Rant thread

[Farmduck]

16 minutes ago, ivans82 said:

Trumps trial lasted 2 weeks  , He was fined $9,000........what was the point , Heaven knows how much the trial cost , what a waste of time and money .

Out of curiosity what news sources are you using?

[ivans82]

BBC in passing i must admit .

[JonM]

On 01/05/2024 at 09:49, ivans82 said:

BBC in passing i must admit .

That's just the fine for his contempt of court - the actual trial is still in progress.

[ivans82]

In the vast majority of TV dramas and films the person involved will receive a message on his/her mobile and look to see what it says .  ......Unless you have a TV screen the size of the Albert Hall and eye sight akin to a Peregrine Falcon you can`t read it......please start putting a caption underneath  .  Thank you .

Edited May 13, 2024 by ivans82

[ivans82]

Not much on TV last night anyway , but Election announced , schedules altered lots of people talking it to death for hours on end , be prepared for lots of the same for the next few months and most of the people just repeating endlessly what they have said the day before . Luckily it`s summer so i`ll be out walking most nights and i wont need to watch the telly much .

[JonM]

2 hours ago, ivans82 said:

Not much on TV last night anyway , but Election announced , schedules altered lots of people talking it to death for hours on end , be prepared for lots of the same for the next few months 

Be grateful you live in a country where elections only take 6 weeks. The Americans have to put up with a whole year of it.

[Stirlin]

5 hours ago, JonM said:

Be grateful you live in a country where elections only take 6 weeks. The Americans have to put up with a whole year of it.

As do we , yes they are the World police but I am not interested in a year long campaign from across the pond.

Did their news channels report our election date yesterday ? , doubtfull.

[gingerjon]

35 minutes ago, Stirlin said:

As do we , yes they are the World police but I am not interested in a year long campaign from across the pond.

Did their news channels report our election date yesterday ? , doubtfull.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/22/uk/uk-early-elections-sunak-conservatives-intl/index.html

[M j M]

57 minutes ago, Stirlin said:

As do we , yes they are the World police but I am not interested in a year long campaign from across the pond.

Did their news channels report our election date yesterday ? , doubtfull.

Morning Joe did a segment on it so at least power brokers in Washington have learned about it if nobody else.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

6 hours ago, JonM said:

Be grateful you live in a country where elections only take 6 weeks. The Americans have to put up with a whole year of it.

Be grateful we live in a country that has democratic elections at all.

[JohnM]

Conveyancing solicitors 

That is all.

Oh, and Purple Bricks.

[Futtocks]

It seems like every time I need to actually go to a bank, I have to travel further and further.

Partly because the nearest half dozen have either been closed or turned into Barclays Locals. "Local" translates as "No, we don't do that. Or that. Did you enjoy queuing for ages to find out?"

Partly because the remaining proper branches don't offer counter service on weekends any more. Which is scummery of the highest order as it more or less forces you to take time off work just to visit the bank when it's really busy unless you live really close to a branch.

Partly because the nearest proper branch was closed for some reason and "might open at 10:40am. Maybe." It was 9:30am at the time.

I eventually found a branch that could provide the very basic thing I required and got home, after two hours, thanks to the normally decent local bus services crapping out. I'm in the nation's capital, not miles out in the country.

Bring on these 15-minute cities that all the ghastliest of windbags seem to be protesting against. Bring them on a.s.a.f.p.

[Tommygilf]

On 23/05/2024 at 22:52, JohnM said:

Conveyancing solicitors 

That is all.

Oh, and Purple Bricks.

Just seen this but the industry is now a factory more than a personal service. Fees being low has forced this trend somewhat.

[JonM]

9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

I eventually found a branch that could provide the very basic thing I required and got home, after two hours, thanks to the normally decent local bus services crapping out. I'm in the nation's capital, not miles out in the country.

Blimey. I'm about an hours drive from the nearest branch of my bank, but I do live properly out in the sticks.

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, JonM said:

Blimey. I'm about an hours drive from the nearest branch of my bank, but I do live properly out in the sticks.

One of the things I notice is that each time I need to visit a branch, that one's usually been shut down by the next time.

So I'd like to apologise in advance to the people of Hampstead, in case I really am the Typhoid Mary of the financial sector.

[ivans82]

Heres a good reason for not shutting High Street banks ...My wifes debit card went rogue the other day . Went into the bank   ,  new one ordered in 5 minutes....saved an half an hour phone call or similar time wasting trying to do it online .

[ivans82]

Just heard about Steve Coogans latest begging letter to get off with a driving ban for speeding , saying he needed to drive for his TV series .Apparently this is the 3rd time He has played this card for similar offences.......all right for some !

[JohnM]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/feb/06/steve-coogan-spared-lengthy-driving-ban-after-pleading-need-to-film-the-trip#:~:text=He requested he be given,been given six penalty points.

