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

[woollypigs]

Mutter... mutter... mutter... 

I appear to have collected myself a speeding ticket (35 in a 30 zone). How annoying. 

See an 84" gear is good sometimes

[Basil]

Enterprise vehicle rental people.  When you asked me for a contact number when I booked the van the other day, I assumed that it was so you could let me know of any impending collection problems, or so you could ask me "Where the hell are you?" if I was a bit late on the return.
What I wasn't expecting was a phone call from some fifteen year old asking me if I was
A). Completely satisfied with my rental experience.
B). Completely satisfied with my rental experience.
C). Completely satisfied with my rental experience.

Uckfay ffoay.

BTW, in case Kim sees this.  If you need a van, don't phone. They'll just tell you to collect from next to the Hippodrome in town.  No, pop down to Stirchley in person and they'll sort it it.  I ordered the V1 size van for the trip to Stoke and collected from Stirchley, and have ordered the V2 size van for next w/e which they will have down there waiting for me.

[Kim]

Noted.

IIRC there's a known Enterprise-related spam number in my CallerID blacklist...

[barakta]

I went to audiology in an attempt to thwart the Bank Holiday Law¹ to get this loan-hearing aid replaced with something not half-broken squealy and annoying. I was an hour late into work which I am lucky is fine with by boss who "gets it" but grrr.  I got a taxi up the evil hills road cos I have lurg and need to conserve spoons.

Audiologist had two spares. Both in a MORE fucked state than the one I have. Apparently I run my hearing aids at too high a volume² and I should have a lower volume and evil Automatic Gain Control³ turned up instead.  We conceeded that I am indeed better off with the half-broken one that I have than either of the ones she had.  They don't officially have loaners and they've switched the contract from Cochlear to Oticon (competitor) and apparently my type of Cochlear Intenso BAHA isn't made anymore (have tweeted Cochlear UK to check this).

Audiologist failed the not speaking to deaf person while they have the hearing aid in their hand test which is slightly irksome and they should know better.  She also told me my digital but not programmable BAHA is analogue... No, It Really Isn't.  It is digital, just cos you can't program it on your computer does not mean it's analogue.  Don't reinvent the meaning of perfectly good engineering words cos you don't understand it.  We had this discussion before.  I even mentioned my partner explaining this last time - apparently I'm to ask him again what that means... I forgot people gender people's partners as norm, it doesn't bother me that much, just grates a tad.

Grrr.  Not audiologist's fault they don't have any working aids of my type. I am at least able to get in to sort stuff, a friend has to wait 3 months for an appointment to fix a broken earmould at her place (woudn't catch me putting up with that shit).  And if I had to buy my own replacements they'd cost between £2000 and £5000 each depending on where I was and if I had even slight insurance cover (US insurance usually excludes hearing aids).  Also some NHS areas will twat about with funding for BAHAs with people having to care that audiology has to go to a panel and argue for the money. None of that for me, just a "your aids are irreparable, we've ordered replacements, arrival in somenum weeks".  Very bloody lucky in that regard.

Welcome to life with hearing aids, where there are inevitable episodes of multiple audiology contacts during a bad phase, before I go back to not annoying them for years while aids behave!

¹ Hearing aids will break on the Friday of any Bank Hol when audiology is closed until the following Wednesday or something.  (or as recently on my bloody holiday away from  home).

² I should be able to run hearing aids at any valid volume without them going wrong somehow ffs.  I know this aid is pushing the power envelope of bone conduction aids but grrr.

³ AGC is evil, I am hearing merrily enough, some noise happens and suddenly half the sound drops for some period of time leaving me unable to hear whatever I'm listening to till it comes back.  This is inevitably someone's speech over background noise I can handle.  I don't have recruitment (difficulty with loud sounds AND a hearing impairment) so I don't need this feature and ideally it'd be OFF but I compromise with it turned as low as it will go.

[Kim]

Tell her your hubby says it's both, and offer to draw a circuit diagram^[1].   


_{[1] A technique that nearly always has the desired effect of making people leave you alone.}

[andrewc]

I bought a large tub of mixed olives at M&S on the way home, intending to fix up a nice big bowl of Greek salad.

Can't find them anywhere.  Either they've fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum or I left them at the till 

[phantasmagoriana]

Online retailers whose mailing lists I am subscribed to: whilst it's nice that you all seem to have sales on this weekend, please stop mentioning the bank holiday and making me jealous of the southerners!

[Pedaldog.]

Spoke to the surgeon today and he tells me I am not allowed to ride even a tandem, intended to use one leg to help the stoker and rest the gadgy one up. Maybe in a month when I next see him.

[Pedaldog.]

Hah! Took the r/h crank off the Stokers chainset on the Taylor tandem trike. Placed a footrest (Read "Handlebar stem) in its place so I could keep the Surgeonised foot in a stable position and set off for the first ride. Got about a half mile out before the discomfort of too low a saddle height made turning back the only option. The seat post in there was at its Maximum height so couldn't just shift it and carry on. Proved the principle again but will need to do some more fettling regarding the safety of the foot rest.

