Wolfie

2 hours ago, Ewe Ram said:

True. There was a time when you never thought much about your body apart from 'is it clean' and 'is it dressed impressively'. Now it demands constant attention, popping pills, X-rays, cameras up and down, health screening, tooth ache, random stupid hairs to pluck out, eye tests, moisturiser. It's grim 

Amen to that. Hair on head rapidly migrating to nose, ears and back......

17 hours ago, Tony Le Mesmer said:

Motorists that sit at junctions waiting to join the road and you are approaching the junction on the main road so you slow down a bit and flash a few times to let them out.

Nothing happens.

You are getting closer to the junction now and you flash a few more times.

Nothing.

You get to the junction and flash one last time.

Nothing.

You begin to get level with the junction and decide to carry on as they are away with the fairies. THEN they pull out causing you to break suddenly.

Hand waving and gesticulating follows and what started out as a kind deed ends up with me being on the end of some minor road rage.

Like it's my fault!!

The frequency in which this exact sane scenario happens is frightening to the point that I can't really be arsed thinking about other motorists anymore.

Despite being a contradiction in terms, I am a courteous BMW driver and often try to let people out in traffic.

My rule is, though, that if I flash once and they don't pull out, I then keep driving. Once it gets into the stoppping & repeated flashing, you're into the realms of hesitation, confusion and uncertainty and that's when accidents tend to happen.

Any reference to the UK/USA "Special Relationship"

14 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

It really does make me wonder where your informaiton ends up too and how it gets there.

The number of calls and emails i get is crazy, PPI aaaargh,i always tick or untix boxes which ever way round it is to say i dont want contact, but no doubt somewhere in the small print it says something about passing information on to relevant third parties or something. The problem is you cannot possibly know who has passed the information on either. I also wonder how they determine what a relevant third party is, I have never signed upto dating sites or anything like that but still get emails offering me ukranian brides etc etc.

I now dont answer a call unless i know who it is, working on the basis if its important they will leave me a message.

 

Same here. To be honest I don't know why more people don't do that. People complain to me that they get junk calls and "it's always from unavailable numbers". Don't answer it then!

The person driving the Range Rover that I was following yesterday between Worksop and Newark who kept going over to the other side of the road to avoid.......puddles. And not even very deep ones either. You're driving a proper off-roader FFS!!

31 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

Its a combination of mock outrage, wanting 5 minutes of fame and not taking responsibility for your own actions.

 

.........and media organisations generally being so desperate for a news story, any news story to fill their clickbait twitter feeds/online pages. Got to be refreshed as much as possible to get that advertising revenue, cos nobody buys newspapers any more.

Hopefully a day will come soon when all this pulsating mass of pointless stuff reaches critical mass and disappears up Rupert Murdoch's backside.

9 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I thought there was a 'Park' facility on an automatic.

There is, but you've got to push the brake to pull up & it's easier just to keep your foot there and wait for the lights to change. It also activates the start-stop. There's no benefit to putting it in park.

Sorry if you object to being dazzled but, as a BMW driver, I'm required not to give a toss about other road users.

I now avoid doing DIY stuff except for painting & decorating if I can help it.....

A few months ago, I spent a whole morning battling with an electric socket I was trying to replace - due to it being cracked. After going to B&Q to buy a new socket and then going back to exchange it after I found out that the existing double socket had a single back box, I worked out that there were too many wires in the wall and the power had been extended into the next room via this socket and a spur. Mrs Wolfie had to take the little one out, as I was "swearing too much" and I eventually admitted defeat and called a local electrician we'd used once before. He came an hour or so later and had it sorted within 20 minutes.

Until that point I hadn't even asked him how much it would cost and when he'd finished and told me it would be £20, I just stood there and looked at him. He eventually asked me if I was OK and I said I was just trying to work out why I had spent a quarter of my weekend....which should be quality family time...getting increasingly stressed, elevating my blood pressure to unprecendent levels (even for me), not to mention alienating my wife and daughter - in an effort to save twenty quid.

DIY generally.

We had a new living room carpet fitted last week, with a deeper pile than the previous one. It took me all of Sunday morning to take a door off, go to Homebase to buy a plane, plane a bit off the bottom and fit it back on again. I've now realised I didn't take enough off and need to do it again.

I hate DIY.

13 hours ago, Phoenix said:

People who keep their foot firmly on the footbrake at traffic light queues. Bloody dazzling. There is a hand brake you know.

I used to think the same til I got an automatic.

On 23/12/2016 at 14:58, Norman said:

Balderton slip road going South is a pain for this. They brake, brake, brake, then just stop. Learn to use your ******* mirrors!!!!

Yeah, that's my junction. 

Worse than lorries overtaking each other in dual carriageways: Lorries having to overtake cars whose stupid ****** drivers aren't capable of driving at more than 55mph. GET OFF THE ROAD IF YOU CANT KEEP UP WITH LORRIES??

