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

[fimm]

When travelling as a kid I was send into campsites and restaurants to use the loo, mainly in France. To check on the wc situation because my mum refused to use a hole in the ground. And I'm nearly 54

I'm nearly the same age, and we had a similar thing - though my mother did go and check on the toilets herself.
The worst one of those I've used (and to be fair I have not used many) was where the ladies was out of order. Squatting over a hole that has been used by a lot of standing men is not to be recommended.

[fimm]

Oh, and now I forgot to post my own grumble, grumble.

Dearest mother, which part of "I'm sorry, I will not do that again," are you having difficulty understanding?

[woollypigs]

"Best" toilet experience I've had, was both on Paris around 2001.

One had western style door on them, so if you looked under the door to see if someone was busy squatting, you saw their business end quite clearly and upfront. Not to forget the flies. Cheap beer though.

Second one for some reason had the sink and the urinal next to eachother, I mean touching right next to eachother at the same hight. In the narrow end of bathroom. So if you stood to wee, you needed to aim to the right and not slightly to the left, as that would be the sink. It was that narrow if you were a rugby player or a bodybuilder you would need an extension to be able hit the traket. Standing at an angle could give you a few more inches, but if you had a bit of a belly this would not gain any advantage.

[Regulator]

The first time I went to France with Pingu in 1993 it feels like shower tray bogs were very common. As a naiive teen I used to send Pingu ahead to check on the bogs anywhere we visited to avoid me toilet angst.

These days I find them a lot less common/more civilised, but invariably when you come across one and can't wait someone's left a turd in it. 

The worst toilets I've ever seen, Hassi Messaoud Airport, I'd be surprised if you've not been there. Picture Mad Max and you're not far off.  For the toilets, take a deep breath, close your eyes if possible, I wouldn't even think about sitting down

For me, it was Addis Ababa airport in 1991.   We got stuck there for 24 hours, in the old terminal building, due to technical issues with the plane for our onward flight to Kinshasa. 

It was about 35° and there was a power cut.  No aircon and toilets so ripe they could be smelt from 100m away...  my travelling companion braved going in as he was desperate - and promptly threw up!

A friend of mine working at the British embassy managed to persuade the Ethiopian border guards to let us stay with her for the night.

[CAMRAMan]

Old Windmill, Coventry: your ploughman's was really rather good, except that your artisan bread was insufficient in quantity and if by 'artisan', you mean Chorleywood crap, then fine. Your Timothy Taylor Dark Landlord went a long way to making amends, though...

[Tim Hall]

Dear Octopus, in what way is an email with black text on a purple*(?) background any where near approaching a good idea?

*Me, colourblind and generally shit at colour descriptions, so ICBW

[Mr Larrington]

Accessfail!  Unleash inner Barakta!

[hellymedic]

Black on purple is suboptimal for those with good colour vision...

[T42]

Toddled to next village to pick up my usual meds, MrsT sez oh, get me multivitamins with iron, would you so I do. Forty-two fucking euros!  Get home, she looks: only 30% of RDA Fe and "I can get 6 months' worth for 20€ on Amazon".  Words about buying supplements on Amazon, but she's been getting them since scams were invented and she's still OK.  "Why not get them there again, then?"   Deponent sayeth not.

[rafletcher]

I have a rare weekend to myself (well until mid-morning tomorrow). This morning was dull and overcast and cool, so did some gardening, but it’s now sunny so I’m sitting in the garden.  Thought I’d watch the first days racing from Aussie Supercars Perth Supersprint, but the laggards have signally failed to upload the footage. Bah.

[Kim]

This weekend's Co-Wheels car featured:

1) Tyre warning (resolved by adding pissys with the compress-o-matic and driving round the block)
1¾) Lack of valve caps on two of the wheels (resolved by adding valve caps from my extensive collection)
b) Lack of squirt from the driver's-side windscreen squirter (unresolved with pokey-thing, probably the non-return valve)
iii) Absence of all-you-can-eat motor-spirit payment card (unresolved by checking it hadn't fallen off the sun visor and got stuck under the seat like last time)
four) Remains of someone's cyclist's lawn in the boot
101) Ludicrous amounts of Devil's Other Radio nonsense on the home screen, rather than useful things like the out of cheesepetril countdown (resolved my mashing random buttons until it went away)

Vaguely wondering if this is just bad luck, or they're going to implode in a puff of insurance premiums and/or private equity at some point.  It's concerning that I haven't had to defenestrate a christmas tree for a while.

[T42]

Lack of needles and resin in the boot is a plus, though.

[woollypigs]

Speaking of needles, yesterday I was on a small rural  forest road and stepped to the side to make room for a passing car.

Looked down to make sure I wasn't stepping in poop or a hole. Saw, what I thought was nettles, thought never mind the never really irritated me much.

Some hours later the stinging itch was still there, then the person on the video I was watching at the time started to talk about poison ivy.

And it clicked what I thought I saw, wasn't. I think this is the first time I've been in contact poison ivy and it does feel like many needles keep poking you