What's made you grumpy today?

[ZaphodB]

Ordered a genuine air filter for my abarth in prep for a service soon.....

Just arrived , genuine box (good so far) , date code 2013 (no problem at all) ..... grubby oily paw print on end of the filter ..,....

FFS, return initiated

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I know as a youngster when ever I went to out patients at the hospital my Tetenus injection was always up to date.

As many on here will know, my first job involved a lot of continental travel. My employer gave recommendations regarding stuff like health hazards while abroad, remember this was the very early 70s. Working with tyres, by the very nature of the environment they operate in, has implications for infections, so one of them was to get a tetanus shot and I just kept it up to date ever since.

I remember also being warned about contact with animals due to Rabies. Just don't, was the general thinking.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Older folk who go the test tube route and have children later in life must be off their trolleys. We started our family when we were in our early 20's and It was hard enough keeping up at that age!

43 with a 3 year old…. At this point I think my body is technically an insurance right off, back buggered, hips going, knee buggered,

Cycling is about the only activity I can do that is low impact when dealing with the aforementioned toddler.

I spend a couple of hours doing things with him then need a week in intensive care to recover.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Extracting the statin from its foil packaging, the foil bit back, and cut my finger. Like a paper cut, but a bit more vicious. Didn't bleed much, but is throbbing well.

You could yellow card it but I’m not sure bleeding from cutting yourself on the pack counts as an adverse reaction

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Some years ago I cut myself badly on a corned beef tin, the type with a key and after winding around you are left with two very sharp metal sides.

I still have a scar on one of my fingers from a corn beef tin that I bisected my finger on when I was about 8 years old, right through the pulp and down to the bone…

Mums response was to hold some kitchen roll on it for a week or two till the bleeding stopped. Then put a plaster on it to hold the finger together till it healed. This was the end of He 80s, the only time I remember going to A&E was when my brother emptied the contents of a couple of hundred gun caps into a plastic tube then put a match in the top, the instant explosion shredded his hand with pieces of flying shards of plastic.

 

[bugsymike]

As many on here will know, my first job involved a lot of continental travel. My employer gave recommendations regarding stuff like health hazards while abroad, remember this was the very early 70s. Working with tyres, by the very nature of the environment they operate in, has implications for infections, so one of them was to get a tetanus shot and I just kept it up to date ever since.

I remember also being warned about contact with animals due to Rabies. Just don't, was the general thinking.

You forgot the bit about "Don't drink the water", this includes cleaning your teeth as I found out !!!!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

You forgot the bit about "Don't drink the water", this includes cleaning your teeth as I found out !!!!

The biggest shock for me was the toilets. Innocent little old me had never seen the typical hole in the floor with foot rests on either side and no roll of loo paper. I also remember my first encounter with a French pissoir - Most disconcerting looking over the top at everyone walking past just feet away when you're trying to "perform"

 

[bugsymike]

, the only time I remember going to A&E was when my brother emptied the contents of a couple of hundred gun caps into a plastic tube then put a match in the top, the instant explosion shredded his hand with pieces of flying shards of plastic.

I used to do lots of stuff like that as a youngster include tieing powerful bangers to rockets, straightening "rip raps/cracker jacks?" then when lit they worked like a large banger, I also made a cannon from lead in a wooden mould and tried banger gun powder to operate it along with many other much more dangerous experiments, so surprised I survived, but heh,ho still here.
One time I stuck my head out as 10 year old and the lad next door was testing my 5 foot long bow complete with brass tipped arrows at a tree stump, he hadn't pulled it right back as it was more than capable of travelling the length of a playing field, but I still ended up running into my long suffering mum with the arrow partially stuck just below my eye, another visit to A&E that I survived. I would say unlike the 6 hour wait these days , most visits were only 30 minutes and back home.!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I used to do lots of stuff like that as a youngster include tieing powerful bangers to rockets, straightening "rip raps/cracker jacks?" then when lit they worked like a large banger, I also made a cannon from lead in a wooden mould and tried banger gun powder to operate it along with many other much more dangerous experiments, so surprised I survived, but heh,ho still here.
One time I stuck my head out as 10 year old and the lad next door was testing my 5 foot long bow complete with brass tipped arrows at a tree stump, he hadn't pulled it right back as it was more than capable of travelling the length of a playing field, but I still ended up running into my long suffering mum with the arrow partially stuck just below my eye, another visit to A&E that I survived. I would say unlike the 6 hour wait these days , most visits were only 30 minutes and back home.!