Also stupid drivers (female in my recent experience) who fail to look for a gap and match speed with the traffic flow when joining a motorway / dual carriageway and end up stopping at the end of the slip road and have to then wait ages for a massive gap. Got behind these idiots twice this week joining the A1. I'm only on it for 5 miles on my commute from Newark but the number of fools I see is incredible. 

"East Midlands woman upset by Berlin lorry attack" First headline on East Midlands today this morning.

Local news looking for any tenous link to a major news story so they can jump on the bandwagon and tell you exactly what you've just seen once already on the national news.

1 hour ago, r4derby said:

My wife and I went to see Fantastic Beasts last night. As a Potter fan, I loved it. Worth the 3D too, as it just enhances the magic. My wife, not a Potter nut like me, also really enjoyed it. Accessible to all.

Verdict: 9/10

Yeah my Mrs is definitely a bigger Potter fan than me but I found Eddie Redmayne's character's mannerisms really annoying & they grated on me. I think that's why I couldn't engage with it to begin with.

Asking my little one about any DVD's she wanted for Christmas & she said she wanted to watch Ladytrump, meaning Lady & the Tramp.

Chuckled for a good hour about that.

Xmas. The word, not the event.

I'm not religious & offended by it, just annoyed by it & always struck me as laziness.

Saw Fantastic Beasts the other night.

Mrs Wolfie absolutely loved it. I didn't. Couldn't get into it, fell asleep & missed most of the first half, so can't really give a rating.

I get it that cyclists have the right to use as much road as they like but surely common sense and self preservation should kick in at some point and they should think about how they are riding and positioning themselves on the road to minimise the likelihood of being in an accident - as I do when I'm on my bike. I'm also a careful driver around cyclists but there is a place for militancy. Being a deliberate arse when there's 2 tonnes of angry metal trying to get past you is not it.

When they get knocked off I hope it gives them some comfort, while they're being spoon fed in their wheelchairs that they stood up for their rights.

9 hours ago, jono said:

Customer service lines belonging to major companies that cost you money to call them. 

The basic outline being  ....We aren't doing a good job relative to something we promised to do for an agreed sum. 

So to resolve this, you need to pay us to sort it and that payment is open ended while we keep you on hold. 

And the PS to this is companies that strive to keep themselves distant from their customers via FAQ's / no reply emails / incomplete contact info. 

The aim is a "no people" interaction service which forgets completely that customers are people. Sad

Agreed & this bit pees me off no end.

I use the WEQ4U app on iPhone for the costly phone lines. It calls them via a normal landline for you and then will stay on hold for you & ring you back when you get through to an operator. It's worked well for me loads of times.

Foreign lorry drivers

I always have some good banter with my brother on the car vs lorry thing, as he drives a huge lorry and I drive a BMW but we can both agree on the pest foreign drivers.

A couple of examples from the last week:

A few days ago I saw one parked up just at the side of the road, door open and driver having a pee onto the road from the comfort of his seat.

The road which our housing estate joins is currently closed - open for access only. This morning there was a dutch tanker truck stuck, despite there being plenty of closure signs and diversions marked. It took him 10 minutes to manoevre the truck & turn around - all the time blocking my exit from our estate. He then drove off without so much as a look and, obviously annoyed by his own stupidity, then mounted the curb massively on a subsequent left turn, just missing a couple of kids going to school on their bikes.

27 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

trying to cut excessive levels of sugar out of my life and discovering that almost everything has too much sugar in, even milk!

Fair enough cutting out refined & hidden sugars but seems a losing battle trying to eliminate naturally occurring sugars as well. No fruit & veg either then I take it?.

I don't have a sweet tooth at all but the biggest thing I did to cut down sugar intake was to start making my own bread. Seeing as I have sandwiches for lunch every day, it makes quite a difference.

2 hours ago, Mostyn6 said:

place names are worse.

Belvoir = Beaver!

Growing up in the Peak District I used to be amused at the tourist pronuncialtions of villages such as:

Calver - should be pronounced Carver

Eyam - " "  Eeem

Edensor - " "  Enza

Words that are spelt totally different to how they sound.

I just can't read "quay" as "key". I read is as "kway" and then have to correct it in my head.

Loads of names that I have the same issue with. How does Dalziel end up as sounding like DL?.

Arrival

A linguist professor is signed up to try to communiate with aliens when 12 of their craft appear suddenly and hover over various global locations.

A film about aliens but not at all in an "Independence Day" way and all the better for it. Great acting, sound, story, strong message and good plot twist.

Felt a bit like Contact, to watch, but thankfully without the rubbish ending.

8/10

Estate agents saying "per calendar month" on Homes under the Hammer. Just say month. We understand. 

Winds me up.

Homes under the Hammer. Only associate it with being ill because that's the only time I watch it. Constant recaps & the show could be cut down by a quarter by removing them.