What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I never get this problem when shopping at Fortnum and Mason and Harrods don't you know, especially now they have changed their names to Bookers and Sainsbury

Ha Ha! seriously though, if you look carefully in lidl and adli there are some very nice treats indeed and all at prices mrs J and I can afford. and I can wander round the "specials" while she's getting the less interesting necessary stuff.

 

[StevenRB45]

Car insurance 333...last year was 230.

However last year I got 4 things free also added another third mileage...as it was more than a little light also we still need business on due to wife's job...oh and I forgot that I'd sold the other car..which was getting a discount. Whoops.

Oh well, on the above conversation got a 50 quid M and S voucher from work...so should be able to afford 3 items from there.

Business as usual resumed at the weekend after Xmas festivities, my lad has come on loads. Which in many ways is great (lockdown really set him back in terms of talking) but some days.

Was driving along on my way out "let's go to the beach and play golf with dinosaurs" in January.."Play (insert song name here)", he's also learned the car has voice commands... thankfully it has a button to activate it. Or pulling up at the house.."Daddy drive the car to get dinosaur fossils.." Also "go that way! No not that way!"

Personal favourite is when my wife is reversing past next doors car.."Argggggggh!!"

 

[portland_bill]

Ha Ha! seriously though, if you look carefully in lidl and adli there are some very nice treats indeed and all at prices mrs J and I can afford. and I can wander round the "specials" while she's getting the less interesting necessary stuff.

I've struggled to shop in ALDI or LIDL, I suppose it takes a bit of time to get used to what you're looking at, and I can usually find all I want in Tesco and Sainsbury's. Easier life.
The 'specials' aisle of ALDI has been, at times, quite a drain on my pocket, with lots of lovely stuff. A wonderful twin cyl compressor, a large set of spanners for less than half what they were in Halfords (although Halfords ones were shinier), some ratcheting spanners, air ratchet and impact gun. There's more.

 

[portland_bill]

Doblo wheelchair van arrived, at last, today. It is listed as blue, but not sure if grey with a hint of blue, or blue with a hint of grey. I think the Panda will fit inside.
So now three cars, all taxed and insured. Need a bigger drive.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Just a quickie here as the grandchildren have taken over our lives today. Earlier this morning one of the neighbours rocked up on the doorstep wondering if i could get his cat started for him. He's a bit of an unpopular chap in our street so i did think twice about it but in the end I thought "don't be such a miserable so and so Jock, just get him going. Turns out the car is one of the new Twingos - so engine in the back and who knows where the battery is. Tried cranking it but all that happened was the "click of depression" - Ok, probably battery is flat, wish I'd bought that battery tester I've been going on about in recent weeks. Then I noticed there was an electric tyre inflator pump by the rear wheel. Oh, says he, it was flat and I was trying to blow it up but the pump has now stopped working too. So he's flattened the battery completely trying to blow up the tyre? When did you last run the car? Oh, probably about a month ago was the answer. Oh dear, this could be a lost cause?

Ok, so where's the battery. Let's look under the bonnet first - being rear engine'd I wouldn't be surprised to find it's under a back seat but checking under the bonnet should be quick and easy - But no - he's never had the bonnet open! Really? well, not easy to open but eventually we got there. A wee secret panel pulls out of the grill on the N/S revealing a lock which the ignition key fits. Turn the key clockwise and it feels as if something is being released, but not the bonnet. A few minutes later, having pulled forward two levers - one on each side, the bonnet is released. However it's just a flimsy plastic body panel, not hinged at all, which comes free of the car but is stopped from falling on the ground by a fabric strap - Never seen anything so cheap and nasty. Now I can see that there's absolutely no storage space in here at all, which explains why he's never been in here before, there's just no reason why you would. Or hang on, is that liquid reservoirs I see? Ignore them Jock, that's not why we're in here. So there's the battery with a negative post mounted battery sensor and EFB on top of the battery. Ok Jock slave battery and connecting to the positive terminal and body earth on the vehicle to avoid "annoying" the ECU controlling charging.

Back over to my house then and to collect my big 75Ah (ex Cordoba TDI) jump battery and leads when I see Becky's old battery just inside the garage door. I gave it a day on the Ctek on "Recond" just as an experiment to see if it would give it a useful boost, wonder if it would do the job, the Twingo can't have a very big engine can it? So connected it up pos to pos and neg to chassis on the Twingo and let them "get acquainted" for a few minutes. Hit the starter key and she burst into life almost immediately although she didn't crank all that enthusiastically. Let them run together for about 5 minutes before disconnecting the slave and all seems well, no check engine light and multimeter showing 14.2 volts on the Twingo's battery terminals.

