In Absentia
Posted: Mon 8 June, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Driving, Travel 2 Comments »Yet again, for whatever reason, the weekend resulted in no updates on D4D. Shocking, I know.
There’s no particular reason for not updating – well, there is, yet again I’m playing catch-up on a bout of depression that’s been hanging around for a few days/weeks/months/years (depending on how you look at it) which is probably the subject of another post I keep writing and re-writing in my head at the moment.
Anyway, Friday was primarily spent away from electronic devices, which kind of negated the entire “posting on D4D” thing. I was involved in looking after various animals of the family – several of aforementioned family had gone off to attend a funeral, so I was on “letting them out for dumps” duty. Yes, the morning was still my own, but was still not overly connected to t’Internet, so there we go.
Saturday was just downtime, in several senses of the word, and resulted in no written output at all.
Sunday was primarily spent Out, as we decided to take Hound to the beach (in this case Walcott, and then (briefly) Cromer) and also brought in a visit to a craft place along the way.
And that was the weekend. So it goes.
The Motorbike “Swerve Test”
Posted: Wed 27 May, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving, Stupidity, Thoughts Leave a comment »One of the stories in the news yesterday was about the new motorbike driving test, and in particular the “Swerve test”. According to some instructors/examiners, this new module is dangerous – particularly in the wet.
During the test, learners have to reach 50km/h (31.2mph), then perform a swerve, on special test centre tracks.
But some instructors say that if riders brake and swerve at the same time they are likely to come off, particularly in the wet.
Now while I agree (to some degree) with the comment from the story “A motorcyclist’s competency can be best judged in the dry. Wet conditions introduce a chance element that should not be part of the test”, I also can’t help but feel that “real world” conditions are the best thing when it comes to taking a test – be it motorbike or car driving tests. I know I had driving lessons in some bloody horrible conditions (although admittedly not tests) including hail, driving snow, and plenty of night-time driving.
And if a rider can’t do this swerve at 30mph – and it’s a basic safety manoeuvre for getting out the way of incidents – then they damn well shouldn’t pass their tests. If they fall off and/or damage themselves as a result of this, surely that’s a learning experience in itself?
Even if that lesson is either a) “Don’t fall off the fucking bike” or just b) “Learn to ride properly, and deal with ‘real world’ situations”.
But then, I’m obviously completely unrealistic on these things. After all, I didn’t pass my driving test ’til I’d managed to avoid the really stupid ‘real-world’ mistakes, like stalling the car at junctions.
Mower RIP
Posted: Fri 22 May, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Green Garden Leave a comment »Longer-term readers may recall that back in August last year, we bought a second-hand ride-on mower from the friend of a friend. At the time this was A Good Thing, as it meant that a) we didn’t need to have the nice man mowing the lawn again this year (as in 2009) and b) that I wouldn’t have to slog my arse off mowing the entire bloody garden with the petrol-driven mower.
Over the winter, we got it serviced (supposedly- that’s a post for another day, I think) and the engine electrics repaired from where I knackered it when the battery fell off the back of the cunting thing, pulling various bits of connected enginery with it.
This year we tried starting it – nothing. The battery was flat, so that got charged up, having borrowed a battery charger from the out-laws. Once that was done, it ran. For about twenty minutes. It then went bang, chucked out a cloud of smoke, and wouldn’t start again.
Today, we got a different person to come out and have a look. Turns out the starter motor was fucked sticking , so he cleaned it out and lo, it started.
So I ran it round the garden again. Put it in gear to start mowing. And it went bang, chucked out a shitload of evil-smelling grey smoke, stopped, and wouldn’t start again.
So all told, I give up. The poxy thing’s knackered, and showing no signs of recovery. I think we’re just going to write it off as a total lemon, and one day get a new ride-on with a long fucking guarantee.
In the meantime, it’s back to the petrol-mower again. We spent £100 on that three years ago, and it’s never given us any serious hassle. Sure, it’s a pig to start the first time each year, but after that it runs just fine.
I’ve come to realise that I truly fucking hate garden machinery.
Wayfarer Software – Refund
Posted: Tue 19 May, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Driving, Travel Leave a comment »Following on from the farce at the start of the month where I needed to use the Wayfarer navigation software on my phone, I’ve been working on getting a refund out of Wayfarer for it, as I’ve no plans on ever using the poxy thing again.
Initially I’d emailed telling them why the Wayfarer Navigator software was so bad in the case of my phone (the consistent 400′ out in position being a pretty significant issue) and got a response telling me to check the GPS on the phone was on, and had located the satellites. (I managed to not send a rude response to that one, patronising thought it was) They also tried telling me to update the software – regardless of the fact I was already on the latest version. (and had said so in the initial emails)
They’ve tried getting out of it by claiming I should’ve asked for a refund within 14 days of buying the full version of the software. Considering I hadn’t used it at all ’til after the 14-day “deadline” had passed, I wasn’t going to stand for that one, and brought up the wonderful phrase “selling goods that are unfit for purpose”.
Another refusal to refund followed, which resulted in the invocation of the Great Old Ones: “Trading Standards” and (my favourite) “Goods of Unmerchantable Quality”
And Lo, today they’ve confirmed a full refund. Charitable of them, n’est ce pas?
Unshattered
Posted: Wed 13 May, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »So, that’s the rear window on the car now fixed, and I can drive again. Happy Day. So now all I need to do is go down to the place where it got broked, and sort out repayment of the excess with them.
And if anyone cares, I used AutoGlass, who are the recommended people when using Tesco Car Insurance. We’ve used them before (when Herself had her back window stolen while we lived in Bracknell, and for one other broken window incident) and they’ve always been impressively efficient.
In this case it took longer than expected (i.e. fixed today instead of yesterday) because the window that broke had to be ordered- it’s not a common one to break, apparently. So it got ordered from their central depot thingy when I called yesterday at about 3pm, was delivered to Norwich first thing this morning, and fitted here by half twelve.
I’d say that’s going to be pretty impressive by anyone’s standards, to be honest.
Mileage – Part 3
Posted: Sat 9 May, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »Another day of heavy driving today – this time to collect Hound from Berkshire, and come back to Norfolk.
I must be bloody potty…