What annoyed you today?

[picsfor]

Thanks for that Eileen.
I'm moving to Horsham, different routes (going via Dorking, Epson and Sutton to London) but no longer going to or living in Brighton.
Also will be giving Eastbourne, Hastings and Newhaven a miss as well.

Looking forward to Cornwall - will be glad of a break away and a chance to hopefully take some great pictures. I have a new pair of walking boots for long days out...
Hope your recovery is going well Eileen. You have some great pictures to take as well...

[spinner]

In comparison to everything else, it's a minor thing, but broke a crown off my tooth this morning.  They say things come in Threes? What's next I wonder. Oh, yes, I'm taking my truck in for brake service, I'll probably need to replace the entire undercarriage. 

[Graham]

Don't forget Spin. When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's usually an oncoming train!
                                 Graham. 

[spinner]

Don't forget Spin. When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's usually an oncoming train!
                                 Graham. 

Oh, for a second there, I thought you were going to say the Pearly Gates.

[picsfor]

Nah the Pearly Gates have to reserve some space for the political reputations that will be slaughtered during the UK Elections on May 6th 

[spinner]

In comparison to everything else, it's a minor thing, but broke a crown off my tooth this morning.  They say things come in Threes? What's next I wonder. Oh, yes, I'm taking my truck in for brake service, I'll probably need to replace the entire undercarriage. 

Boy was I wrong! Two hours in the chair with my mouth stretch open. 2 Crowns and a filing replaced. Don't have to worry about the brake service now. Can't afford it for a few weeks. Guess I have to park the beast for a while. 

[Hinfrance]

Well, what annoyed me last week.

We've just got back from a pretty disasterous few days in the UK. We only went to see a couple of friends and relatives who couldn't make it across the channel.

Managed to go past a camera at precisely the only point in the whole 2000 mile round trip where I was breaking the limit - overtaking a chain of three slow moving lorries on a long arrow straight piece of road with no entrances or exits and horizon clear visibility in all directions.

My wife and daughter got severe food poisoning on day 2 and were barely well enough to travel by the time we had to come home. My daughter was the sickest I have ever seen her. As one friend said, now that we live abroad foreign muck is what we get in England. So most of our visits were cancelled while I spend two days emptying vomit buckets swimming with bile. I don't feel too good either, but that could just be the sick.

My father in law has still only got a bl**dy Aga to cook with - probably the biggest waste of several tons of metal there is. It's the cooking equivalent living in a cave . The only thing it is good for is making the kitchen too hot for anyone to actually stay in there for more than a few minutes at a time. My best guess of the temperature difference between the top back and bottom front of the main oven would be around 100C. The hob is either HOT or cold. It's an utterly pointless heap of enamelled cast iron.

So anyway, I drag my still poorly wife and daughter out of bed at 4:30 to get to Dover in time for check in for the 7:00 ferry. I couldn't help noticing that the check in process in the queue ahead of us was taking a while. When we got there we found out why. Ferry cancelled - no sailings that day (yesterday), but we can take the Ramsgate - Ostend ferry in the afternoon and add another couple of hours to the drive home. So that was a no brainer - head for the Chunnel and spend another £150. The ferry company's online customer satisfaction survey answers are not going to please them.

And now I've got a man cold.

Still, at least the cat's not dead. And our wonderful Skoda, loaded to the gunnels, returned 50mpg from mostly motorway driving at 130kph and climate control running all the way (tbh I never turn it off). The sun was shining as we pulled into the drive, turned off the air conditioning and opened the door to the 30C in the shade heat. It's good to be home.

Just noticed the Corvette is covered in canola pollen. Hmm

[Graham]

 So Tringy, when you coming back?
                Re the Aga thing, a friend had one and said it had three settings.... Off, Furnace and Meltdown!
                              Graham.

[Hinfrance]

So Tringy, when you coming back?
                Re the Aga thing, a friend had one and said it had three settings.... Off, Furnace and Meltdown!
                              Graham.

Home now Graham!

[bones615]

WAMT
Just changed the rear brake pads on my bike, the pins that the pads run on were seized and i had to drill the back of the caliper to knock them out. Hope the MOT man does not think i have weakened the caliper. Oh and i managed to hammer my thumb quite hard
Nearly 2 hours to do a half hour job.

[Hinfrance]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Not a Yamaha by any chance? The brakes on my FJ1200 (going back years now, how old am I?) used to seize up every spring.

Kawasakis always broke cam followers. That's when I started buying Suzukis. Only sold the last one, an SV650S a couple of years ago. It disliked being thrown into the armco about as much as I did. I never used to crash the big ones, honest.

[bones615]

Its a Suzuki Bandit, dont think its the make more to do with steel parts that fit to alloy, had a similar problem when I had to take the sump off (stripped the drain plug thread) steel bolts into alloy were just a little bit stuck.
Its used all year round and gets the weather so i should not be too surprised.

Simon

[spinner]

Finding out 1 day beforehand, that a new Provincial tax, that's no supposed to take effect until July 1st. is actually going to be imposed starting May 1st. on services that won't kick in until July. Ours was the worst hit by the recession of any province in Canada and our local Provincial gov't has decided to increase our sales taxes by 8 % and they don't think that will have an effect on purchases and the economy as a whole?

[picsfor]

No Virgin. Not quite you might initially think 

"Virgin" provide my landline, tv and broadband. Apparently some time last night about 11 ish the whole system went down.
Some 11 hours later they've just restored it! I've been up since 5 as a result of getting back into shift work again. TV i can live without, even the land line- but the broad band is just...

Especially when their standing instruction is - 'if you have any problems with any of your services check the web site!" 

[chris@seary.com]

What annoyed me today?

The quality of journalism at the BBC regarding the election. I have to say something, as my blood is boiling.

Here goes:

Last night, after the first seat was announced, and there was a swing to the Conservatives, someone on Radio 4 said there'd been a rise in the money markets due to the prospect of stability. Do these journalists not understand the lack of significance of the returns from one constituency? There was so much cock and bull spoken on the BBC last night, without any serious thought.

Heard John (pompous pillock) Humphreys on the radio this morning, demanding to know why Brown hasn't resigned. Well, John, he's PM until someone gets together a coalition to rule. Until then, he has to stay as PM. After that he resigns, unless he forms a coalition (which he has a duty to try and achieve).

Loads more bollocks about David Cameron's mandate. Look, he doesn't have a mandate. It's a hung parliament - that means no mandate for any single party. If he (or Gordon Brown) can get a coalition together of more than 326 seats, then those parties have a joint mandate to rule. Just because Cameron keeps saying over and over again that he should be PM doesn't mean that it's right.

I'm fed up with listening to British journos demonstrating that they have no analytical skills whatsoever, just going along with any spin, PR or belligerent personality feeding into the media. No wonder the rest of the world sneer at our press.

Even Jeremy Paxman seemed to witter on without any depth of analysis.