Maybe Becky's old battery isn't quite as knackered as I'd thought - If you remember I changed it because her clock kept reseting and open circuit voltage was hovering around the low 12 volts area. Or maybe the Recond setting on the ctek actually works? I really must buy that battery tester and run a test on it.

There's a slightly alarming postscript to this tale. Having got it started he told me that he'd not finished pumping up that rear tyre and, as the pump didn't seem to now be working could I do it for him (he's a computer type office based person) Well, now the battery is charging the pump should work I suggested so we coupled it up and looked at the digital display. Nothing, just a blue backlight. So I got my pencil type (PCL) pressure gauge and the cylinder nearly launched itself into orbit when I pressed it onto the valve. The max reading is 5 bar and the cylinder was completely against it's limit stops. I let quite a bit of air out but it still hit the stop! after another "blood letting" it finally came down to around 4 bar and I was then able to set it to the correct 3 bar he wanted. I think he was lucky not to have exploded the tyre and I think the guage on the machine was ruined by the extreme over pressuring? Full marks to the pump manufacturer though, who'd have guessed one of these cheap inflators could hit pressures like this?

 

[bugsymike]

Just a quickie here as the grandchildren have taken over our lives today. Earlier this morning one of the neighbours rocked up on the doorstep wondering if i could get his cat started for him. He's a bit of an unpopular chap in our street so i did think twice about it but in the end I thought "don't be such a miserable so and so Jock, just get him going. Turns out the car is one of the new Twingos - so engine in the back and who knows where the battery is. Tried cranking it but all that happened was the "click of depression" - Ok, probably battery is flat, wish I'd bought that battery tester I've been going on about in recent weeks. Then I noticed there was an electric tyre inflator pump by the rear wheel. Oh, says he, it was flat and I was trying to blow it up but the pump has now stopped working too. So he's flattened the battery completely trying to blow up the tyre? When did you last run the car? Oh, probably about a month ago was the answer. Oh dear, this could be a lost cause?

Ok, so where's the battery. Let's look under the bonnet first - being rear engine'd I wouldn't be surprised to find it's under a back seat but checking under the bonnet should be quick and easy - But no - he's never had the bonnet open! Really? well, not easy to open but eventually we got there. A wee secret panel pulls out of the grill on the N/S revealing a lock which the ignition key fits. Turn the key clockwise and it feels as if something is being released, but not the bonnet. A few minutes later, having pulled forward two levers - one on each side, the bonnet is released. However it's just a flimsy plastic body panel, not hinged at all, which comes free of the car but is stopped from falling on the ground by a fabric strap - Never seen anything so cheap and nasty. Now I can see that there's absolutely no storage space in here at all, which explains why he's never been in here before, there's just no reason why you would. Or hang on, is that liquid reservoirs I see? Ignore them Jock, that's not why we're in here. So there's the battery with a negative post mounted battery sensor and EFB on top of the battery. Ok Jock slave battery and connecting to the positive terminal and body earth on the vehicle to avoid "annoying" the ECU controlling charging.

Back over to my house then and to collect my big 75Ah (ex Cordoba TDI) jump battery and leads when I see Becky's old battery just inside the garage door. I gave it a day on the Ctek on "Recond" just as an experiment to see if it would give it a useful boost, wonder if it would do the job, the Twingo can't have a very big engine can it? So connected it up pos to pos and neg to chassis on the Twingo and let them "get acquainted" for a few minutes. Hit the starter key and she burst into life almost immediately although she didn't crank all that enthusiastically. Let them run together for about 5 minutes before disconnecting the slave and all seems well, no check engine light and multimeter showing 14.2 volts on the Twingo's battery terminals.

Maybe Becky's old battery isn't quite as knackered as I'd thought - If you remember I changed it because her clock kept reseting and open circuit voltage was hovering around the low 12 volts area. Or maybe the Recond setting on the ctek actually works? I really must buy that battery tester and run a test on it.

There's a slightly alarming postscript to this tale. Having got it started he told me that he'd not finished pumping up that rear tyre and, as the pump didn't seem to now be working could I do it for him (he's a computer type office based person) Well, now the battery is charging the pump should work I suggested so we coupled it up and looked at the digital display. Nothing, just a blue backlight. So I got my pencil type (PCL) pressure gauge and the cylinder nearly launched itself into orbit when I pressed it onto the valve. The max reading is 5 bar and the cylinder was completely against it's limit stops. I let quite a bit of air out but it still hit the stop! after another "blood letting" it finally came down to around 4 bar and I was then able to set it to the correct 3 bar he wanted. I think he was lucky not to have exploded the tyre and I think the guage on the machine was ruined by the extreme over pressuring? Full marks to the pump manufacturer though, who'd have guessed one of these cheap inflators could hit pressures like this?

