View Full Version : Gripe of the day - What is yours?
maviczap
29-12-18, 08:12 PM
. That's just the way my family are.
Yep, my brother lives 20 minutes away, but we never call each other, but there's no animosity, we exchange birthday and Christmas cards. When we meet it's fine.
Last saw him earlier this year, when we were sitting out the legal stuff after my mum passed away.
My dad and his brother were just the same, never talked, never called, although he was in San Diego. The internet did improve things, but my mum did the emails.
It's just the way families are sometimes
Chris_SVS
30-12-18, 10:59 AM
Booked boats and accomodation to ride North Coast 500 and it's not time to go yet :smt091:smt091 (April)
timwilky
31-12-18, 01:55 PM
Daughter No 2 and her waste of space husband.
Last year, we will lose the deposit on our holiday can you lend us the £2000 and we will pay you back. Of course mum does.
Last day of holiday, they miss the flight back as he was in a bar instead of checking in. Mum we need hotel and flights booking first available in 3 days. they have 2*2 year olds and an 11 year old in tow. Otherwise we would have told them to sort themselves out. £1800.
Of course mum has seen nothing back. Since then we have had
Dad the bailiffs are here. Well you will have to come to an arrangement with them.
He loses licence for drink driving and is a self employed decorator.
Last month we got. Can you lend us £800 to buy bedroom furniture for the twins rooms. They have serviceable furniture so the correct response from mum.
Today, the rent is due, Kev has not paid anything into the account for the last 3 months, can you lend me £400, I will pay you back. Honest.
Now the thing is. She is a newly qualified nurse. Works full time and I know is also putting in bank shifts when she can. Not ideal trying to raise a young family at the same time. He appears to get work, but never has any money despite being able to go to the pub every day!
If she boots him out, she has no child care so will have to stop working. The twins are in nursery 5 days a week and she tries to get rota'd on nights to maximise care options. and is dreading them going to school with the holiday care requirements.
Her brother is going to "lend" her the rent money, as he is not as forgetful as she thinks her mum is. But my gripe is why oh why do some girls attract waste of space blokes? By the way, he is 3 years younger than me and been divorced twice before he got with my daughter. His 4 daughters are all older than his wife. She should have questioned why his ex's wanted rid!
punyXpress
31-12-18, 02:04 PM
You could write next year's panto on the strength of that Tim! ;)
Best of luck with the problem though.
He appears to get work, but never has any money
gambling and or white powder problem.. seen it alllll toooo often.
the very first time they asked for money my answer would have been "bolt, you got yourself into the mess now get yourself out of it".
your far to soft Tim.
Booked boats and accomodation to ride North Coast 500 and it's not time to go yet :smt091:smt091 (April)
are you sticking to the NC500 route or would you like a few ideas to add?
i've done the route a few times :rolleyes:
maviczap
31-12-18, 06:13 PM
Daughter No 2 and her waste of space husband.
Last year, we will lose the deposit on our holiday can you lend us the £2000 and we will pay you back. Of course mum does.
Last day of holiday, they miss the flight back as he was in a bar instead of checking in. Mum we need hotel and flights booking first available in 3 days. they have 2*2 year olds and an 11 year old in tow. Otherwise we would have told them to sort themselves out. £1800.
Of course mum has seen nothing back. Since then we have had
Dad the bailiffs are here. Well you will have to come to an arrangement with them.
He loses licence for drink driving and is a self employed decorator.
Last month we got. Can you lend us £800 to buy bedroom furniture for the twins rooms. They have serviceable furniture so the correct response from mum.
Today, the rent is due, Kev has not paid anything into the account for the last 3 months, can you lend me £400, I will pay you back. Honest.
Now the thing is. She is a newly qualified nurse. Works full time and I know is also putting in bank shifts when she can. Not ideal trying to raise a young family at the same time. He appears to get work, but never has any money despite being able to go to the pub every day!
If she boots him out, she has no child care so will have to stop working. The twins are in nursery 5 days a week and she tries to get rota'd on nights to maximise care options. and is dreading them going to school with the holiday care requirements.
Her brother is going to "lend" her the rent money, as he is not as forgetful as she thinks her mum is. But my gripe is why oh why do some girls attract waste of space blokes? By the way, he is 3 years younger than me and been divorced twice before he got with my daughter. His 4 daughters are all older than his wife. She should have questioned why his ex's wanted rid!
Love is blind Tim, at least she's binned him, one step back, two forward (at some point)
Chris_SVS
31-12-18, 06:19 PM
are you sticking to the NC500 route or would you like a few ideas to add?
i've done the route a few times :rolleyes:
Fire away Lance :p
Easter weekend
19th - Boat - Inverness - Overnight in hostel
20th - Inverness - JOG - Durness - Achmelvich - Overnight in hostel
21st - Achmelvich - (A) or (B)
(A) Oban via Ullapool - Poolewe - Fortwilliam - Glenfinnan Viaduct - Overnight in another hostel then route through Tyndrum/Loch Lomond etc towards late boat home on 22nd
(B) (depending on time off work)Achmelvich - Over night on Skye (Portree)
I haven't figured out if I can do Applecross as yet, quite time crunched as it is..
maviczap
31-12-18, 09:55 PM
Fireworks ******s have started already, and it's not even midnight.
Fireworks ******s have started already, and it's not even midnight.Same here.
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Sir Trev
01-01-19, 09:04 AM
Fireworks ******s have started already, and it's not even midnight.