I think I've mentioned before that we played cowboys and Indians with real arrows for the Indians and air guns for the cowboys. It all ended badly when my brother nearly shot someone's Mum with an arrow when she arrived to pick up her "wee darling" who had been left to play with us for the day. On another occasion I shot my brother in the leg with an air pistol necessitating a visit to the local cottage hospital for it to be removed. The guns and bows were confiscated after that. Were well known at that local cottage hospital. As you say, no long waits and not far to travel to get there. Another incident I remember was when I accidentally nearly chopped my youngest brother's nose off with a spade. The blade of the spade cut through his nose near the end so it was just hanging on by the two fleshy bits on either side. Mum stuck it back together with sticking plaster and made me ride in the back of the car with him to the cottage hospital where they stitched it back together. Although the marks faded as we aged you could still clearly see the line across his nose. I believe we had a bit of a "reputation".

 

[The Panda Nut]

Extracting the statin from its foil packaging, the foil bit back, and cut my finger. Like a paper cut, but a bit more vicious. Didn't bleed much, but is throbbing well. Very grumpy.

Everyone should take these then cut themself on the packaging....Statins can only be good for you. lol Then the spare capacity created in the NHS can be devoted to stiching up wounds....LOL

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I think I've mentioned before that we played cowboys and Indians with real arrows for the Indians and air guns for the cowboys. It all ended badly when my brother nearly shot someone's Mum with an arrow when she arrived to pick up her "wee darling" who had been left to play with us for the day. On another occasion I shot my brother in the leg with an air pistol necessitating a visit to the local cottage hospital for it to be removed. The guns and bows were confiscated after that. Were well known at that local cottage hospital. As you say, no long waits and not far to travel to get there. Another incident I remember was when I accidentally nearly chopped my youngest brother's nose off with a spade. The blade of the spade cut through his nose near the end so it was just hanging on by the two fleshy bits on either side. Mum stuck it back together with sticking plaster and made me ride in the back of the car with him to the cottage hospital where they stitched it back together. Although the marks faded as we aged you could still clearly see the line across his nose. I believe we had a bit of a "reputation".

I’m the youngest of 4 boys, I think boys in general tend to be more feral growing up.

I remember a regularly carrying a knife when I was young, not for stabbing anyone like these days, but to whittle a stick into something useful (like a sharpened point to stab your mate with)

We would also carry lighters and make little bonfires. This really wasn’t all that long ago, but a mate of mine I grew up with said to me he’d kill his kids if they did half the stuff we did growing up.

It is weird to think how much that has changed in such a short space of time because I am sure for generations kids carrying a pocket knife was nothing unusual.

One story my grand mother used to tell us when we were younger is about her “gun” an actual real gun her parents let her have when she was a kid, she would “play” with it outside with her brothers in the 1920s
One day she was called in for dinner and left her actual live working gun outside in the yard, when she went back it was gone, someone stole her gone…. Oh well that’s what you get for leaving it out, let’s just move on and accept it, was the response of her parents, can you imagine that now ! Letting your kid have let alone play with a gun, then when it’s stolen just shrugging your shoulders, saying “oh well” and moving on with your day.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I’m the youngest of 4 boys, I think boys in general tend to be more feral growing up.

I remember a regularly carrying a knife when I was young, not for stabbing anyone like these days, but to whittle a stick into something useful (like a sharpened point to stab your mate with)

We would also carry lighters and make little bonfires. This really wasn’t all that long ago, but a mate of mine I grew up with said to me he’d kill his kids if they did half the stuff we did growing up.

It is weird to think how much that has changed in such a short space of time because I am sure for generations kids carrying a pocket knife was nothing unusual.

One story my grand mother used to tell us when we were younger is about her “gun” an actual real gun her parents let her have when she was a kid, she would “play” with it outside with her brothers in the 1920s
One day she was called in for dinner and left her actual live working gun outside in the yard, when she went back it was gone, someone stole her gone…. Oh well that’s what you get for leaving it out, let’s just move on and accept it, was the response of her parents, can you imagine that now ! Letting your kid have let alone play with a gun, then when it’s stolen just shrugging your shoulders, saying “oh well” and moving on with your day.

