Category Archives: Grumpy

Things that get on my nerves

Bad driving day

Was it let idiots drive day? I nearly had two people drive into me. Watched someone u-turn at a no u-turn, joined the freeway behind someone doing 25mph and found some of the worst parking

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Stupid VW

Nikki’s car radio stopped working, nothing, only the tempting security light flashing away.

After extensive searching on the internet I found a forum post that explains all.  If the radio doesn’t power on you remove fuse #42 leave it out for 60 seconds.  The put it back in and turn the car on.   Hey Presto!  The radio was working again.

American Economy

The current decline in property prices is not just affecting the low classes. While walking through the very affluent neighbourhood of Los Altos, every street had a house for sale

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British and their teeth

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One things that really bugs me about America is their constant assumption that the British all have bad teeth. This was highlighted over lunch the other day when someone said “an English ascent and good teeth”. I almost take offense to the generalisation(sic). This question has been asked many times, take this example on Yahoo. It’s hard to deny that there are a large number of people in England who have bad teeth but lets look at America as a whole. There’s a lot of people in the southern states who have the most atrocious diet, as a result have terrible teeth…if any at all!

My belief is that this is a largely out dated misconception. Perhaps 5o years ago there were far more people in England with bad teeth but today most are aware that dental hygiene is important. Having experiences both dental schemes, the Americans clearly have the lead, but then again have to pay through the nose for it. My current dentist is amazing! I visited him yesterday for yet another filling (result of bad consultant by my childhood dentist) he’s a real pro. So to all the American readers, “most” British people don’t have bad teeth, there are some bad cases but that’s not the norm!

The compact SUV

I know there’s a trend these days for everyone to get rid of their big SUVs or Minivan get a Hybrid or crossover SUV.  However, it’s just not acceptable that owners of SUVs think they have ‘compact’ vehicles.  Here’s a perfect example from the strip-mall on Stevens Creek by Elephant Bar. 
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Of the 5 compact spaces in this picture, 3 have SUVs in them, not the crossover kind either! 

So angry as Scion

Only a day after my bad hybrid experience, Toyota of Sunnyvale’s service department provided more excellent news.   From 9am on Monday morning until 5:20pm on Wednesday Toyota managed to discover “…cannot reproduce the problem.”   When I dropped the car off I told them to just get in and slam the door, the roof will rattle.  At 5:30 there was no Service Manager, General Manager, Sales Manager or Service Director available to talk to.  They claim that everyone had gone home.   So, tomorrow morning I have to head down there and find out from the Service Manager why over a two month period and 9 days of not having my car; the end result is my car being worse that when it first went in!

Oh no, not rain!

There’s a heavy rain storm in the bay area this morning.  The news is full of how bad it is, warning locals to “not drive unless absolutely necessary”, “situation is getting worse every minute”.  It’s amazing how much California’s fall apart with a little drop of rain.  Okay, this is a little more than normal in that there’s 3″ in 24 hours.  It’s probably due to global warming 😉

UPDATE: So it’s a little worse than I made out, it’s been raining for 2 days now, some people haven’t had power in over a day. In England this would just be brushed off as a usual storm.

An Invention

I’ve come up with a new invention. They make those devices that you have to blow into to before the car will start after you get a DUI. Well, here in California most people don’t know how to drive. So my invention, is a similar device that won’t allow the car to drive for certain people if it’s raining. There, simple and effective!

Drug Bag

My bag was “drug”, the technical term, on it’s way back from Chicago midway to San Jose
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To Southwest’s credit they gave me a choice of replacement suitcase there and then and then sent me a check (sic) for the cost of the damages to the contents.

Bad Tenants

The tenants who have been in my Manchester (Salford) house since decided to move out and simply return the keys in an envelope to the letting agent. Never mind paying the rent they owed or that their lease was still in place. Thankfully a deposit was taken for a reason. But if you are renting (letting) a house or apartment in Manchester do not take tenants by the name of Christian Booth & Collin Lucas.
But yay for my letting agent who re-let the property in 2 days.
Update 1: The inventory is in; looks like some of the furniture left with the tenants and they made some modifications like installing a glass screen in the bathroom, changing the blinds to be silver, not wood and painted a few walls. All in all; not very good.

Bad back

Friday the 13th didn’t bring me much joy. This morning when getting out of the shower I felt something pull in my back. As the morning went on it got tighter and tighter. By noon it felt like someone was hitting me repeatedly in the back with an axe. After a sleep, painkillers, heat pack and muscle cream it’s not better. Please, Please let this be better tomorrow. I’m supposed to be running in the Los Gatos Great Race on Sunday, not a chance if this keeps up.