Was nearly 1am when they finished here, and as we're in a valley they bounce back and forth around the hills making them worse. Selfish barstewards - just because you eventually got back from the pub/party so late does not mean you have carte blanche to set off bomb-burst fireworks then instead of at midnight. Take the wretched things with you and let them off at midnight if you must instead of waking everyone else up yet again. Gits.
Was nearly 1am when they finished here, and as we're in a valley they bounce back and forth around the hills making them worse. Selfish barstewards - just because you eventually got back from the pub/party so late does not mean you have carte blanche to set off bomb-burst fireworks then instead of at midnight. Take the wretched things with you and let them off at midnight if you must instead of waking everyone else up yet again. Gits.Bomb blasts describe the din around here last night. The volume was rediculous. I just feel for those with animals they must have been terrified.
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i've been reviewing my prescription in order for coming appointments at the hospital... the idiots have got me on two diabetes medications.. no wonder i have been feeling shizz and had an upset stomach.
Adam Ef
01-01-19, 07:21 PM
At in laws in Cornwall for New Year and the "broadband" that they're paying BT for down here is worse than 90s dial-up. I'm not exagerating. Each time I'm here I phone BT and complain that they're ripping our family off and someone at the help centre usually magically makes everything work at a more useable speed for a while. But... it gradually slows again and each time we come back the situation is the same. I'm convinced they do it on purpose as they always seem to be able to solve it... temporarily.
kaivalagi
01-01-19, 08:55 PM
At in laws in Cornwall for New Year and the "broadband" that they're paying BT for down here is worse than 90s dial-up. I'm not exagerating. Each time I'm here I phone BT and complain that they're ripping our family off and someone at the help centre usually magically makes everything work at a more useable speed for a while. But... it gradually slows again and each time we come back the situation is the same. I'm convinced they do it on purpose as they always seem to be able to solve it... temporarily.They'll be traffic shaping and as the network is over subscribed everyone gets choked...until you call that is, which will result in a reset, so the choking is reapplied gradually and things are better at first
Best option is to try another provider and hope that they're not over subscribed in the area and/or to try and find a plan where you pay more to be a higher priority customer where traffic shaping isn't as bad on you
But, they all barstewards looking to increase the customer base without spending on better more performant infrastructure
Adam Ef
01-01-19, 09:22 PM
Best option is to try another provider ...
There is no other provider in the area. Middle of nowhere in Cornwall. Still paying loads more than we do back home for decent service (most of the time) with Virgin Media.
shiftin_gear98
02-01-19, 09:05 AM
Work
Spent this morning taking the Xmas decs down. Am I the Grinch?
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Nope, ours came down on Sunday.
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SV650rules
02-01-19, 01:19 PM
They'll be traffic shaping and as the network is over subscribed everyone gets choked...until you call that is, which will result in a reset, so the choking is reapplied gradually and things are better at first
Best option is to try another provider and hope that they're not over subscribed in the area and/or to try and find a plan where you pay more to be a higher priority customer where traffic shaping isn't as bad on you
But, they all barstewards looking to increase the customer base without spending on better more performant infrastructure
Yup - they choke down the line speed, we are with Plusnet ( part of BT now but used to be privately owned Yorkshire based ) and getting over 70 meg download and 17 meg upload over a phone line. Ditched Virgin about 3 months ago because they were expensive and so far Plusnett are great. They did say to leave router powered up all the time as if you power it down the exchange will treat it as an unstable line and cut the speed.
@AdamEf do your relatives leave their modem / router powered up all the time ?
here is some advice from BT website.
When you switch off the Hub, your broadband looks like it's disconnecting. This makes the line look unstable and the broadband speed may be automatically reduced to make the line more reliable. So it's best to leave your Hub on - even at night - to get the best speeds and performance.
here is some advice from BT website.
When you switch off the Hub, your broadband looks like it's disconnecting. This makes the line look unstable and the broadband speed may be automatically reduced to make the line more reliable. So it's best to leave your Hub on - even at night - to get the best speeds and performance.
Whereas you'd expect them to fix the bleeding line rather than just throttle it. But I guess that costs money...
SV650rules
02-01-19, 04:11 PM
Whereas you'd expect them to fix the bleeding line rather than just throttle it. But I guess that costs money...
https://community.bt.com/t5/ADSL-Copper-broadband/Broadband-slowed-down-a-couple-of-weeks-ago/td-p/1755589
Apparently if a line 'appears' unstable ( by dint of someone frequently turning the modem off and on ) the automatic system tries to protect other users by slowing the 'unstable' line down - that is why they ask you not to turn your equipment off, but some do including my B-I-L who is always going around switching stuff off, I tried to explain to him that (1.) the chances of it catching fire are remote and (2.) it only uses milliamps so won't affect his bill. I don't know if AdamEf relatives are inveterate 'switcher offers' but if they are this may be the reason their speed keeps dropping.
DarrenSV650S
02-01-19, 04:14 PM
At in laws in Cornwall for New Year and the "broadband" that they're paying BT for down here is worse than 90s dial-up. I'm not exagerating. Each time I'm here I phone BT and complain that they're ripping our family off and someone at the help centre usually magically makes everything work at a more useable speed for a while. But... it gradually slows again and each time we come back the situation is the same. I'm convinced they do it on purpose as they always seem to be able to solve it... temporarily.
4G or satellite broadband might be an option?
maviczap
02-01-19, 04:28 PM
Sky advise keeping the modem switched on all the time for the same reason Sv650rules says
...protect other users...