I was in the scouts for a while and a standard bit of our kit was a sodding great sheath knife! Used for lots of different outdoor purposes, none of which involved attacking anyone. Nowadays the police would probably arrest you just for having it on your belt.
For many years, until quite recently in fact, I had a pruning knife in my pocket but decided it probably wasn't a good idea with all the anti knife stuff going on now, so I've consigned it to the bucket I keep stuff like my pruning shears, hand trowel and fork, gardening gloves, etc.
Dad had several shotguns and a .22 Rook gun and a .22 Hornet. They were always securely locked away and I never figured out where the key was kept. Dad was in the army in WW2 and had a great respect for firearms which he passed on to me when he taught me the basics of how to shoot - further honed during the years I spent in the ACF. In many ways I feel service such as that and the self discipline it instills in you is, to some extent, what's lacking today. It certainly reigned in a lot of the silly stuff I got up to.

 

[ZaphodB]

none of which involved attacking anyone.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

email from British gov this morning - well I think it's from the Gov, but with all the clever computer savvy people they say are on the internet these days, who knows? - Anyway, they tell me my right to a postal vote for UK Parliamentary Elections is soon to expire and, if I wish to retain the right to a postal vote then I have to reapply for it. A link is included to take me to where I apply, but, in my ignorance, I've no idea if it's real or some sort of wicked person trying to con me. Also they want me to enter my NI number and date of birth and to upload a picture of my signature written in black ink on "plain white paper". Can't see the need for this, they have all that info already. Anyway, my camera battery is goosed so I can't upload a picture from it and I don't know how to use my new fangled phone to do it.

The bottom line though is that I can't think of any party or politician I want to vote for! So I'm just going to let it lapse. If I am enthused with the need to vote when the time comes I'll just try to do it at the local polling station - although I believe that's not too easy any more? I suspect the next general election will be the first one, since I became eligible, at which I won't cast my vote and I'm very sad about that.

I mentioned my Dad earlier in this thread. He spent his war in Burma and stayed out there for some time after it ended as he was an engineer so helped with repairing "stuff". Mum said it changed him. He's very much in my thoughts - VJ day and all that.

 

[ZaphodB]

A link is included to take me to where I apply, but, in my ignorance, I've no idea if it's real or some sort of wicked person trying to com me.

If the link isn't exactly evolved around https://www.gov.uk/ then chuck it in the spam folder/delete.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

If the link isn't exactly evolved around https://www.gov.uk/ then chuck it in the spam folder/delete.

Thanks. But what does that mean? What is "evolved around" I'm safer just to leave this stuff alone as I really don't understand it.

 

[sandeel999]

I just treat every email, text and phone call as a scam. Been doing this for 20 years and never had a problem. Never answer any of them.
Unless you solicit an email text or call by contacting them it will be a scam.
If its important they will send you a letter.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I just treat every email, text and phone call as a scam. Been doing this for 20 years and never had a problem. Never answer any of them.
Unless you solicit an email text or call by contacting them it will be a scam.
If its important they will send you a letter.

Oh yes, I like that.

 

[sandeel999]

For example I contacted confused.com for a car insurance quote I would expect an email. Bought something online using PayPal expect a receipt from paypal.
Bought from a company called outpost I'd expect an email to say I've ordered then a tracking email for the parcel.
Any other emails not solicited would be deleted without opening.

 

[ZaphodB]

Thanks. But what does that mean? What is "evolved around" I'm safer just to leave this stuff alone as I really don't understand it.

Sorry, just look for the basic URL (it's the website name) and check it's https://www.gov.uk/

Some nefarious spam people will make it look like it's from the gov, but very close scrutiny will show you something's up

Here's some examples of what I mean

https://www.gov.uk/ (the genuine article)

You might see https://www.g0v.uk/ (that's a zero instead of an o)

or

https://www.xn--gv-fka.uk/

So a web address like https://www.g0v.uk/enteryourdetailstocontinuevotingrights.html might take you a completely different site where you'd inadvertently share your details - a quick glance you might not spot it's not legit

Also check out https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-ri...-fake-fraudulent-or-scam-website-aUBir8j8C3kZ

One final really easy way to spot a dodgy email is very poor grammar and/or typo's

Ignoring anything you're not expecting is a good way of dealing with it, alternatively you can see who the sender is and then log on directly (without using the email link at all) , this will ensure you log into the genuine company/bank