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

[Cudzoziemiec]

Hopefully not like so?


(AIUI no casualties from that, only a rather shaken driver.)

[ElyDave]

They made trains out of fibreglass? Bugger me!

[Pickled Onion]

No of course not! That's just the Plastic Padding repair from the last crash.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yep, the cabs of the 125s were fibreglass.

[essexian]

Dogs in a domestic setting? What is the point?

To explain, there appears to be three types of dogs in this area. They are:

1)   The status dog…normally a Staffie….where the total IQ of dog and owner is unlikely to get above 70, and most of that comes from the dog.

2)   The yapper….. In the four houses either side and to the back of us, there are yappers who just yap all day, every day for no point at all…. Oh, thinking about it, a squirrel has just wondered by, or the postman has parked his van outside, or, like the one currently 10m away from me, his owners have gone to work and left him in the garden for the day.

3)   The type of dog whose owner lets them off the lead when walking down out street to the fields so that they can either chase our cat (one did yesterday which got me into an argument and caused CBH to utter those words you don’t want to here: “Leave it E, he’s not worth it….” Or the little darlings come into our front garden and have a poo. Of course said owner never cleans it up so I have the pleasure of mowing it up when I do the lawns….

Please don’t get me wrong: I am not “anti dog.” Indeed, we have owned dogs in the past but they were all working dogs (a pointer…my father was into shooting…….and a “security dog” when CBH used to deliver parcels) so were trained to do what their master told them to. I suppose that’s it really, its not the dogs fault it yaps all day, but the owners fault for not taking care of it and training it. It just doesn’t make for a good day listening to yapping as I am trying to work in my luxury executive garden shed. 

[T42]

There's a nice proverb (Arab?) that goes "a hundred dogs barking at one dog barking at nothing".

Our dogs very rarely bark, and then only if surprised or teased.  But then, we have always had dogs of a certain size, say 45 kg and up.  Back when we had our 65+ kilo Leonbergs, a bark was like the voice of the METATRON.

Oh, and when a cat's in the garden they don't bark at all, just get their heads down and give chase. Never caught one, though.

[hulver]

Dogs in a domestic setting? What is the point?

To explain, there appears to be three types of dogs in this area. They are:

1)   The status dog…normally a Staffie….where the total IQ of dog and owner is unlikely to get above 70, and most of that comes from the dog.

2)   The yapper….. In the four houses either side and to the back of us, there are yappers who just yap all day, every day for no point at all…. Oh, thinking about it, a squirrel has just wondered by, or the postman has parked his van outside, or, like the one currently 10m away from me, his owners have gone to work and left him in the garden for the day.

3)   The type of dog whose owner lets them off the lead when walking down out street to the fields so that they can either chase our cat (one did yesterday which got me into an argument and caused CBH to utter those words you don’t want to here: “Leave it E, he’s not worth it….” Or the little darlings come into our front garden and have a poo. Of course said owner never cleans it up so I have the pleasure of mowing it up when I do the lawns….

Please don’t get me wrong: I am not “anti dog.” Indeed, we have owned dogs in the past but they were all working dogs (a pointer…my father was into shooting…….and a “security dog” when CBH used to deliver parcels) so were trained to do what their master told them to. I suppose that’s it really, its not the dogs fault it yaps all day, but the owners fault for not taking care of it and training it. It just doesn’t make for a good day listening to yapping as I am trying to work in my luxury executive garden shed.

That's funny, I seem to use more poo bags picking up foul smelling sloppy disgusting cat shit from our driveway than I do picking up after our two dogs.

[lahoski]

That's funny, I seem to use more poo bags picking up foul smelling sloppy disgusting cat shit from our driveway than I do picking up after our two dogs.

Thankfully our cats only shit on other people's property so we only get the rest of the neighbourhood cats shitting on the drive. And the small dog two doors up, who gets walked off-lead multiple times a day, loves eating cat shit.

The other day I opened the front door to a cat doing a shit. I shooed it. It just looked straight into my eyes as it continued to shit. Fucker.

[ian]

My cats shit in our garden. I tell them not to but they don't listen. They do bury it though. I don't think they normally shit on hard surfaces, that's mostly the province of foxes.

I'm listening to the delicate crackle of our patio door. Gardeners and strimmers, eh?

[PeteB99]

On a related note why does my new Panasonic HDR insist it's found new channels almost every day and want a retune when the Samsung Tele is quite happy with the channels it's already got?

Cos it's a piece of shit.  We've got one.  Not only does it constantly witter about needing to retune on a weekly basis but it fails miserably when it tries to automatically retune. 

Sorted* by turning the new channel notification to off

* At least until I miss the next set of EPG channel updates, hopefully the TV will warn me.

[matthew]

Suddenly I realise how much I rely on electricity. Half way through cooking diner the power went out, there went my planned cottage pie as the oven is electric. I had to switch to candles to see the pans on the as hob.

since then it came back on, went out again and is now back again.

[hellymedic]

Suddenly I realise how much I rely on electricity. Half way through cooking diner the power went out, there went my planned cottage pie as the oven is electric. I had to switch to candles to see the pans on the as hob.

since then it came back on, went out again and is now back again.