Sounds like BS to me. The line isn't your responsibility. The outputs are buffered and should have no impact on any other user whatsoever.
I get that for a short period a stable slow speed is better than an unstable fast speed, but for the business it means they don't have to fix anything until it completely breaks, and they don't have to live up to any speeds they promise, and basically you have the broadband system you've got today. Which I hate. Fixed rates but variable service. Imagine the same principle applied to electricity, gas or water.
No one had mentioned contention ratios yet!
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What irony, I was reading this thread when my BT line dropped completely and was down for 10 minutes. This is not unusual, happening at least twice a week. Also BT throttles me all the time.. I am now out of contract with BT and will be switching to Sky, who I was with before BT. I only changed last time because of the cost.
all telephone line internet connections are unreliable no matter who you are with.
Adam Ef
02-01-19, 10:59 PM
Internet is always left on here. Father in law doesn't use it. Mother in law uses it for a basic things like email, bank and a bit of shopping. Nothing that actually requires much speed... but they are paying for it as if it's high speed broadband, which annoys me as they are being ripped off. And each time I sort it by complaining to BT when I'm here it works for a few days and grinds to a halt again by the time we leave a few days later. The In laws won't phone and complain and are not really aware of any of the technology behind it.
I actually managed to get a speed test to show a download speed of nearly 1mb per second today. Upload was flatlining though. Often it all times out as it takes too long to respond.
Sir Trev
03-01-19, 09:52 AM
My BT hub (always switched on) drops out for five minutes every day between 17:45 and 18:15. Very, very annoying when you're working from home and in the middle of a Skype conference call. The fibre box is about 70 yards or so away at the end of the street so we're not too badly off for speed most of the time but I do wish it would not drop every day!
shiftin_gear98
03-01-19, 10:12 AM
My Sky hub drops off fairly frequently - we thought about switching to BT.
They all sound as ****e as each other.
My Sky hub drops off fairly frequently - we thought about switching to BT.
They all sound as ****e as each other.
Sounds about right. It's more about how good an engineer you can get on the case - and if he "owns" it or it just keeps getting passed around to new people. Most businesses just fob you off.
Our "information superhighway" is more like a London commuter train.
SV650rules
03-01-19, 12:09 PM
I've been using Virgin media for the last 5 years because it was my Dad's house and I have not bothered to switch. They have steadily increased speeds and it's now supposed to be 100Mb/s down. I just ran a speedtest.net and got 10ms ping/85.03Mb/s down and 6.04Mb/s up using a server in Nottingham which is about 100 miles away.
Overall, it has been stable. Two years ago I went through a month long problem where my modem would routinely and unpredictably reboot which turned out to be a switch some distance from me. Other than this a signal loss has been a rarity.
I'm not enthusiastic on their help line which requires negotiating an automated phone system before dumping you in India (judging by the accents) but I don't know if any of the ISPs use a UK support network any more. The techs that came to the house seemed competent but it was irritating when a new tech came each time and it required me to explain the month-long ongoing problem every time. I pay about £55/mo which includes landline phone although I may stop that soon. They "gave" me a DVR but it's still in its box unused, I don't watch that much tv (and I only get freeview).
Overall, I would rate them pretty good.
When we first moved in 20+ years ago we had BT ADSL modem and about 1meg download and lucky to get 200k upload. Then about 6 years ago Virgin cabled our estate ( fibre to premises ) and we had 20meg and 1 meg to start with which over the years increased to 100 meg and 2 meg ( but price increased as well ) trouble with virgin was we used to get regular phone calls from India and neither me or her indoors could understand them - turned out virgin are very aggressive at marketing and you can easily increase your package on their website, but harder to decrease it and impossible to cancel the service (you can take pot luck ringing 150 on your virgin line and get India but in the end I had to write to them in Swansea, they do not communicate by e-mail). Had a hard time convincing them I was leaving and it was after we had been with plusnet for 2 months before they accepted we were no longer a virgin customer. We get over 70meg down and around 16meg up with plusnet over phone line, and anytime landline and mobile calls for about a third of the money we played to virgin. Plusnet call centre based in Yorkshire... Very happy with plusnet after over 3 months, I have done regular speed tests at all times of day and speeds barely drop at peak times.
i'm seriously cancelling my VM contract in June and switching to Talk Talk who offer 50ish meg + tv with syfy, free phone to land and mobile for the same price as its costing me for just broadband from VM. i'll also cancel my VOIP contract as it will no longer be needed.
its a shame that VM dont look after their customers as i dont want to move due to the broadband being the best there is. i have been with "cable" (Telewest/Cableinet) since they introduced the £10 dial up deal (20 years?). i point blank refused before that as i had seen a few mates receive huge phone bills.
I moved from bt to Plusnet back in June. I left bt due to gradual price creep over the years. I couldn't complain about the service but it was just too expensive. The move to Plusnet was painless and the service is just as reliable. They also offer cheap sim deals and btsport for £2.50 a month.
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Glad they've learned over the years. We used a business line from PlusNet when I worked in Yorkshire, long before they became a nationwide operator. They were bl**dy awful. We had another (slower) ADSL line from another supplier that barely ever went down, so we had a good indication of just how bad they were back then.
SV650rules
03-01-19, 04:20 PM
Glad they've learned over the years. We used a business line from PlusNet when I worked in Yorkshire, long before they became a nationwide operator. They were bl**dy awful. We had another (slower) ADSL line from another supplier that barely ever went down, so we had a good indication of just how bad they were back then.
