The New Minor Rant thread....

[mothhawk]

I always pronounce it Paul Maul.
Name me 5 other words ending in all that aren't pronounced that way.

Do you know, I think they are the only three. Possibly 'cos they're from Italian pallamaglio (ball and mallet ie croquet), (don't know where shall comes from) whereas all our other -all words come from German or Scandanavian or old French.

My rant: opened the oven door to take out the Sunday roast, and the blasted thing came away in my hand. Waited for it all to cool down, then found that to screw it back on its hinges, I had to dismantle the entire door to get inside the double wall to be able to hold on the hinge backing for the screw, then re-assemble it all once it was hanging on the oven again.

That included replacing 2 screws on the underside edge of the door, with only a 3" gap to get a screwdriver in between door and floor. Fortunately, I had a petite screwdriver out of a cracker. Who said cracker gifts are rubbish?

[hamamelis]

My lottie has one neighbour that isn't separated off; the 'community orchard'. I just nipped down to do a bit of clearing grass out the fruit bushes, to find they've put a 5' wire and post fence right up along the edge of my plot. It's going to have espalier trees up it.

Am I being unreasonable to be a bit annoyed about this? I was, when they decided to do this, a member of the orchard (I let my membership lapse after the third year in a row where I got about 6 apples max). I couldn't make the meeting because of work, and I didn't know they were even thinking of putting another espalier row up, right along the top of my plot, I thought it was about the big empty patch midway in, where their previous pear trees had died...

Because I wasn't able to make it, I wasn't given any say at all, despite being their only neighbour who wasn't on the committee, the only person who would be directly affected by it, and being a paying member. I didn't even get a courtesy heads up, in fact (despite regularly seeing half the committee). I found out when I got an email saying "We're buying these apple varieties for the new espalier fence".

It's on the south side of the plot, and is going to cut a lot of light off to what was, until now, the sunny bit- the bit my grapevine and kiwifruit are planted in. There are literally no other fences between plots on site; I didn't actually think they were allowed, though I can't find anything forbidding them in the agreement.

They've also made a right mess; I had to dig my paved path out, there was so much mud on it, and they've trampled mud way into my plot, where they shouldn't be going at all. They've not planted the trees yet either, which I'm sure will be at least as messy.

I already got cheesed off at them a bit over the fact that only the committee members ever seem to get to decide anything, and they keep donating all the fruit to local schools and suchlike, but the paying members who have been working down there only get anything if a) they can come to the apple day, and b) there's anything left after the apples get given away, or juiced then sold or kept for cider. The last two years, we even got begging emails asking members to donate apples to them! Certainly not what I was led to expect when I joined.

Oh, and one of the committee is also now the official site rep, so there's not any point in complaining about the mess.

[Two_Sheds]

It's driving again.

Side lights are even less powerful than a cyclist's £3.99 blinky one: they aren't good enough (and imo shouldn't even be fitted)



If you're wondering if it's dark enough to put your lights on ... it is.


Cyclists are covered in reflective strip: if cars don't have their proper lights on, they can't see cyclists

[Two_Sheds]

and while I'm here:

ladies (sorry, but it's nearly always groups of women/girls) ... when you enter or leave a shop/cafe, please do not stop for a chat in the doorway. There are other people in the world (who'd a thought it!) all trying to get in and out of that shop.

Just step to the side, get yourself out of peoples' way, and most of all, DON'T RUDDY TUT when someone says 'excuse me' to get past you and your six wide pals

[Glutton4...]

With you on all counts there, TS!

However, can you please tell the skinny-arrised lycra-clad Pillock I pass almost daily, to wear something bright when cycling ffs!? Head to toe in black. He may well have sommat reflective, somewhere. But yesterday, in broad daylight, with very bright, very low sun (and no, I didn't have my car lights on), he was completely invisible in the shadow of the trees for most of the five miles that I, and I suspect, he, travelled, along this particular road.

If some poor sod with worse eye-sight than me hits him, he'll still blame the driver for not seeing him.






As you were......

[Hazel at the Hill]

So what has happened at the end of my much anticipated relaxing 'me' day - mostly snug in front of the fire with a jigsaw, box of Thorntons and all of the latest episodes of Dr Who?

I feel idle and guilty.

And a bit sick.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I've just seen pic of Molly Parkin in today's paper - she looks far younger and sparkier than I do, and she is 82.

[JanieB]

I saved a load of similar jars for storing herbs and spices in and had two racks to put them in. My daughter, when we were putting some stuff into storage, decided to chuck them all out. I buy my h&s's in large packs so I've been closing them with those clips for closing freezer bags. I found some jars of just about the right size earlier on this week and bought a load. When it came to me sitting down and transferring the h&s's into them I realised I needed labels or I wouldn't be able to tell what was in them.

Trouble is these jars need round labels. Check online, oh good Staples have just the thing. Off I trot (drive 15 miles) to the nearest branch. No round labels. That branch has never stocked them. Lady at customer service said I should have clicked and collected. Um, maybe it's me but if they don't stock them I presume I would have had to wait until they had some transferred from another branch. So I might as well have ordered them on an online shop which is what I've now done.

They won't be delivered for about a week so the little job I was going to do before everything gets busy again will just have to wait.

I needed ink and dog food so the journey wasn't a complete waste.

So the labels arrived today in an envelope marked "Do not bend". So the post person folded it in half to shove it through the letter box. Grrrrh!

now I need to find a template to print round labels!

[Aberdeenplotter]

GR closed till December.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Excerpt from email rec'd from Client in response to some documentation that I sent over to him earlier:

"Haven't had chance to look at the schedules, hope they are not as convoluted as usual."

[Aberdeenplotter]

people who don't realise that convoluted can be necessary and if it is it needs to be paid for

[greenishfing]

Why, when it is so cheap to buy jumpers and cardigans etc, is it so dear to buy decent knitting wool. What happened to all the English (Yorkshire)wool mills? All the yarn seems to come from Bulgaria and Turkey and is expensive.

I feel like I am being ripped off!

[noviceveggrower]

The garage I use to go to. Please note use to. I had my MOT in December and got told that my rear right break pad was getting worn and I would need a new tyre. Not an MOT failure but they did note it on the MOT certificate that these jobs would need doing. In fact considering the age of my car everything else was fine just those two things.
So my dad said that they would pay for the car to be fully serviced and the jobs that needed doing to be done at the garage he has used for years and years. So I said ok and thanks.
Car went in today to be sorted. My dad got a phone call to say it was ready and that they found some very serious things wrong with the car but had sorted it.
Firstly the car should of failed its MOT cause of the breaks.The breaks on one tyre were catching the inside edge badly and could of blown at any time and on another break the calliper? was nearly locked up. It wasn't just one tyre it was all 4 that needed doing.
There's no way my garage could of missed the tyre and break pad problems. It cost my dad £435 for 4 new tyres, 4 new break pads, a calliper and fixing kit and various other jobs they do on a service which was quite a shocker for me. In fact its a bit upsetting that a garage I have been going to for years haven't been doing a proper job.
One of the other thing the garage guy said was my rear windscreen wiper was starting to split and that was an MOT failure. Anyone else know that?
Sorry just a bit cheesed off.

[Glutton4...]

Not wishing to upset you, but how do you know your Dad's Garage isn't taking the pee? I'd go in there and ask for the old tyres and brake parts, and get another opinion.

[noviceveggrower]

Not wishing to upset you, but how do you know your Dad's Garage isn't taking the pee? I'd go in there and ask for the old tyres and brake parts, and get another opinion.

All my family use this garage and have done for years. I only used the other one as I used to just live round the corner from it.