I know the feeling!
I have a gas hob, grill and oven and I don't think the gas has ever failed here unlike the
water
electricity
phones      )_  These can fail independently, it appears
broadband )

I has torches and emergency water. My USB dongles no longer work but I have a basic mobile dumbphone.

[T42]

We have candles and oil-lamps (unused for ~18 years - maybe I should check them). I also have doodah like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PORTABLE-COOKER-BUTANE-BOTTLES-CAMPING/dp/B005LVFEWW

Got it for the wok, but it's good for pancakes, omelettes etc.  One cartridge will do for around 5 lots of shrimp tempura for two.

Last time the power went out for more than a couple of hours, during our 1999 hurricane, we barbecued beef ribs in the kitchen fireplace.

[hellymedic]

I think there might be a petrol-fired camping stove somewhere, with Coleman fuel but I'm not sure...

[Kim]

Splodeystoves are strictly outdoor use only, and not ideal as a backup in a power cut.

Sod's law dictates that however many gas stoves you've got to hand, it will be something oven-based that you're cooking when the power goes out.


From a first world perspective, I don't think burning things for illumination has been in any way sensible since LED illumination became practical.  Muck about with candles or Tilley lamps for fun if you must, but if you actually want to see what you're doing, an LED torch is so much better and safer.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I remember the spring of 1981, when flooding following a freak snowfall left us without electricity for a week. Everything in the house, including hob and heating, was electric. That was a very cold week. It must have either toughened me up to make me the man I am or left me with lifelong rheumatism and a susceptibility to pneumonia. Mustn't it? Or is that the same thing?

Power cuts in India were a weekly if not daily affair. We used mains-charged battery-powered fluorescent "emergency lanterns". Cooking was gas, heating would have been an absurdity, air conditioning wasn't necessary at home. The much harder thing was when there was no water.

[T42]

From a first world perspective, I don't think burning things for illumination has been in any way sensible since LED illumination became practical.  Muck about with candles or Tilley lamps for fun if you must, but if you actually want to see what you're doing, an LED torch is so much better and safer.

Last time we had to use our oil lamps you couldn't get white LEDs.

[Tim Hall]

Splodeystoves are strictly outdoor use only, and not ideal as a backup in a power cut.

Sod's law dictates that however many gas stoves you've got to hand, it will be something oven-based that you're cooking when the power goes out.


From a first world perspective, I don't think burning things for illumination has been in any way sensible since LED illumination became practical.  Muck about with candles or Tilley lamps for fun if you must, but if you actually want to see what you're doing, an LED torch is so much better and safer.

Agreed LEDs are the way to go safety wise, but what does Thee Panel suggest for a week long camp with minimal access to recharging voles?  At present for Scouts we use a brace of lovely Tilleys in our mess tent, which run for ever on a gallon of paraffin and are hung up out of the way.  A GBFO leisure battery to top up the LED lanterns? PV panel? Scout powered alternator?

[Kim]

I've just done 4 nights of muddy camping (and a couple of fettling sessions at the CrinklyDen^[1]) with my posh Petzl head torch.  The battery is apparently at 84%.  It could be recharged in a few hours with a PV panel or bicycle dynamo.  Small-tent camping is a solved problem.

Lanterns for big tents are trickier, simply because most of what you find are poorly-engineered crap^[2], but also because they're more likely to be left on for hours rather than turning them on and off as needed.  Scale up the battery and a week's runtime from a big lithium-ion battery seems plausible, but I don't know what's out there.  FWIW, I have an Alpkit Trinity, which runs on AAs (easy to carry spares when car-camping), but fails barakta approval by having an unacceptably low PWM frequency - we have to run it at full power to avoid flicker, which makes for underwhelming (a few hours) runtime.


_{[1] Which is a cave.
[2] Big Clive has done several teardowns on deadly dalek-shaped LED camping lamps.}

[andrewc]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Streamlight-44931-Siege-Lantern-Coyote/dp/B00DII7CTI


I have one of these stashed under the kitchen sink,  but have yet to use it in anger.  It's pretty good when tested though.  A bit too heavy for cycle camping but no problem if you are car based.

[Mr Larrington]

Back aches, legs ache, arms ache.  I fear I may be coming down with the dreaded lurgi, unless it's a side effect of foul USAnian cigarettes 

[ian]

Have you checked about your person for bullet holes?

[TheLurker]

Agreed LEDs are the way to go safety wise, but what does Thee Panel suggest for a week long camp with minimal access to recharging voles?

Depends how much illumination you need.  If it's just, "enough to not trip over the furniture and a little bit of reading" then wind-up  LED lanterns from Blacks, Millets and the like might be an answer.  I bought a couple for "just in case" use four or five years back and they're better than candles as far as light levels go for about half an hour or so on a few minutes winding. They're most effective if you can hang them above head height.  Shouldn't think they'll be anywhere near as bright as Tilleys though.

This sort of thing >  https://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/195687-eurohike-6-led-wind-up-lantern.html
Better models may be available.

[Mr Larrington]

Have you checked about your person for bullet holes?

(Checks)

Oh, wait, what's this?

It's a nostril.  As you were.

[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 ?


Edit. And the confirmation email they send you no longer adds full journey details to my (Apple) calendar.   The old site was good, why the bastardy fuck did they change it ?