Plusnet now owned by BT, means they use same openreach infrastructure and BT tech backup. Plusnet made move very easy and kept us in touch by text message and e-mail every step of the way, and a lovely lady with a Yorkshire accent phoned us to let us know our order had been processed a to welcome us to plusnet ( very different to virgin who we had been with for pretty much 7 years and couldn't be ar553d most of the time - just kept putting prices up on a regular basis) virgin are OK for TV ( their V6 box is great ) but other stuff can be a bit flaky - our newest model virgin hub would drop out a couple of times a week and need reboot - you would expect better from dedicated fibre network to premises, our plusnet hub has never once needed a reboot in 3 months so far, and speeds are better than they told us they would be by about 5meg, and hardly any variation during the day.
Plusnet now owned by BT, means they use same openreach infrastructure and BT tech backup.
All ADSL lines were always BT anyway.
i'm seriously cancelling my VM contract in June
maybe not.. ok all the exchanges in Kirkcaldy area are Fibre and i stay 1.5 miles away from the exchange and as far as i know they have just upgraded the system in the main box to fibre as i seen them do it but every provider is saying that there is no fibre in my area.... WTF
ooohhh well looks like i'll continue to get ripped off with VM.
timwilky
04-01-19, 02:33 PM
I have a 350mb VM internet, I am not happy and want more than the rubbish 20mb upload.
Looked for alternatives, Best I can get is upto 3mb on the aluminium cable BT ran to my house 30 years ago.
Yet they say for that I have to buy a Fibre service that they cannot supply. It is about time BT and the telcos did something for not spots instead of trying to protect past expenditure. If they cannot supply a fast internet connection on the current infrastructure. Provide a fibre to the premises solution. Good Internet connectivity should be a universal offering.
I have a 350mb VM internet, I am not happy and want more than the rubbish 20mb upload.
To be fair that's more than most people get download.
But I agree.
I have a 350mb VM internet, I am not happy and want more than the rubbish 20mb upload.
Looked for alternatives, Best I can get is upto 3mb on the aluminium cable BT ran to my house 30 years ago.
Yet they say for that I have to buy a Fibre service that they cannot supply. It is about time BT and the telcos did something for not spots instead of trying to protect past expenditure. If they cannot supply a fast internet connection on the current infrastructure. Provide a fibre to the premises solution. Good Internet connectivity should be a universal offering.
1.2gig an hour is more than enough unless your hosting and if you are then you would be better to get a hosting package from a provider.
think of it this way, if you dropped your broadband to say 50mb with the money you save you could get hosting and run "cloud".
kaivalagi
05-01-19, 06:34 AM
1.2gig an hour is more than enough unless your hosting and if you are then you would be better to get a hosting package from a provider.
think of it this way, if you dropped your broadband to say 50mb with the money you save you could get hosting and run "cloud".1.2gb / hr...haha....no....as a domestic user I agree with the notion of not needing higher uploads but it should still be available for purchase!
It should be as cheap to pay for decent internet with good upload speeds to be able to run your own "cloud" services as it is to pay for decent cloud service subscriptions (azure/Amazon/Google) over a cheap connection...
In the states Google offer 1gig up and down in some places...10% of that in both directions would be good here
I have the same "business" broadband as Tim, and unless you pay a lot more a month for business DIA 300mb/1gb both directions you are stuck with rubbish upload speeds....there should be offerings with better upload (say 100mb min) but without being medium business 6hr SLA expensive stuff
timwilky
06-01-19, 09:00 AM
1.2gig an hour is more than enough unless your hosting and if you are then you would be better to get a hosting package from a provider.
think of it this way, if you dropped your broadband to say 50mb with the money you save you could get hosting and run "cloud".
I am a senior project manager for a global enterprise who works from home. For my personal hosting I do take a dedicated server package from OVH.
I work with large files, and use cloud storage. The VM 20Mb upload means waiting minutes to store files. If I was permitted to use local storage it would be seconds. Being home based my employers need to know I have adequate IT security in place and cloud storage is mandated for all. Even office based have lost their local file servers, but have nice thick pipes connecting them to their storage.
The package I am on is not vanity. VM is the only provision I can use until FTTP becomes a reality. There are serious defects as well as poor uploads (I now this is a result of network design to support tv)
No ip subnet available. just a single sticky address. I could easily make available a /24 from the companies many IPv4 allocations of class A/B networks. But VM will not take any route advertising
No IPv6
No SLA on fixes. I recently had to spend 3 days using 4G tethering as the local box had an electrical fault.
I got a new phone for Xmas that's 4g enabled. A new SIM card and contact now in place. Just did a speedtest and I'm getting 51mb download. It's faster than my landline. I can see why some people are starting to ditch home broadband. And 5g is on the way!
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SV650rules
06-01-19, 06:24 PM
I got a new phone for Xmas that's 4g enabled. A new SIM card and contact now in place. Just did a speedtest and I'm getting 51mb download. It's faster than my landline. I can see why some people are starting to ditch home broadband. And 5g is on the way!
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Probably be fast until too many people start using it more of the time - then the old bandwidth problem will happen.
Littlepeahead
06-01-19, 10:52 PM
I am a senior project manager for a global enterprise who works from home. For my personal hosting I do take a dedicated server package from OVH.
I work with large files, and use cloud storage. The VM 20Mb upload means waiting minutes to store files. If I was permitted to use local storage it would be seconds. Being home based my employers need to know I have adequate IT security in place and cloud storage is mandated for all. Even office based have lost their local file servers, but have nice thick pipes connecting them to their storage.
