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

[T42]

I'm ahead of you there. 

Haven't had any yet myself, but I just ordered another kilo.

[TheLurker]

I'm ahead of you there. 

Haven't had any yet myself, but I just ordered another kilo.

Coffee by the kilo?  Crikey.  Must be big cups.

[T42]

I'm ahead of you there. 

Haven't had any yet myself, but I just ordered another kilo.

Coffee by the kilo?  Crikey.  Must be big cups.

Lethal dose.

[T42]

Meanwhile, life happens...

Big blue-arsed fly buzzing round.

MrsT: Open window, let it out.

Window duly opened.

Wasp flies in.

[rafletcher]

Meanwhile, life happens...

Big blue-arsed fly buzzing round.

MrsT: Open window, let it out.

Window duly opened.

Wasp flies in.

Could be worse...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54051423

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Your Paypal account has been closed" spam phishing featured in this or a nearby thread recently. I've just received a spam text message!
"PayPal: Your account is undergoing review please visit <link> to remove block." (No, I didn't click it.) First time I remember receiving a phishing text as opposed to email.

[ElyDave]

bugger!  client lunch on Thursday, in their London Club, requires a tie.  That'll be the first time in about 5 years.

[Regulator]

My car is in for safety recall work and BMW have given me an X2 as the courtesy car.  It is a pile of shite!  The seat can't go back far enough for my legs to be comfortable (I got back ache just driving the 12 miles home from the garage) and the rear windscreen is tiny, and partially blocked by the rear head rests.  It's also got one of those silly small steering wheels and is an automatic with silly flappy paddle mode.

Luckily my car will be ready for collection in the morning and I can return the X2.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Well, if you will drive a BMW...

 

[Regulator]

Well, if you will drive a BMW...

 

Unfortunately, I require a car for work.  Next one will be a hybrid/electric.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Next one will be a hybrid/electric.

They've taken care of that as well 


All from here https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/features/in-photos-brandalism-hits-bristol/
though I've seen a couple, including the BMW one, in person.

[ian]

bugger!  client lunch on Thursday, in their London Club, requires a tie.  That'll be the first time in about 5 years.

Many years ago I used to occasionally attend a proper southern gentleman's country club out in the colonies (I wasn't even close to being a member, the owners of the company I worked for were, I suspect the annual membership fee was more than they were paying me, but I'll take a free dinner any time). The maitre d' would always look me up and down, sigh, and send someone to go and get me a bow tie and a jacket. I'm surprised they didn't bring me clean underwear.

It was the sort of place that was so posh (and so white that I don't think they allowed suntans) that when I first went for dinner there, I asked for the menu and everyone looked at me. There was no menu. You simply asked for what you wanted and they made it happen. Unless that request is battered saveloy and chips, it turned out.

[TheLurker]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

[chrisbainbridge]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

If you make social indoor flying a religious experience then you can have more people.  The downside is that you have to keep the doors open which may put paid to any decent flying

[T42]

Meanwhile, life happens...

Big blue-arsed fly buzzing round.

MrsT: Open window, let it out.

Window duly opened.

Wasp flies in.

Could be worse...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54051423

I don't go to the Dordogne these days: never know whether to speak English, German or Dutch. Not that I can speak Dutch.

[andytheflyer]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

Just waiting now for the official kill-off notice that the gradually-re-awakening vintage motorcycle gatherings are to be cancelled.  I've not been on one yet as my wife is still shielding pending more surgery shortly, but they'd just got back to having occasional socially-distanced meet-ups (BYO coffee and cakes) to chat about old motorcycles.  The bikes must be >25yo, and the riders >60!

Presumably, model flying will be limited to 6 at the strip at one time?  Is that how it works?

[TheLurker]

Presumably, model flying will be limited to 6 at the strip at one time?  Is that how it works?

Buggered if I know.  It's all a bit (ha ha) up in the air.

[Kim]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

Just waiting now for the official kill-off notice that the gradually-re-awakening vintage motorcycle gatherings are to be cancelled.  I've not been on one yet as my wife is still shielding pending more surgery shortly, but they'd just got back to having occasional socially-distanced meet-ups (BYO coffee and cakes) to chat about old motorcycles.  The bikes must be >25yo, and the riders >60!

Presumably, model flying will be limited to 6 at the strip at one time?  Is that how it works?

Am awaiting similar for the Silly Bike Racing.  Technically it's an organised sporting event run by the venue, so comes under different rules to gatherings in public places, but at this point we've no idea what those might actually be.  No doubt Bloody Stupid Johnson will be on the telly later to provide further obfuscation.

Obviously we'd prefer the venue cancel the booking on us, as that way we don't loose the track fees.

[Jakob W]

Meanwhile, life happens...

Big blue-arsed fly buzzing round.

MrsT: Open window, let it out.

Window duly opened.

Wasp flies in.

Could be worse...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54051423

I don't go to the Dordogne these days: never know whether to speak English, German or Dutch. Not that I can speak Dutch.

You speak English and German, no? That's 95% of the way to Dutch...

