Grumble Thread

[Pulcinella]

The tiresomeness of small domestic objects. A couple of days ago the bevelled lip( a stuck on strip of softer plastic) of the dustpan came off, so the fine matter no longer gets swept into the pan. I've already attempted to mend it a couple of times but they didn't work. As I already have previous casualty in the shed for garden use this will have to be binned, which niggles. Whether I can get a separate dustpan, or have to have a brush and pan set I don't know - the brush is fine and doesn't need replacing.
This morning I couldn't find the squeegee I use to clear the bedroom window of condensation. I used it yesterday in another bedroom, but it seemed to have vanished completely so I had to get the one from downstairs. I'll give it another day to turn up and then admit defeat and get a replacement - at which point the original will appear in plain sight...
This is one of those occasions where the loss of Wilko is felt - it would have been a trip down town, probably calling in at the library opposite as well, to get both in the same place.

Your squeegee will be in the last place you'd look for it.
Well it would be, wouldn't it, as why would you go on looking for it once you'd found it?

[eighthobstruction]

OOO....never a lender or a borrower be....in this case to yourself....

[oddoneout]

OOO....never a lender or a borrower be....in this case to yourself....

Well quite. I got a second one for upstairs in the first place because I was fed up of mislaying the single one, or it always being on the wrong floor, and having to do too many treks up and down the stairs.

[smittims]

Ah yes, small domestic objects. I well remember a small spring in the distributor head of my car. Such a tiny thing, but if it snaps, your expensive limo suddenly becomes an expensive metal box. Ironically, it happened to me twice with different cars. Thank goodness for the AA.

[gradus]

Ah yes, small domestic objects. I well remember a small spring in the distributor head of my car. Such a tiny thing, but if it snaps, your expensive limo suddenly becomes an expensive metal box. Ironically, it happened to me twice with different cars. Thank goodness for the AA.

Ah, distributor caps, how they take me back ... I rarely open the car bonnet these days as everything is designed to repel boarders and the computer reigns supreme.

[Serial_Apologist]

Today I am in receipt of a "final demand" for payment of service charges from our residential management company. Back in September I responded to this same demand by sending a cheque, as has always been my practice. Three weeks ago it arrived back on my doorstep enclosed in a Post Office envelope labelled "No one at this address". On phoning, I was apologised to on behalf of the firm, and told that they had moved to new premises, to which I should now post said cheque payment. I did, then waited for the deduction from my current account... and waited: a damned imposition having to deduct £500+ each time I checked the account online so as not to contravene minima allowed to avoid "administration fees" or plain English fines. So I am, colloquially-speaking, somewhat miffed to get today's email.

Upstairs thinks that rather than sending my judiciously worded letter of complaint in with my replacement cheque, I should go down in person to their new premises, in Beckenham, slam the cheque and obligatory tear-off strip down on the reception counter, and demand a receipt. But this is just part 1 of what turned up to be a double grumble - one from me, the other on behalf of "Big" Charles upstairs, who had had his passport photos rejected by renewals as being "not good enough". "They said my eyes weren't sufficiently open", he told me, "but I wasn't p*ssed or hungover, or anything; and they look fine to me". They did, but anyway, he then asked me to take some more photos using his mobile phone camera. I did, in various locations of his well-lit fourth floor flat, following the scrupulous passport dept instructions to the letter. To both our eyes, the results looked no different in quality from the examples given in the guidance document, yet, on assessment through the passport office's vetting app, these, too, were deemed inadequate, "too much like black and white photos". Quality-wise I can vouch that they were far better than ones I myself had accepted for a replacement senior travel card, done in a photo booth. In the end we will have to try again tomorrow morning, in hopefully better light conditions, assuming this to be the presiding problem, but I am left feeling doubly confirmed in my despair at the compliance requirements for what once would have been the most elementary necessities for living now being fallaciously dumped on ordinary folk in the name of "e££iciency".

[Pianorak]

Well quite. I got a second one for upstairs. . . .

A bagless, battery operated vacuum cleaner (surprisingly powerful) in my case. One for upstairs, one for downstairs. Stairs are a bit of a problem these days.

[gradus]

A bagless, battery operated vacuum cleaner (surprisingly powerful) in my case. One for upstairs, one for downstairs. Stairs are a bit of a problem these days.

At one time some new houses were built with vacuum cleaning system connections in each room linked to a central device - seems like an idea worth resurrecting.

[oddoneout]

At one time some new houses were built with vacuum cleaning system connections in each room linked to a central device - seems like an idea worth resurrecting.

New-build houses don't have enough space for essential items, now let alone fancy bits of kit like that! They are still available but seem to be more used for commercial premises than domestic - except perhaps the "upper end" of the market?

[smittims]

You have all my sympathy, S-A. I tried sending a cheque to Scottish Power for a small amount . It seems no-one at their head office either reads letters or knows what to do with a cheque.

[eighthobstruction]

...This morning Facebook informed me I have a New personal Accounts Center.............and yes there it is with the last 4 digits of my Visa card....and no immediate visual means to start cancelling it....

[Pulcinella]

...This morning Facebook informed me I have a New personal Accounts Center.............and yes there it is with the last 4 digits of my Visa card....and no immediate visual means to start cancelling it....

I had a notification on my Mac Settings saying that Google had added a login item but I could change its access in settings if I wanted to.
No details of what it does.
Bryn may well comment (and tell me to deny it any access!)!

[eighthobstruction]

I had a notification on my Mac Settings saying that Google had added a login item but I could change its access in settings if I wanted to.
No details of what it does.
Bryn may well comment (and tell me to deny it any access!)!

Well I'm sure you will be quick to say [as I am]....while not scared exactly - I find this a rotten way to start this day on planet earth....

[Bryn]

Well I'm sure you will be quick to say [as I am]....while not scared exactly - I find this a rotten way to start this day on planet earth....

I simply stay well away from Apple products. I have always found them unreliable and restrictive since my first encounter with the Apple II.

[eighthobstruction]

...Do you remember ?? at the beginning of the internet (which for me was 2006) that Brian Eno had 2 innovative websites : one which allowed to play about with the recording / production of Eno/Burn Sea of Ghosts....and another that created infinite digital art....