The package I am on is not vanity. VM is the only provision I can use until FTTP becomes a reality. There are serious defects as well as poor uploads (I now this is a result of network design to support tv)
No ip subnet available. just a single sticky address. I could easily make available a /24 from the companies many IPv4 allocations of class A/B networks. But VM will not take any route advertising
No IPv6
No SLA on fixes. I recently had to spend 3 days using 4G tethering as the local box had an electrical fault.This is like the shipping forecast. The words are in English but I've no idea what they mean. [emoji46]
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shiftin_gear98
07-01-19, 09:22 AM
:winner:
This is like the shipping forecast. The words are in English but I've no idea what they mean.
Here's a translation:
I am a senior project manager for a global enterprise who works from home.
"I'm doing alright for myself, thanks"
I work with large files, and use cloud storage.
"I'm a meteorologist"
The VM 20Mb upload means waiting minutes to store files
"someone's blocked my parking space"
If I was permitted to use local storage it would be seconds
"the local car park was full"
but have nice thick pipes connecting them to their storage.
"something, something...plumbing"
The package I am on is not vanity.
"I can't see myself in the mirror"
VM is the only provision I can use until FTTP becomes a reality. There are serious defects as well as poor uploads (I now this is a result of network design to support tv)
No ip subnet available. just a single sticky address. I could easily make available a /24 from the companies many IPv4 allocations of class A/B networks. But VM will not take any route advertising
No IPv6
No SLA on fixes. I recently had to spend 3 days using 4G tethering as the local box had an electrical fault.
"she will nah tek it cap'n"
No ip subnet available...
toilets were out-of-order...
garynortheast
07-01-19, 10:38 AM
Here's a translation:
"I'm doing alright for myself, thanks"
"I'm a meteorologist"
"someone's blocked my parking space"
"the local car park was full"
"something, something...plumbing"
"I can't see myself in the mirror"
"she will nah tek it cap'n"
I just spat my coffee out! :smt046
Sir Trev
08-01-19, 03:15 PM
"something, something...plumbing" Fantastic!
We all love you really Tim but LPH is not the only one who's never quite sure what you mean when you talk about your job.
Just realised the mot on the car has run out and I can't get it tested until Thursday. So it's the bike for the next few days. Fingers crossed the weather stays good.
timwilky
08-01-19, 03:48 PM
Went to tax the wifes car yesterday and it bounced as MOT runs out today. She was nagging it needed servicing so popped into the local MOT centre and "Is tomorrow OK"
So I drop the keys in this morning, next thing I know he is knocking on my door to tell me it needs a tyre.. OK
Just been to pick it up £227. Fecking heck.. Plugs/filters/oil/tyre+labour+MOT on a little 3pot 107. I am in the wrong game.
Still at least the tax is free (and now done)
Spoke too soon. It's raining.
BanannaMan
09-01-19, 02:42 AM
When I was young (18 - 21) used to hang out with three mates the third of which passed away this past weekend.
Surprised he was the third.
Such a promising young lad in those days, his sister is an event coordinator at a major racetrack, his brother a VP of a major grocery chain, he was headed that direction until the girl he was engaged to dumped him.
He was never the same after that.
He spent a year or more hurt and sad and partying the blues away like a lot of people would but after that he just gave up on life and turned to more and more drinking and harder drugs, prison, and all that goes with that life.
They found him dead in a small camper in the woods where he lived. Such a sad and wasted life.
His parents were divorced and his dad supported his habits for many years until he passed away about a year ago.
He hadn't spoken to his mother or siblings in years.
His mom flew in and made burial arrangements and left.
He was buried today somewhere in a city about a hour North of where he lived without a memorial service, with no one there.
So sad.
He was the most promising of the bunch. Me, probably the least.
Funny how that got reversed later.
Funny that I'm the only one left.
No one would have ever thought.
We never what tomorrow may bring, good or bad.
Sorry all this has me feeling old tonight,
and I'm not ready for that yet.
I still have some more motorcycle riding left to do. ;)
That's a very sad story. And all too common i think. You do tend to look back and reflect when you get to a certain age on the choices you made growing up. Luckily all of my teenage friends are still around but we're all in our sixties now.
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maviczap
09-01-19, 08:58 PM
When I was young (18 - 21) used to hang out with three mates the third of which passed away this past weekend.
Surprised he was the third.
Such a promising young lad in those days, his sister is an event coordinator at a major racetrack, his brother a VP of a major grocery chain, he was headed that direction until the girl he was engaged to dumped him.
He was never the same after that.
He spent a year or more hurt and sad and partying the blues away like a lot of people would but after that he just gave up on life and turned to more and more drinking and harder drugs, prison, and all that goes with that life.
They found him dead in a small camper in the woods where he lived. Such a sad and wasted life.
His parents were divorced and his dad supported his habits for many years until he passed away about a year ago.
He hadn't spoken to his mother or siblings in years.
His mom flew in and made burial arrangements and left.
He was buried today somewhere in a city about a hour North of where he lived without a memorial service, with no one there.
So sad.
He was the most promising of the bunch. Me, probably the least.
Funny how that got reversed later.
Funny that I'm the only one left.
No one would have ever thought.
We never what tomorrow may bring, good or bad.
Sorry all this has me feeling old tonight,
and I'm not ready for that yet.