[T42]

Meanwhile, life happens...

Big blue-arsed fly buzzing round.

MrsT: Open window, let it out.

Window duly opened.

Wasp flies in.

Could be worse...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54051423

I don't go to the Dordogne these days: never know whether to speak English, German or Dutch. Not that I can speak Dutch.

You speak English and German, no? That's 95% of the way to Dutch...

It's the missing 5% that kills you.  I once "translated" a report from Danish into German, relying on similarities since I had no Danish dictionary.  It had to do with acceptance tests of a telecom system we were working on, and seemed to say that we did OK on everything.  There was just one frequently-recurring word I couldn't guess, but I thought it would probably just be an emphasizer and ignored it.  It wasn't: it was ikke, meaning not. Oops.

[hellymedic]

David's lightly-used Cooper Casablanca has hydraulic disc brakes and Alfine hub gears.
Its rear wheel was found to have deflated a few days ago and he found a penetrating flint, which he removed and patched the tube in situ. (Watched by our attentive cats.)
Rear tyre audibly deflated a few hours after he'd parked the bike in the hall. I thought maybe his patching wasn't up to my standard...
'Patch is fine. No sign of lifting or other puncture source. Tube has blisters every 3 inches.'

Seems the rim tape is failing.
Buggeration!
Why the fuck can't manufacturers use something durable?

Rear wheel removal is non-trivial.

[andytheflyer]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

Just waiting now for the official kill-off notice that the gradually-re-awakening vintage motorcycle gatherings are to be cancelled.

Am awaiting similar for the Silly Bike Racing.

And, lo and behold, the email duly arrived.  All meetings and club runs cancelled sine die. AKA, next year, maybe?  Who knows. 

As a nation we cannot go on like this.  Unless something changes this is the end of society as we knew it.

[robgul]

I have had a long running saga with BT and our Business Broadband line - moved house in February to a house with a BT provided line, only about 1.2 km from the previous house, numbers on the same cluster at the exchange (which is almost exactly midway between the two houses) - sounds simple to transfer our existing (old house) number to the new one?  Oh no - months of confusion, bills for £1,000+ for "cancelling our contract"- £150 engineer visits (including one bloke referring in racist terms to the call centre people in India - "They don't what the fuck they're doing") and more - as well as loads of lne drops and simply not bloody working.  We have the "always on" dongle on the router that should flick across to a 4G connection rather than the wire if that drops - dongle doesn't work.

As at today we have the new number, it works most of the time - but the line/wifi drops 3 or 4 times a day.    For the moment, as it's not mission critical, we've just given up hope and can live with the line drops.

The best bit is that an email arrived to today saying "your compaint is resolved" .... and if we have a problem inviting us to call  800800154  - now, spot the error in the number?   That absolutely takes the biscuit.

As you may imagine there is a parallel activity relating to the billing . . . .

[Polar Bear]

20:00 8th of September.  Indoor flying of "toy" aeroplanes to resume on 17th of Oct.
05:00 9th of September.  Social groups to be limited (in Englandlandshire at least) to six (6) people both indoors and out.

Bugger.

Just waiting now for the official kill-off notice that the gradually-re-awakening vintage motorcycle gatherings are to be cancelled.

Am awaiting similar for the Silly Bike Racing.

And, lo and behold, the email duly arrived.  All meetings and club runs cancelled sine die. AKA, next year, maybe?  Who knows. 

As a nation we cannot go on like this.  Unless something changes this is the end of society as we knew it.

The problem is the haphazard, populist, non-strategic approach by the chancers in charge allied to a deadly virus which will devastate an ageing and increasingly pill-jangling, ailment-ridden society like ours.

There is no easy answer but it is being made to look even more difficult by the circus in charge.

[PhilO]

David's lightly-used Cooper Casablanca has hydraulic disc brakes and Alfine hub gears.
Its rear wheel was found to have deflated a few days ago and he found a penetrating flint, which he removed and patched the tube in situ. (Watched by our attentive cats.)
Rear tyre audibly deflated a few hours after he'd parked the bike in the hall. I thought maybe his patching wasn't up to my standard...
'Patch is fine. No sign of lifting or other puncture source. Tube has blisters every 3 inches.'

Seems the rim tape is failing.
Buggeration!
Why the fuck can't manufacturers use something durable?

Rear wheel removal is non-trivial.

I find rear wheel removal/replacement on my disc/alfine bike easier than on a derailleur equipped one (mine's Alfine-8 - not sure if the 11 is different)

There are two tricks:  Alfine: disconnect the cable by pulling the outer from its stop first, then unhooking the connector on the hub. This helps even more when putting it back together; hook on first, lay the cable into its groove, then pull the mechanism round by the outer before slotting it into its stop. All done with the shifter set to give maximum cable out, obviously.

Disc rotor:  These go in much easier if you file a small (~0.5mm) chamfer around the outside diameter. It has no effect on braking performance but halves the chance of the rotor fouling on the pad as you slide it in.

Apologies if you know these already!