Sounds like regarding your neighbour a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!
Most of my neighbours a great and we all watch out and help each other, with a couple of exceptions, one from down the road chose to park inconsiderately, then when days later he came to move his car, I saw he had rolled it down halfway across another neighbours drive, like a fool I stick my head out. Turns out he is one of those people who drive with the fuel light on surprise surprise! So he had drained the fuel so low it was sucking air and wouldn't start on the hill, so trying to get it on the flat had jammed it halfway down someones drive complete with flat battery.
One guess who nearly burnt his old Doblos clutch out pulling this idiots Mondeo estate up the hill to the flat with his entire family in it also, a casual wave and he proceeded to bump start it down the hill, no doubt to put 5 litres in !

 

[vexorg]

Full marks to the pump manufacturer though, who'd have guessed one of these cheap inflators could hit pressures like this?

Some of the bicycle tyres go up to 60 - 70 psi for normal now

 

[Cheest]

Some of the bicycle tyres go up to 60 - 70 psi for normal now

Road and track racing ones can go up to 120 psi.

 

[portland_bill]

One of those silly scam phone calls.
"My name is Kevin, and I'm calling you from 'the Microsoft' about your computer."

'The' Microsoft. I know they're big, but 'the'? If they're trying to scam people, perhaps some better language skills might be a start.

Sometimes I string them along a bit, to waste their time, but this morning couldn't be bothered. I usually start with 'which one?'

 

[bugsymike]

One of those silly scam phone calls.
"My name is Kevin, and I'm calling you from 'the Microsoft' about your computer."

'The' Microsoft. I know they're big, but 'the'? If they're trying to scam people, perhaps some better language skills might be a start.

Sometimes I string them along a bit, to waste their time, but this morning couldn't be bothered. I usually start with 'which one?'

What annoys me, is that with all the technology the phone companies have they could easily stop these people, but they choose to draw revenue rather than look after their customers.
Do you find it comes in waves , nothing for ages then several nuisance calls over a few days?
I have asked the caller in the past "Does your family know you lie for a living?" That goes down well.
I always thought it would nice to have button on your phone that when pressed destroys their computer phone setup.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

What annoys me, is that with all the technology the phone companies have they could easily stop these people, but they choose to draw revenue rather than look after their customers.
Do you find it comes in waves , nothing for ages then several nuisance calls over a few days?
I have asked the caller in the past "Does your family know you lie for a living?" That goes down well.
I always thought it would nice to have button on your phone that when pressed destroys their computer phone setup.

A few years ago we were absolutely plagued with these calls, several every day of all types - I'm talking land line here - I mentioned it when renegotiating our broadband as we have both 'phone and broadband with the same provider. We do call blocking if you like, said they. Ok, I'll try that if you give it us for free. They did and we don't get any, and I mean ANY, calls of this type any more, ever! Who knows what else is getting blocked too? Gives us a nice quiet life though.

 

[bugsymike]

A few years ago we were absolutely plagued with these calls, several every day of all types - I'm talking land line here - I mentioned it when renegotiating our broadband as we have both 'phone and broadband with the same provider. We do call blocking if you like, said they. Ok, I'll try that if you give it us for free. They did and we don't get any, and I mean ANY, calls of this type any more, ever! Who knows what else is getting blocked too? Gives us a nice quiet life though.

Mine is landline and for a long time I paid extra for that service but still got the calls, so stopped paying and nothing changed re volume of calls.
Just had one this morning robot female voice saying "calling from the bank? security noticed two payments on my card",no details so I hung up.
Obviously they prey on the busy or elderly to trick into giving out details.
What I used to find annoying was the waste of time when trying to earn a living, dragging yourself out from under a car just to listen to some asshole.

 

[AndyRKett]

We used to always get at least one every day, they have calmed down a lot now in part thanks to the recent work of several YouTubers who have been going out of there way to shut these places down by hacking them, taking over their call centres and destroying their computer networks.

When ever they called us they only ever had my wife’s maiden name so if I answered the call they would always aske if I was Mr {wife’s maiden name} to which I always replied that no one by that name exists or has ever lived here.

We don’t get these calls on mobiles as more people switch away from land lines their target audience is probably getting smaller by the day.