I still have some more motorcycle riding left to do. ;)
I can empathise with how your friend felt, I certainly went off the rails for a few months after one break up. Luckily I don't like hangovers, so after a while I stopped the silly drinking & I have never done drugs.
I just gave up on women for 7 years.
Trouble is, when I'm 60, my youngest will only be 16
maviczap
09-01-19, 09:06 PM
When supposedly intelligent people think that having a Lemsip will cure them of a cold, which they've already had for a couple of days, instead of getting out in the fresh air.
They've lounging around in a warm, centrally heated house, and the most exercise they've had is walking to their car, and driving to their mum's.
But they can't be told, they know better than me, not just one, but too of them.
What would Jeremy Corbyn say?
garynortheast
09-01-19, 09:07 PM
That is a sad tale Bill. Sounds like you need to be back out on the bike at the first opportunity.
I read that story and thought about all the people I knew from the seriously druggy bunch I was mixed up in during the late 70s and early 80s in the South East of England. So many of them are now dead, mostly "lifestyle" related deaths. I was lucky and escaped nearly 35 years ago to live in Wales. I suspect I'd have been one of the dead ones if I'd stayed. Until recently I still regularly heard of more of that crowd dying/ending up in hospital/prison. I have almost no contact with anyone from down there now as I find it too distressing to see it going on.
BanannaMan
12-01-19, 07:30 PM
My gripe of the day is yet another weekend snowstorm.
Couldn't we schedule some of this during the week when it will disrupt work
or at least slow things down for a couple of days?
getting home to a leak in the kitchen. phone heating installers to be told tough....
Tearing up old tiles from a concrete floor. They don't want to come up and it's a battle. Covered head to foot in dust. Have to wear a dust mask which means my glasses steam up. The floor looks pretty uneven now due to tile cement residue so that'll be the next job.
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Moan #2 woken by mice in the ceiling again. I've spent hours trying to find how they're getting in and blocking the smallest holes. Most investigation needed.
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SV650rules
14-01-19, 12:17 PM
Moan #2 woken by mice in the ceiling again. I've spent hours trying to find how they're getting in and blocking the smallest holes. Most investigation needed.
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Mice can squeeze through gaps as small as you little finger, they are destructive and being rodents need to chew everything to keep their teeth from getting too long. We had them invade the house one winter ( Brown woodmice) and I tried to trap them in various things to relocate them outside but they are proper houdinis - so in the end I had to deploy traps baited with nutella which they find irresistible - put traps around the skirting boards next to walls as they tend to stick close to walls at night when moving around. Many woodmice get into garages first and then move through cavities into house and loft ( where they put hobnail boots on and dance around all night ).
During their time in the loft and garage they chewed up books, leather shoes, handbags, teddy bears - luckily they did not start on the electrical cables and cause any power problems or fires, but for their size they were very destructive - I eventually trapped 7 and they have not been back since. Avoid leaving anything edible like birdfood in you garage as this is what started our problem.
maviczap
14-01-19, 01:33 PM
Tearing up old tiles from a concrete floor. They don't want to come up and it's a battle. Covered head to foot in dust. Have to wear a dust mask which means my glasses steam up. The floor looks pretty uneven now due to tile cement residue so that'll be the next job.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Did that two years ago when we had our kitchen done, killed one sds drill using a tile lifting attachment. Nearly killed me.
The end result was worth it
Did that two years ago when we had our kitchen done, killed one sds drill using a tile lifting attachment. Nearly killed me.
The end result was worth itWell it's all up now. Got to level it next. Something else i haven't done before.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Mice can squeeze through gaps as small as you little finger, they are destructive and being rodents need to chew everything to keep their teeth from getting too long. We had them invade the house one winter ( Brown woodmice) and I tried to trap them in various things to relocate them outside but they are proper houdinis - so in the end I had to deploy traps baited with nutella which they find irresistible - put traps around the skirting boards next to walls as they tend to stick close to walls at night when moving around. Many woodmice get into garages first and then move through cavities into house and loft ( where they put hobnail boots on and dance around all night ).
During their time in the loft and garage they chewed up books, leather shoes, handbags, teddy bears - luckily they did not start on the electrical cables and cause any power problems or fires, but for their size they were very destructive - I eventually trapped 7 and they have not been back since. Avoid leaving anything edible like birdfood in you garage as this is what started our problem.Nutella, that's a good idea. I've been using peanut butter. I've kept bird food in the house in a plastic tub. I've just moved it to a hook in the garage in a bid to try and draw them away from the house. I'll move it again to the shed.
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Adam Ef
14-01-19, 04:42 PM
I found one in the air box of an old CB250rsd that I bought a couple of years ago. I think it must have travelled down from Lincoln inside the bike when the courier delivered it. I bet it had a hell of a shock when I started it up first time!
Also had them in the loft in our old house. Shortly after my son was born. My wife went away with him to visit family for a few days... a chance for me to get the first proper sleep in 2 weeks of having become a new father, or so I thought / hoped. But I was kept awake all night by the sound (of the hobnail boots :-) ) . Turns out they were snacking on a huge box of bars of soap that the previous owners had left hidden in the corner of the loft.
SV650rules
14-01-19, 05:37 PM
Since seeing what a mess a few mice can cause I take the seat off my SV during winter and move it into house, they love nothing better than a bit of foam to nest in.... if you can spread stuff out on racking or shelves in the garage it beats piling it on floor as they love hiding under stuff. Problem is that once they get into an attached garage they set their little hearts ( and big teeth ) on trying to get into warmer and drier areas.
