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

[Beardy]

There’s a reason that high street outfitters have changing rooms…

[MattH]

There’s also the undeclared vanity factor in sizing (I suspect even worse for women’s clothes)

And it's an inverse-vanity on cycling clothes, where someone who normally wears L in casual t-shirts needs to be XXL or larger in cycling jerseys.

[hellymedic]

There’s a reason that high street outfitters have changing rooms…

D didn’t believe me when I told him he could try on shirts at M&S Brent Cross.

He thought everything was impenetrably packaged. He’s also accustomed to my getting Stuffs for him as he HATES shopping in person. Bicycle approach to Brent Cross Torture Chamber from here is not very nice (though access via the Waitrose car park is tolerable).

[Giraffe]

There’s a reason that high street outfitters have changing rooms…

By the time that I get to the shop I've often walked around 4 - 8 miles and the last ½ mile is mostly uphill, so I'm too sweaty to try a shirt.
Biggest problem is Sports Direct as one of the rooms is a used as store cupboard, the other has a queue and SD won't take back an item that doesn't fit - well, only for a credit note. Primark is OK on this.
I'm very awkwardly shape: mostly M but arms and back are L - XL, so most of my clothing is a compromise.

Items from the '90s that still fit me can't be replaced even with same make & model due to parsimony with fabric.

[hellymedic]

Items from the '90s that still fit me can't be replaced even with same make & model due to parsimony with fabric.

And vanity sizing/shaping.
Whilst yacf denizens have mostly maintained a physique from an active lifestyle, the rest of the populace has become flabbier and paunchier. Clothing manufacturers produce to clothe the masses.

I’ve whinged before how the waist size for an M&S Size 14 has crept from 26” to 32” in the last 4 decades and how D can’t get trousers to fit.

Now it’s shirts!

[robgul]

There’s a reason that high street outfitters have changing rooms…

. . . Mr Trump is rather partial to women's changing rooms 

[chrisbainbridge]

I always order the 2 most likely sizes and send one back. Why drive to an out of the way shop, struggle to park, walk miles to find the relevant shop, to stand in a queue for the changing room. Order as many sizes colours, etc as wanted try them on at home with a decent mirror and send back the ones you don’t want. I can either drop them off at the coop or John Lewis even get the post office to collect from my porch.

[Flite]

That's what I do.
But increasingly I'm sending everything back as nothing fits.
Wide back, neanderthal arms, small bust, waist seems smaller than average even though I'm definitely not skinny.
I usually end up buying men's jackets, but any sort of trousers is a real problem.
I made all my own clothes when younger, but arthritis in my hands has scuppered that.

[hellymedic]

Well quite! The problem is not SIZE; it’s SHAPE!

OTHERS’ shapes have changed and mass manufacturers produce to suit.

D’s shape hasn’t changed much.
Mine has ‘matured’ but my waist is still much smaller than M&S dumpy shapes nowadays.

[Giraffe]

One problem is what I term 'drop': from waist band to gusset measured at the back. The fleecy jogging bottoms (plain, tapered leg from Primark about 7 - 8 years ago are OK - apart from bottoms not quite big enough for my calfs - but those nowadays have gone from 17" drop to 14" in L. XL and XXL just get a bit bigger around the waist (but still OK for me!) with drop and leg about the same. I do have a big arse to fit in there (still solid muscle at almost 77, surprisingly).

[hellymedic]

I thought the term was ‘rise’, not ‘drop’...

[Gattopardo]

Yep it is shape even in Mens clothing.  But I am an odd shape.

[Flite]

One problem is what I term 'drop': from waist band to gusset measured at the back

aka "rise"
Yup really irritating. I would like my waistband round my waist not my hips.
And low rise trousers are horrid for driving....

[hellymedic]

D is NOT an odd shape or size.
He was truly Mr Average in almost every way last millennium.
Standard stock clothing from last century fits fine but we are from another generation era!
We are Oldies!

[MattH]

Ah, the fashionable men of YACF, needing trousers like these:-

[Kim]

One problem is what I term 'drop': from waist band to gusset measured at the back

aka "rise"
Yup really irritating. I would like my waistband round my waist not my hips.

+Eleventy.

[bhoot]

Well quite! The problem is not SIZE; it’s SHAPE!

OTHERS’ shapes have changed and mass manufacturers produce to suit.

So true - I have some 15 (at least) year old trousers from a reputable outdoor brand that are now a little bit tight on the waist, but I know that their current offerings would be way too baggy if I choose them for the hip size. I suppose it does put me off buying new things. 

[bhoot]

And for a completely different grumble, it now looks as if out of the four lifts for the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, only one is currently functioning (Greenwich North). We went through the Woolwich tunnel today (no choice to use the ferry at weekends now - another grumble) and were happy enough to carry the bikes down (closed for maintenance, as it was 3 week's ago) given that it said south lift in service. Well it wasn't, and after struggling up the stairs (100 steps) we could see the entrance was securely padlocked so it hadn't just stopped.

[Canardly]

Ah, the fashionable men of YACF, needing trousers like these:-

But they are not red!

[robgul]

I thought the term was ‘rise’, not ‘drop’...

I think in tailorig terms "rise" is the measure on trousers at the front

[robgul]

And for a completely different grumble, it now looks as if out of the four lifts for the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, only one is currently functioning (Greenwich North). We went through the Woolwich tunnel today (no choice to use the ferry at weekends now - another grumble) and were happy enough to carry the bikes down (closed for maintenance, as it was 3 week's ago) given that it said south lift in service. Well it wasn't, and after struggling up the stairs (100 steps) we could see the entrance was securely padlocked so it hadn't just stopped.

An alternative crossing with a bike, a bit further upstream, is the ferry at Canary Wharf - goes to the Hilton (?) hotel on the other side - it does cost, cheaper with Oyster etc.

[Jurek]

And for a completely different grumble, it now looks as if out of the four lifts for the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, only one is currently functioning (Greenwich North). We went through the Woolwich tunnel today (no choice to use the ferry at weekends now - another grumble) and were happy enough to carry the bikes down (closed for maintenance, as it was 3 week's ago) given that it said south lift in service. Well it wasn't, and after struggling up the stairs (100 steps) we could see the entrance was securely padlocked so it hadn't just stopped.

An alternative crossing with a bike, a bit further upstream, is the ferry at Canary Wharf - goes to the Hilton (?) hotel on the other side - it does cost, cheaper with Oyster etc.

Or a Thames Clipper Ferry from Greenwich to Mast House Pier.

[bhoot]

Or the DLR between King George V and Woolwich Arsenal, or between Island Gardens and Cutty Sark, and now the Elizabeth line between Woolwich and Custom House. Compared to when we first came here pre bikes being allowed on the DLR (and actually we we were here pre the DLR going under the Thames at all) we do have a lot more choices. But it is still rather annoying that the foot tunnel lifts are so unreliable. In the Greenwich one there is usually an accumulation of abandoned Lime bikes at the bottom of the out of service lift.

[Kim]

I like the way that they installed electronic signs to tell you when the lifts are broken.  Sort of thing that makes you proud to be BRITISH.

[Tim Hall]

I've carried the Pino up the stairs at Greenwich.  An amount of Steely Determination with a side order of Heavy Breathing was needed.