildly annoyed.

[Si S]

I hate this insidious pressure to join in when I don't want to. Just leave off, will you?

This is spades, I'm about as sociable as an angry rattlesnake when I'm having a good day.

And since when has it been acceptable for an entire frigging dept, including snr manager, to be off sick because they exploited the free bar at the works party.

Mind you the monthly managers meeting this morning, consisting of me, me and me was very productive and has actioned the above pisshead a mahoooosive quantity of work to be completed before xmas and a hungover director has just signed it all off. 

[TheLurker]

I hate this insidious pressure to join in when I don't want to. Just leave off, will you?

It's taken 10 years, but I've finally trained them to not invite me to any of the works' social functions.  For the secret* of my success send a postal order for 7/6d and an SAE to . . .



*A polite,  "No thank you." coupled with a steadfast refusal to enter into any further discussion whatsoever about the matter.

[mrcharly-YHT]

My son, the chef, has just had his head chef tell him "You are working Christmas Eve until 9pm"

Nice. Long distance public transport out of Edinburgh stops at 5pm

Chance of son getting to see family for Christmas is now nil.

[Basil]

My son, the chef, has just had his head chef tell him "You are working Christmas Eve until 9pm"

Nice. Long distance public transport out of Edinburgh stops at 5pm

Chance of son getting to see family for Christmas is now nil.

Because both Mrs B and #2 son are NHS, we would always celebrate crimble on whatever date we could all actually be together for two days.  Son had a particularly hard time, as a single young male he was usually expected to take one for the team.  And, bless him, he could see the point of that.
This year, they have both put their foot down.  We get to have crimble dinner on the 25th. 

[Canardly]

Will the portcullis be operating by then Basil?

[mrcharly-YHT]

My son, the chef, has just had his head chef tell him "You are working Christmas Eve until 9pm"

Nice. Long distance public transport out of Edinburgh stops at 5pm

Chance of son getting to see family for Christmas is now nil.

Because both Mrs B and #2 son are NHS, we would always celebrate crimble on whatever date we could all actually be together for two days.  Son had a particularly hard time, as a single young male he was usually expected to take one for the team.  And, bless him, he could see the point of that.
This year, they have both put their foot down.  We get to have crimble dinner on the 25th. 

They aren't offering him any extra days off.

[Basil]

Oh dear.  But that's the device industry, isn't it?  My own experiences were that the more likely that other people weren't working, the more likely it was that we were expected to.
No such thing as a bank holiday in the stage lighting industry.

[Basil]

Will the portcullis be operating by then Basil?

Thought I was going to need a drawbridge.  But before I could fill it with water they've filled it in again and are starting to re tarmac.

[arabella]

'Tis the season to be nagged at work for

 - not wearing a Christmas jumper today (I should have one, apparently, filling the world with more tat)
<snip>

I refuse to buy stuff like that especially.  My son has a fair isle wooly pully in shades of murk, one of the patterns happens to be (rein)deer, and another a stylised snowflake, the rest do proxy for baubles etc.  In the event that we both need it the same day I will get my plain red rollneck out and sew a dark brown oblong on the front.  When asked I will tell people that it's an abstract representation of a yule log.  Either that or sew a bow round the neck of a sheep on my sheep jersey.
Meanwhile I avoided today's xmas meal by the expedient of having a day off*.  I finished pruning the hedge in the wintry sunshine and listened to the merry tweeting of birds.  Much more fun.
*not to be confused with the xmas meal on weds which I cycled back from in the moonlight, as mentioned elsewhere.

[barakta]

I'd be well pissed off if work expected me to wear an Xmas Fucking Jumper cos 'fuck that'.

I have opted out of some xmas socials cos they would be acoustic nightmares for me and not worth the £25-50 they'd cost and I'd be miserable. Some people call me a spoilsport but the nice people grokked I would not enjoy it so leave me alone.

[ElyDave]

got the new floor laid in the current gym soon to be office, then moved the turbo back in for tonight until I get the was garage soon to be gym set up. 
1) broke the plastic handle on the turbo that moves the roller to the wheel, snapped clean off
2) turbo kept losing connextion to the brake unit, got about 15 mins in altogether before giving up

Hope that doesn't mean a new turbo is needed.

[ian]

The blue light on the shower control unit isn't working. Though the shower is. This is troubling, the blue light is supposed to blink until the shower is hot (constant blue light) to ensure I don't suffer any calamitous #firstworldproblems involving a suboptimal shower temperature. It's the steady blue light of reassurance. How else can I step into the shower with utter confidence. This, of course, means it will probably cease to function the moment guests arrive for Christmas. We do have a crappy gravity-fed mixer alternative, but after getting used to the powered rainfall shower experience, it's incontinent kitty dribbles are most unsatisfactory.

I suppose I should clamber up into the loft and turn the shower's isolator off and back on. Have to get the tree decorations anyway.

[Canardly]

Sounds like an Aqualisa. Interested to hear how you get on with this Ian.

[ian]

It is indeed an Aqualisa Viso. We got the simplest one on the grounds that I know any kind of digital technology will break and this propensity to failure is directly proportional to the number of buttons, controls, and lights. It's actually been very reliable, not a problem since it was fitted about 3 years ago.

The pump and water temperature are fine. I'll try the traditional turn it off and back on later.

[ian]

Off 'n' on failed. But I note the little blue LED is actually working, it's just very, very dim (is that the failure mode for a LED?). I think it defeats the object if I have to stand in the shower to see if it's hot yet. Turning the bathroom lights off might work, I suppose. To be honest, it only takes a few second to get hot, the tank is in the next room and the pump directly above. If there's one thing worse than something breaking and costing me money to fix, it's something not quite breaking and still costing me money to fix.

[Canardly]

We have one of these approx two years old. Like you, I like its simplicity and ease of use but do wonder as to life cycle. They are however, well thought of by local plumbers. Spares are readily available. Getting hold of the plumber/electrician on the other hand........

[ian]

That's always the worst bit of getting anything fixed – finding someone (and the inevitable fix these days is a new circuit board). Tbh, toasty hot water still comes out, so I can live with a dim LED. We did assume that a pumped shower offered more opportunities for failure, hence a back-up gravity-fed incontinent-kitty alternative.