A tip is that if you think there may be mice around but not sure, just put a little blob of nutella on a thing they can't move ( bit of slate or a stone ) and check it every day to see if bait goes. Another tip is that if traps are light plastic ones rather than a heavier wooden base is to weight the traps down by screwing then to wood or tether them as sometimes if the trap does not catch them cleanly they can drag it away, this is not a frequent happening but it does happen.
Due to fact they were wood mice I tried everything to try and catch them unharmed and relocate them - including a large coffee caffetier with a lid on and a hole in the lid - I put up some books so that mice could get to the top and a blob of nutella in the bottom but every morning the nutella was gone but no mouse, they are amazingly agile. They can walk up walls without breaking stride.
Contrary to popular belief mice prefer chocolate to cheese, and nutella is a mixture of hazelnut and cocoa which they can smell miles away..
Littlepeahead
14-01-19, 08:10 PM
I used a humane trap and Fortnum and Mason champagne truffles. What I found though was I had to let them go in another county or the same mice came back each day.
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timwilky
15-01-19, 09:30 AM
Got up this morning, went downstairs and made a brew for the wife and I and took them upstairs.
Brew, morning news, turn on the office heater (Thank you mr google) so office warm when I go in, wife left for work and I went for a another brew.
Turned on kettle and go for a wash/teeth. Come back down and kettle cold. Damm. Put it back on the stand, move it between sockets nothing.
Turn on the coffee machine. Nothing. Great check ground floor breaker, tripped, turn it back on, trip. Great lets find the offending item.
So ground floor, garage and office are all off this one breaker. remove all in the house, trip, remove all in the garage trip.
So into office and that electric smell. Yup the office heater. pulled it and the breaker stayed in place.
So recommendations please whats left of the org. What is the most efficient electric heater. Now using a small fan heater until I can grab a replacement and have raised the office to 14.5.
It doesn't need to be fancy control as on/off and temp controls are done through openhab. I even have freeze overide built in so if the office temp drops below 3, the heating comes on and off at 6.
Are those oil filled better than what ever they put into the cheaper non oil radiators? I have to pay the electricity bill (Penalty for a zero cummute, you would think as they have no office bill for me they would pay my home office cost) so efficiency matters.
maviczap
15-01-19, 09:45 AM
Oil filled cheaper to run than fan heaters, not sure about the halogen one's.
Just take longer to get the space warm, but if you're starting it remotely then not a problem.
Plus it's on a thermostat, so set it to the temp that's comfortable.
Sir Trev
15-01-19, 10:36 AM
As I only work in my home office rarely, mainly when (like now) I am between contracts and searching, I have the greenhouse heater in here with me. Simple fan heater with a thermostat. Goes back into the greenhouse in late spring when the tomatoes arrive.
Not ideal but my study is small and if I keep the door closed it only kicks in every now and then. Good luck with your search Tim.
So recommendations please whats left of the org. What is the most efficient electric heater. Now using a small fan heater until I can grab a replacement and have raised the office to 14.5.
according to the chart on this website:
https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/room-heaters
a halogen heater is the cheapest to run although they compare a 1.2kW against a 2kW. If you scale up the halogen to 2kW it works out about the same (makes you wonder why they didn't compare apples to apples).
Adam Ef
15-01-19, 02:17 PM
Halogen warms up quicker. Oil stay warm after you turn them off.
Sir Trev
15-01-19, 05:29 PM
Wear an extra jumper?
I'll get me coat...
.
Following on from the mice posts …………..
The other day it was very mild so opened up the upstairs windows to have an airing. Forgot they were open until early evening, so closed them.
Went to bed and settled down, only to hear a faint rustling type noise. Listened carefully and it came and went again. First thought was mice, so listened very carefully and switched the light on, only to find a bat flying round in circles in the bedroom.
Fortunately it was still fairly mild so opened the windows wide and went back to bed. It obviously found its way out again as no sign in the morning.
What is the most efficient electric heater
Heaters are all considered 100% efficient, near as makes no difference. Fan heaters have a fan to drive, but it's a tiny proportion of the power used.
Everything I read when I was buying said they're all the about the same. It's more about where you want to put it. I've always ended up with oil filled radiators as to me they seemed the safest. But then the Chinese started making them...
Adam Ef
16-01-19, 10:55 AM
Wear an extra jumper?
I'll get me coat...
.
Wear the jumper ... and the coat... and get an oil burner : )
(I've worked in my workshop the last 3 winters with no heating and no daylight to warm it up to outside (freezing) temperatures. Kind of like being outside but colder. I wrapped up in as many layers as possible but it's impossible to keep your hands warm handling frozen tools all day. It's been painful to say the least. Also suffered lots of split fingers from the cold).
shiftin_gear98
16-01-19, 11:55 AM
RIP to the rider on M11 this morning.
Traffic was horrendous along the A120 this morning total gridlock so I'd guessed there had been an accident on the M11. Turns out a 60 year old motorcyclist was killed at 5am this morning.
The other tosser in the cage didn't even stop. (yes, not stopping makes you a tosser - even if the rider was at fault or not)
I hope they find him/her and play Roshambo. Obviously the police officer going first.
This is Roshambo - not rock paper scissors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PonpQFaa-jA
RIP to the rider on M11 this morning.
Traffic was horrendous along the A120 this morning total gridlock so I'd guessed there had been an accident on the M11. Turns out a 60 year old motorcyclist was killed at 5am this morning. The other tosser in the cage didn't even stop. (yes, not stopping makes you a tosser - even if the rider was at fault or not)
I hope they find him/her and play Roshambo.