 

[Cheest]

Scam calls are a thing on this side of the pond, too. Mrs.Cheest and I have several work arounds for them, with some help from our phone carrier. On caller ID, our carrier will alert us if the call is a spam risk. Don't answer. If we get a call from a number not noted as a spam risk and we do not recognize it, it goes to voice mail. Most scammers won't leave a message. Those that do make it pretty obvious that the call is BS. If the area code on the caller ID starts with 866, 872, 888, we ignore it. On the rare occasion that I do answer a scam call, I mess with them to my hearts content.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Well, I'm not sure whether this makes me grumpy, smily, or what. The wait for national health procedures has finally affected us - other than the nonsense that is trying to get a GP appointment and other routine stuff of course which seems to be the new "normal".

Mrs J had a fairly routine eye surgery on both eyes done a few years ago, very successful at the time, but was noticing, late on last year, that there seems to be a problem with one eye. She's at last been seen at the eye hospital and is going to need corrective laser surgery. Just this morning she's received a phone call to inform her she's on the list and will receive an update when appropriate. She rang back to inquire as to how long this might be (we have a wee private health insurance policy which would probably cover this but it only kicks in if the NHS waiting time is over 6 weeks) Around 6 to 8 weeks the girl told her. She'd mentioned about the insurance to the girl earlier in the phone call and said, "Oh well, if the wait is only 6 to 8 weeks I'll just wait for it and not invoke our insurance" Oh no" said the girl. "You misunderstand. It's not 6 to 8 weeks, it's 68 weeks!

 

[bugsymike]

Well, I'm not sure whether this makes me grumpy, smily, or what. The wait for national health procedures has finally affected us - other than the nonsense that is trying to get a GP appointment and other routine stuff of course which seems to be the new "normal".

Mrs J had a fairly routine eye surgery on both eyes done a few years ago, very successful at the time, but was noticing, late on last year, that there seems to be a problem with one eye. She's at last been seen at the eye hospital and is going to need corrective laser surgery. Just this morning she's received a phone call to inform her she's on the list and will receive an update when appropriate. She rang back to inquire as to how long this might be (we have a wee private health insurance policy which would probably cover this but it only kicks in if the NHS waiting time is over 6 weeks) Around 6 to 8 weeks the girl told her. She'd mentioned about the insurance to the girl earlier in the phone call and said, "Oh well, if the wait is only 6 to 8 weeks I'll just wait for it and not invoke our insurance" Oh no" said the girl. "You misunderstand. It's not 6 to 8 weeks, it's 68 weeks!

For what ever reason as to who is to blame, the NHS has been going down the toilet for a long time under multiple Governments.
As a child you walked into the waiting room and queued up, first come first served, when it was your turn, if it took 5 minutes or 25 minutes the Doctor would take as long as necessary, he would also know all your family history and had years of experience to give a good diagnosis.
Nowadays I have found you ring as soon as phone line is open, wait 30 minutes before it is answered and then you hear an automated message saying you are 31st in the queued! When you actually speak to a human after listening to inane messages, telling you to do everything else but speak to a human, finally you talk to a harassed individual who if you are lucky may get you an appointment with a nurse next week!
When my children were young, I walked to the surgery with one, we went into the mature Doctor, who spent the time to deal with my daughters ailment, I thought we were on our way out the door when he looked at me and asked when I had last had my blood pressure checked? I replied when I had my tonsils out at 21 years. He immediately tested my blood pressure and as he suspected found it very high and sent me away with a monitor and instructions as to diet etc. Fortunately the cause was simply too much cheap salt in my cooking, which was rectified by changing to just a small amount of good quality sea salt.
My point being, if that happened today I probably would not have survived!
They closed all the Cottage Hospitals around our way that had A& E to concentrate on one big one that given the distance everyone has to drive to and the car park is over flowing, but presents another source of revenue!

 

[Cheest]

Mrs.Cheest bought me a new pair of BT ear buds she found on clearance at Meijer's(kind of like Wal-mart but with self respect). I already have a really nice pair of Skull Candy buds I used for all the flying I did, but what the heck.

Where the Skull Candys run about 6-8 hours on a charge, the cheapies last about 2 hours. Not a bad thing. I have been using these with the newly refurbished Ipod at night when I go to bed. They are much more comfortable than the Apple wired jobs. Also, if I fall asleep while plugged in(happens a lot), when the ear buds shut down, the Ipod goes into standby mode. I've gone from charging the Ipod everyday, to once every three days. Like my Skull Candys, the cheapies have a remote charger that will recharge the buds without having to plug them in everyday.

Not world shattering, but a pleasant surprise.

 

[AndyRKett]

Mrs.Cheest bought me a new pair of BT ear buds she found on clearance at Meijer's(kind of like Wal-mart but with self respect). I already have a really nice pair of Skull Candy buds I used for all the flying I did, but what the heck.

