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

[hellymedic]

Bristol airport (Swissport) baggage handlers.  It does not take 1 hour 15 minutes to deliver the bags.

This DOES sound excessive but if this means they are handling bags carefully, I would gladly accept the wait in exchange for undamaged possessions.

[ian]

Or taking the time to give them a serious professional kicking. O'Hare to London killed my last suitcase (it had admittedly done over a decade of service). I assume they either attacked it with a tank into it or put it into a tag team fight with King Gojirah and Mothra. On the plus side, I griped and got enough cash back to buy an entirely new case (which was overdue, to be honest, the old one was perilously close to losing its undercarriage). New suitcases, like new passports, are like pressing the travel reset button.

And yes to that bloody I'm not a robot thing, tomorrow I'm going to hunt down and kill everyone responsible with actual motherfucking robots. Identify the photos that feature your blood.

[andrewc]

They both use phones as phones.  I don’t think either of them know what SMS is, let alone WhatsApp! They mostly have mobiles switched off , they are paranoid about things on charge catching fire... (probably seen some of those videos Kim retweet’s  )
Mum is an EBay addict though, if she finds she can get that on a phone...

It's already caused a huge row    I went up earlier , she's got a new nano SIM with her existing number ported over.   They were going to take the phone back to John Lewis, as they thought it had the wrong charger. It's a compact travel 3 pin plug, with the top pin folded down.  No, you cut the almost invisible & ultratight plastic covering off , then that pin slides up & it fits a socket... 


She can make phone calls,  I've shown her how to send a text.  I've not set up email as she can't remember where she's put the password, so unless she can find that I'll have to organise a password reset & then change passwords on 3 different devices.      

[Kim]

They were going to take the phone back to John Lewis, as they thought it had the wrong charger. It's a compact travel 3 pin plug, with the top pin folded down.  No, you cut the almost invisible & ultratight plastic covering off , then that pin slides up & it fits a socket...  [/font]

I had to demonstrate the use (and explain the advantages of) such a design to someone recently.  It's evidently not as intuitive as the manufacturers assume.

It hadn't occurred to me that someone might mistake its folded state for some incompatible plug, perhaps intended for use in ABROAD, where the FOREIGNS come from.   

(And of course you can bet whatever scant documentation might be supplied won't refer specifically to the UK charger.)

[andrewc]

It flummoxed me for a couple of minutes, and I've got a similar thing myself    Then I spotted that the plastic film was still on, and had to get a Leatherman out to remove it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't think I've ever seen such a design, so it would probably have flummoxed me too!

[rafletcher]

I’ve got several third party ones like that - assuming all the pins fold flat. Good for travelling.

[Tim Hall]

Being, sadly, in the market for a replacement bike, I phoned Mercian.  Delivery for a Super Audax frame and forks used to be 10 months but is now "better", although the bod didn't know how much better.

10 months. 300 days. Goodness me.

[Basil]

I'm sure there is a thread for this sort of thing, but I can't find it.
News headlines at the start of R4s PM program referred to "The dark side of the moon ". 

Thankfully at the headlines repeat at 5.20 they changed it to "Far side".

[offcumden]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46747842

[hellymedic]

Something near this Premier Inn room is sounding/vibrating intermittently at very low frequency.

I really don't like it!

[T42]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46747842

What a load of piffle.

[Beardy]

Dr Beardy (Mrs) continues to make weak tea. I’ve tried to suggest that she a) doesn’t fill the kettle on the grounds of ecology, and b) doesn’t then transfer the total contents of the kettle into the tea pot. She gets quite uppity with me when I make these suggestions, so I try not to, but she continues to make weak team and then complains about it. Come on mussis, it’s not rocket science and you do have a PhD!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Whereas Mrs Cudzo makes rather strong tea, big pot with bags left stewing at breakfast, then tells me I drink "scarily strong" tea. She's right, of course.

[Mrs Pingu]

Dr Beardy (Mrs) continues to make weak tea. I’ve tried to suggest that she a) doesn’t fill the kettle on the grounds of ecology, and b) doesn’t then transfer the total contents of the kettle into the tea pot. She gets quite uppity with me when I make these suggestions, so I try not to, but she continues to make weak team and then complains about it. Come on mussis, it’s not rocket science and you do have a PhD!

Not in tea making apparently....

[T42]

One bag, one cup, three minutes. A dobble of milk, unstirred because I like to watch the convection cells.

[ElyDave]

One generous pinch of leaves in the bottom of a large mug, pour on boiling water, its ready to drink when its cooled enough to drink

[TheLurker]

One bag, one cup, three minutes. A dobble of milk, unstirred because I like to watch the convection cells.

A dobble?  How many dobbles to the grapefruit?  Enquiring minds needs must know.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

[TheLurker]

My grumble.

Oi! Meteo* get the damned overnight forecast right.  Don't tell me it's going to be sub-zero** tomorrow at sparrow-fart when it actually turns out to be 2 or 3 above zero.  I'm getting right narked missing out on my ride to work and the turbo-trainer is absolutely no consolation*** at all.

*Oi! BBC go back to the bloody Met. Office they get this sort of stuff _right_.
**Frosty roads and 23mm tyres are not a good mix and I don't bounce anywhere half as well as I used to.
***It's more like purgatory than consolation, but that's another grumble entirely.

[Wombat]

Bristol airport (Swissport) baggage handlers.  It does not take 1 hour 15 minutes to deliver the bags.

This DOES sound excessive but if this means they are handling bags carefully, I would gladly accept the wait in exchange for undamaged possessions.

swissport - carefully...  Helly, you've used both those words in the same sentence, which I have to say is an error of judgement.

It took them longer than that at Birmingham airport recently to bring out all the luggage, only to discover that mine was nowhere to be seen.  No staff were available to harangue, as the customer service folk had gone home for the day.  I eventually got my festering bag from Freetown, which had been stuck in Brussels for a while, whereas my colleague's had made the switch successfully.

[Wombat]

My grumble.

Oi! Meteo* get the damned overnight forecast right.  Don't tell me it's going to be sub-zero** tomorrow at sparrow-fart when it actually turns out to be 2 or 3 above zero.  I'm getting right narked missing out on my ride to work and the turbo-trainer is absolutely no consolation*** at all.

*Oi! BBC go back to the bloody Met. Office they get this sort of stuff _right_.
**Frosty roads and 23mm tyres are not a good mix and I don't bounce anywhere half as well as I used to.
***It's more like purgatory than consolation, but that's another grumble entirely.

The met office got it wrong too!

They said it would be -5 here, and we were a little concerned as we had a visitor arriving from York for breakfast here in rural Powys, but there was no frost at all.  However when she left the next morning, there was...

[Canardly]

Can someone explain to Mr Grayling what due diligence means?

[TheLurker]

Can someone explain to Mr Grayling what due diligence means?

[Mrs Pingu]

My poo clock has gone all awry. I like having a poo first thing in the morning, not in the evening, damnit.

[Basil]

^ Hate it when that happens.