[hellymedic]

David's return flight was delayed 90 minutes.
Trains from Luton Airport Parkway are supposed to be hourly overnight but the 01.09 has been cancelled due to lack of staff.
He's in a cab now; life's too short.
If all had run to time, he would have been back by midnight at minimal expense.

[jsabine]

The only time we've booked ourselves onto a flight getting back to Luton sometime around midnight, the cheapest and easiest way of getting home to SE London was a one-way car hire.

This also suited because I wanted to pick up a new oven so, expecting a normal hatchback, could do it the following day: cue a free upgrade to a rather nice convertible, followed by having to put the top down outside Currys in the *pissing* rain, because it had no boot to speak of and that was the only way to get the oven into the back seat ...

[hellymedic]

David can't drive.
Had the flight arrived at its scheduled 22.15, he could have caught the 23.09 or 23.39 to Mill Hill Broadway, thence a bus pretty well to our front door.
The cab was £lots but still beats owning a car.

[Canardly]

Lack of staff....strewth.

[ian]

Lack of staff....strewth.

Item no. 4 on the Southern Trains Excuse Roulette system. When they bother with an excuse, sometimes they just remove the train from the board and hope no one notices.

[barakta]

I am really too tired and dead of brain (partly my fault for bodging a mum visit after camping) to be timetable wrangling - especially when it's all in code which there is NO lookup table for.  Mech Eng doesn't 'exist' as a building on campus maps. I have to do this for 'reasons' TODAY even tho it's NotMyJobTM cos stude spannered the works by being awkward and we've had closed days.

The uni website doesn't return search results for "term dates" or "dates" properly. I had to fish the webpage of term dates out of an email, webpage is called "key dates".

And we're in resit exam period with the inevitable disasters all over the place and a skeleton staff all over the uni...

And my fucking broken hearing aid is now doing mode switch roulette every time I change mode which is both maddening and somewhat terrifying even though I do have HA hack option on me as backup.

Right, going to read a paper on inclusive assessment urgently before my boss gets in for her half day so I can brain a definitive 'recommendation' based on EVIDENCETM.

[Kim]

The uni website doesn't return search results for "term dates" or "dates" properly. I had to fish the webpage of term dates out of an email, webpage is called "key dates".

xkcd://773 compliance, innit.

[phantasmagoriana]

The uni website doesn't return search results for "term dates" or "dates" properly. I had to fish the webpage of term dates out of an email, webpage is called "key dates".

Ah yes, I've had that problem too - ours is called "session dates".

[barakta]

I have *nothing* polite to say about our website. Students hate it, parents hate it, staff hate it.  Everyone except the weirdo "internal comms team" who designed the travesty hates it.  Useless, buggy, slow, loadfailing, inaccessible heap of shit.  I've refused to consult on the replacement and insisted they contact third party advisors with actual accessibility and web expertise.

[matthew]

Mech Eng doesn't 'exist' as a building on campus maps.

But, but if the building is labelled Civil Engineering on the map then someone needs to thump the drawer of the map. Civ Eng moved out of their building and into the Mech Eng building when sports science needed more space.

alternatively send them to the building across the road from the power station.

Unless they have all moved again since I was last there.

[Mr Larrington]

Hoteliers of USAnia!

Plz to be supplying more than one sachet of Brown Drink for use with the in-room Brown Drink machine.  Decaf doesn't count.

kthxbai

[David Martin]

Our buildings aren't named after departments which makes it easier to move things (people, departments, lectures) around.

However, our timetables are even more fun as they don't have dates on, just week numbers (no, not year weeks, but term weeks). But when wanting to search the timetables for events in a particualr week you have to search by date, with no cross referencing between the two. T-space is horrendous.

ANd I did fall foul of getting my weeks out of sync by one which makes organisng the field trips which require the tide to be out a little problematic.

[TheLurker]

Satan's hairy arse!  _More_ dribbling idiocy at work; an employee survey.  Just let us get on and do our jobs you utter imbeciles.  If _you_ haven't got enough to do to keep yourselves busy why don't you just fuck-off and hold an off-site meeting (I hear Jupiter is good) and get out of our way?

   

[Basil]

I'm bored.

[ian]

Hoteliers of USAnia!

Plz to be supplying more than one sachet of Brown Drink for use with the in-room Brown Drink machine.  Decaf doesn't count.

kthxbai

Room service, my man.

Then you can rant about the bill which includes:

(a) inflated purchase price (yeah $18 for a burger)
(b) delivery charge ($4.50)
(c) gratuity 20% (which I suppose is gratuitous)

and let's not forget (d) when you sign there's another tip option because like I've not paid enough to have you get the elevator.

God, I hate chain hotels as much I hate the snotty notes from the mothership for booking a 'non-certified travel option' which somehow saves them money through this. Oh look, $14.95 for the internet.

And the fuckers always try to squeeze a bottle of water onto the bill. $8.50. For water. Which I did not drink.

[Mr Larrington]

I am on holibobs and thus am not staying That Kind of Hotel.  If I want extra sachets of Brown Drink I have to go to reception myself and ask for it, or nick it off the chambermaid's trolley when she isn't looking.  Today was exceptional in that there were two sachets of Regular Brown Drink in the room (unless the heat as affected my memory-branes and I drank the decaf by accident).