Where the Skull Candys run about 6-8 hours on a charge, the cheapies last about 2 hours. Not a bad thing. I have been using these with the newly refurbished Ipod at night when I go to bed. They are much more comfortable than the Apple wired jobs. Also, if I fall asleep while plugged in(happens a lot), when the ear buds shut down, the Ipod goes into standby mode. I've gone from charging the Ipod everyday, to once every three days. Like my Skull Candys, the cheapies have a remote charger that will recharge the buds without having to plug them in everyday.

Not world shattering, but a pleasant surprise.

The apple AirPods (I have the first gen ones) will stop the music on the device if they fall out or if you take one out, so say someone tries to talk to you, you take out one earbud (AirPod) and it stops the music or what ever you are listening too so the sound doesn’t keep playing In the other ear, then when you put it back in the phone will start playing again. You can also use them one at a time, so if listening to an audio book where there may be no benefit to stereo sound you can put one AirPod in and it will put both left and right channels through that one AirPod, then when that runs out of battery you can swap over, and charge the first one in the case.
Each one will last about 6 hrs on a charge.

Years ago I had a really nice really expensive pair of skull candy earphones (maybe 2010) and they broke in a really short space of time, in a way that had it happened while I was wearing them, had the potential to leave the tip of the earphone stuck in my ear, skull candy couldn’t care less and refused to replace them, after that I vowed never to buy anything from skull candy again

 

[The Panda Nut]

Main dealer cam bel price £372. They dont think its worth doing the water pump or tensioers etc as these never fail??? I asked how much to do a water pump on its own then. Oh well that could be £550 because you have to do the whole belt job then anyway....... The mentality of the service desk escapes me.

For what ever reason as to who is to blame, the NHS has been going down the toilet for a long time under multiple Governments.
As a child you walked into the waiting room and queued up, first come first served, when it was your turn, if it took 5 minutes or 25 minutes the Doctor would take as long as necessary, he would also know all your family history and had years of experience to give a good diagnosis.
Nowadays I have found you ring as soon as phone line is open, wait 30 minutes before it is answered and then you hear an automated message saying you are 31st in the queued! When you actually speak to a human after listening to inane messages, telling you to do everything else but speak to a human, finally you talk to a harassed individual who if you are lucky may get you an appointment with a nurse next week!
When my children were young, I walked to the surgery with one, we went into the mature Doctor, who spent the time to deal with my daughters ailment, I thought we were on our way out the door when he looked at me and asked when I had last had my blood pressure checked? I replied when I had my tonsils out at 21 years. He immediately tested my blood pressure and as he suspected found it very high and sent me away with a monitor and instructions as to diet etc. Fortunately the cause was simply too much cheap salt in my cooking, which was rectified by changing to just a small amount of good quality sea salt.
My point being, if that happened today I probably would not have survived!
They closed all the Cottage Hospitals around our way that had A& E to concentrate on one big one that given the distance everyone has to drive to and the car park is over flowing, but presents another source of revenue!

My neighbour goes for some back surgery next week cancellations allowing... Hes been waiting longer for his surgery than I for my kidney repair and that is now booked after 90 weeks, as long as nothing derails it. Neither of us are immediately life threatened but both have been reduced to tears on a number of occasions and in some discomfort. Its awful at the upper end of the scale but as of nothing compared to those who have missed out of life saving surgery and died. Vote conservative? No vote ANYTHING else and accept that tax cutting is utter nonsense.

 

[bugsymike]

Main dealer cam bel price £372. They dont think its worth doing the water pump or tensioers etc as these never fail??? I asked how much to do a water pump on its own then. Oh well that could be £550 because you have to do the whole belt job then anyway....... The mentality of the service desk escapes me.

My neighbour goes for some back surgery next week cancellations allowing... Hes been waiting longer for his surgery than I for my kidney repair and that is now booked after 90 weeks, as long as nothing derails it. Neither of us are immediately life threatened but both have been reduced to tears on a number of occasions and in some discomfort. Its awful at the upper end of the scale but as of nothing compared to those who have missed out of life saving surgery and died. Vote conservative? No vote ANYTHING else and accept that tax cutting is utter nonsense.

I don't think it is just on e political party, it been going down for a long time, John Major started it and Tony Blair expanded PFI to pay for hospital building etc. It is still costing 55 Billion before all the contracts end. I am sure NHS could use that.
Apparently for 13 Billion of building work the total debt is 80 billion, small wonder he is getting on for being a billionaire in his own right, not bad for the guy who married the "Scouse git" aka Tony Booth's daughter" out of "Till death us do part" TV series