Can only echo the sentiment here, came up from Harlow this morning and found the m11 closed northbound, was afraid to hear that it might have been fatal when I saw that it was lorry vs motorbike :(
Sad to hear but if it was a lorry, then the driver might not have realised that he'd hit someone. I lost a friend a few years ago when a lorry clipped him off his bike as he moved off from traffic lights. He fell under the wheels of the lorry and was killed instantly. The driver knew nothing about the clip and drove off oblivious.
There are videos on you tube where lorries can be seen pushing cars along the road without the driver realising.
shiftin_gear98
16-01-19, 03:32 PM
Wow the south bound carriageway is still closed!
British politicians..
no this is "gripe of the day"
we need "gripe of the century" for this kind of thing.
Sad to hear but if it was a lorry, then the driver might not have realised that he'd hit someone. I lost a friend a few years ago when a lorry clipped him off his bike as he moved off from traffic lights. He fell under the wheels of the lorry and was killed instantly. The driver knew nothing about the clip and drove off oblivious.
There are videos on you tube where lorries can be seen pushing cars along the road without the driver realising.
The original reports said motorcycle vs lorry, but later ones said it was a hit a run by a "small dark coloured vehicle" - don't know if maybe the collision with the hit and runner pushed him into the lorry's path , but I sure hope the person either hands themself in, or is brought to answer for this another way!
shiftin_gear98
17-01-19, 09:29 PM
They are now questioning a 37 year old tosser from Harlow.
Driving under the influence, dangerous driving and failing to stop, hopefully the guy will go down for a long stretch
Luckypants
18-01-19, 09:13 AM
Unlikely, kill someone with a car and get 2 years..... Drink driving will get a ban, which will be served while in prison.....
My gripe, inappropriate sentencing in this country.
Chris_SVS
18-01-19, 09:47 AM
1 in 4 drivers clearly at fault in cases of cyclist deaths goes to prison.
Don't have high hopes
Sadly true, if you want to kill someone, use a car :)
ahhh now theres something the Gov can sell that we need more of... prisons.. the yanks would love that one...
i agree though the sentencing in this country is a joke. i'm not saying the person they are questioning is guilty and i would wait until the outcome of the court case (being charged is not a guilty verdict) but people who get into a car and know they are under the influence is pre meditated murder as far as i'm concerned and should carry a LIFE sentence if involved in a fatal accident.
DarrenSV650S
18-01-19, 08:52 PM
Virgins sh!tbox routers and customer service
'Please be pressing the reset button for 30 seconds'
'So it's working now? So why do you want a new router?'
Countless critical errors in the router's log, wifi status consistently showing as 'error'. Oh but it's working now, so that's fine. I'll just spend the next 20 minutes setting the thing up again because each page in the settings takes 30 seconds to load, only for you to tell me to reset it the next time. God knows why they force us to use their sh!t equipment
Oh and I just noticed it also has 3 errors from 1970 :smt043
maviczap
19-01-19, 07:15 AM
From yesterday, some dodery old bloke crashed his range rover. No one seriously hurt, but the newsgasam because of it. Reporters doing the story live from the scene in the dark!
Count yourself lucky you don't get the regional news, because this story lasted 45 mins last night in my region.
It's still going on this morning :-(
Virgins sh!tbox routers and customer service
there is a sense of having tempted fate here. A couple of days ago there was a thread about ISPs and I mentioned that I was satisfied with Virgin overall.
Shortly thereafter my (wired) connection would blink off with a "no internet connection" message. If I looked in the Superhub3 router error log there was always this type of error:
2019-01-17 12:13:14.00 critical SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=40:0d:10:16:e3:7b;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:79:d2:55;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Best case it would blink back on after a couple of seconds worst case (only once so far) the router rebooted itself. This reboot is normal with a loss of sync. but the reboot takes about 5 minutes. (I timed it)
There are always errors in the log, though, even when it's running well, most are warnings but the critical ones worry me.
Virgin are sending someone round today.
garynortheast
19-01-19, 01:36 PM
Doing my accounts for the year, fairly simple to do but I hate doing them. Keep finding all my receipts for fuel for the bike and it's making me long for the time and opportunity to get out and do a few miles on it.
virgin engineers regularly "snipe" the system looking for unauthorised access, they also update the system an a regular basis.
if your internet goes down and your router is blinking its lights then DONT turn it off/on as its receiving an update. it "should" reboot after the update which can sometimes take an hour to do fully. they normally do this at night but when a critical update needs doing they will do it at anytime.
some of the problems that can happen are people logging into their router to change settings "because the read something on the net" DONT. the only thing you should change is the UN, PN and network ID and PW otherwise stay out of it unless you are qualified. people also expect to log into their router via wifi and expect it to be fast.. ermm no, if your going to do anything then use a wired connection.
something else to consider when using wireless connections. the wifi cards/dongles dont last forever and a lot of the time problems you think are the router are in fact the wifi card/dongle. this is why you should always have a spare "test" dongle.
littleoldman2
19-01-19, 05:37 PM
From yesterday, some dodery old bloke crashed his range rover. No one seriously hurt, but the newsgasam because of it. Reporters doing the story live from the scene in the dark!
Count yourself lucky you don't get the regional news, because this story lasted 45 mins last night in my region.
It's still going on this morning :-(
You did have 500 sheep stolen from a field as well. That should keep a certain "type" happy for a while.
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