[Winston Smith]

I hate unnecessary announcements on public transport by a metallic AI voice. I don’t know if it is the same all over the country, but in the Westcountry we get ‘see it, say it, sorted’ and ‘this is a penalty fares station’ and ‘please do not board or leave the train when the doors are closing’ and ‘please take care when stepping from the train’ and ‘please do not use mobile phones and hold onto the handrail when using the stairs’. It drives me insane, it’s information overload and if you are stupid enough to board or leave a train when the doors are closing, you deserve to get trapped. I can use stairs, I have used stairs ever since I could walk, I’ve never fallen down stairs, I don’t need to be told what to do when on stairs.

Don’t even get me started on ‘GWR apologises for the late running’ they don’t mean it, a mechanical machine telling me it apologises when frankly it’s a machine, is every bit as annoying as the late running train. The machine doesn’t care, it is incapable of caring. I could actually rip out the entire tannoy system. But no, then I’d be the one in trouble. 
 

I’m not even autistic, well not diagnosed anyway, and it’s just information overload. 
 

Oh, and at least once a week at Exeter St David’s I am there at the time they do the emergency alarm test. All I want is a train that runs on time, but no, they’d rather bombard me with idiot messages.

[CanaBull]

I suspect it will be the same in the UK but that reminds of whenever I have to phone into a provider (insurance, phone, internet, tv, whatever) regardless of the time of year I have to listen to that the company is experiencing above average call volumes so there will be a wait for which they apologise as they really appreciate my business and patience.

Yes, it our fault bad service results in more incoming calls and your unwillingness to hire people to deal with or fix the causes or symptoms should just be accepted on the glib, unchanging message of irresponsibility. 

[Winston Smith]

27 minutes ago, CanaBull said:

I suspect it will be the same in the UK but that reminds of whenever I have to phone into a provider (insurance, phone, internet, tv, whatever) regardless of the time of year I have to listen to that the company is experiencing above average call volumes so there will be a wait for which they apologise as they really appreciate my business and patience.

Yes, it our fault bad service results in more incoming calls and your unwillingness to hire people to deal with or fix the causes or symptoms should just be accepted on the glib, unchanging message of irresponsibility. 

Yes, this. The local surgery tells me about how I can use on online system to make an appointment, order medication, get test results, in fact just about anything. Then it tells me if it is a life threatening emergency, hang up and phone 999. I know, I know all of this. But I rang because I wanted to use the phone and talk to an actual human being. No, it’s not an emergency, the emergency line has been 999 all my life. I get it, I am not an idiot. If i’d been shot, run over, crushed by a falling plane, or there was some sort of terrorist attack where I was, the last thing I’d be doing is phoning my GP surgery to talk to a receptionist who will talk to me condescendingly whilst she uses her night school qualification to decide if I am worthy of talking to a GP. 
 

Yes, I already know you have above average incoming calls. You tell me that every single time I phone in, no matter what time of the day I phone. Then, they give you twenty options that you have to listen to so they can put you to the right area. Just answer the phone for gods sake, then I can book what I need and we can all crack on with our day. You aren’t the main hospital for the area, you are a small local practice with like 5 doctors, and a couple of nurses. 
 

 

[ivans82]

What i most like about doctors surgeries at the moment is the fact that you cannot be ill until 8 o"clock the following morning . Ring anytime the day you are ill and they will come back with "sorry no appointments today you will have to ring back at 8 o"clock in the morning " . We now have to be ill to order apparently .

Another thing is the 111 service . We rang the number about a month ago , spent 20 minutes describing the illness , what steps we had taken to improve the condition , told them what medication had been taken , etc .  We were told to stay by the phone and a doctor would get back to us . 28 hours later a doctor did ring us back and told us to go to a pharmacy ............wonderful !

[WelshpoolMarauder]

7 hours ago, ivans82 said:

Another thing is the 111 service . We rang the number about a month ago , spent 20 minutes describing the illness , what steps we had taken to improve the condition , told them what medication had been taken , etc .  We were told to stay by the phone and a doctor would get back to us . 28 hours later a doctor did ring us back and told us to go to a pharmacy ............wonderful !

At least you got that much! My partner fell very ill early on this year and on five occasions, 111 simply hung up on me. I'm a patient man (no pun intended) and accept needing to wait on the line, but to have the line simply go dead on you...

In the end, I took her to A&E, where she sat for 2 days straight in the 'Fit to Sit' area and never even got sight of a bed. 

[JohnM]

What really annoys me is to wake up and find I havef nothing to rant about. (Politics apart, of course)

Oh, wait a minute....

TEMU's attempts to swamp me with emails....

[RayCee]

I think taking Rugby League as a name was a marketing mistake. The word Rugby has caused confusion and links us to a sport we want to be distinct from. It's a shame that the game was founded in Huddersfield as putting that in the name wouldn't work. Super League sounds exciting but I have resigned myself to the fact that RL is going to stay.