And today's grump is....

[Dogtail2]

COP26

 

Thousands of gallons of aviation fuel, burnt by dozens of private jets, all in the name of combating the much pushed 'climate change'. What's wrong with a Zoom call? 

All masks off as soon as the photo shoot was over.

The hypocrisy of these people is staggering.

[IanHx]

11 hours ago, Dogtail2 said:

COP26

 

Thousands of gallons of aviation fuel, burnt by dozens of private jets, all in the name of combating the much pushed 'climate change'. What's wrong with a Zoom call? 

All masks off as soon as the photo shoot was over.

The hypocrisy of these people is staggering.

 

Could fill a whole thread ranting about it being well past time to stop *talking*  and start *doing*  .... but I won't.

 

Instead I'll ask what's the range on a battery-electric Main Battle Tank ?   

[PhantomBigStu]

eBay sellers who mass spam offers to buyers, and the eBay app, having recently got into 1/200 naturally put the ones that even slightly interest me in my watch list, but have been getting constant offers which even when they expire fill up the bids section of the app. 

[IanC]

On 10/31/2021 at 10:17 PM, PhantomBigStu said:

I raise you not noticing the bathroom door was closed and going head first into in ones haste 😂😂😂

 

I'll see your bathroom door impact and raise you sitting on the pan with similar urgency and only then realising the seat is still up...  😟

[Bullbasket]

This is a little bit more than a grump, more of  rage. Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon, trying to book a 2nd Day test for swmbo and me for next week (Telford). I'll cut this right down as at the time, I was incandescent with rage due to the fact that there is no common theme running through all of the many different providers for this service. The first one that I tried was Boots. They're usually my go to for anything medical. Trouble was, after setting up an account with them (why does everyone expect you to open an account??), I got all the way through the form filling, only for them to ask for a copy of my passport as identity, but my laptop wasn't hooked up to a printer, so I couldn't scan it. So tried another provider. Kicked them into touch immediately when they wanted £89 per test!! Really?? Tried another, and again, got all the way through the form filling, but stumbled over the address of the hotel where I will be staying. It as one of those boxes which told you to enter the postcode and they would find the address. Trouble was, it didn't show the address of the hotel, and there was no way of entering it manually. So phoned the number on their website, and got thoroughly urinated off after listening to some crap music, over and over again for six minutes. Similar experience with a couple more before finally finding a provider who could do the job for £30 in total, including postage, and most importantly, I got out PLF numbers. Without them, we wouldn't be able to enter the country.

So, my question is, why the BH can't every provider stick to the same procedure (and I don't want to make this into something political). because there is no coordination between them. And as for prices. Anything from £8.99 up to £89!! I mean, come on! What's that all about?

 

John.

[Biggles87]

The original reply I thought of would probably get me banned from BM.

 

John

[IanHx]

19 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

 And as for prices. Anything from £8.99 up to £89!! I mean, come on! What's that all about?

 

 

Greed, plain and simple.

No way it should cost more than a tenner.

[Stef N.]

People that phone and leave a message , with your phone deep down in your pocket, just as you hit the road.

[Mr T]

On 10/22/2021 at 6:45 PM, JohnT said:

Historical documentaries on television with slipshod research on the most basic details rather like the last person they might have thought to ask had read the Dummies Guide to insert here topic being filmed.
All too often what is on the screen and being heard is just…… well, rubbish.  
 

Just watched a documentary on battleships. Seemingly HMS Hood was Britain’s most powerful battleship.  And it was the equal of Bismarck too. Probably news to RN sailors on RN battleships. The Scharnhorst was sunk by British cruisers at North Cape. No mention of a certain KGV class ship at all. 
Bismarck was torpedoed by Swordfish - cue shots of any interwar biplane including a Hawker Fury (Nimrod?). Almost every second comment was in error and every other bit of film was of a totally unrelated ship that looked nothing like the ship under discussion 

 

For a programme that sets out to educate it and it’s type are lamentable 

Started watching a 'documentary' about the last 24 hours of the Bismarck. Gets off to a bad start with the loss of the Hood and no mention of HMS Prince of Wales and the damage suffered by Bismarck which caused her to set course for Brest. We then get the first strike by Swordfish finished in the some scheme that looks a bit like TSS with a bit of the scheme used later in the war. The roundels were a mix of God knows what and cue footage of pre war Swordfish and the odd Firefly to keep us on our toes. The CGI looked about 20 years old. I gave up in disgust. 

[593jones]

33 minutes ago, Mr T said:

Started watching a 'documentary' about the last 24 hours of the Bismarck. Gets off to a bad start with the loss of the Hood and no mention of HMS Prince of Wales and the damage suffered by Bismarck which caused her to set course for Brest. We then get the first strike by Swordfish finished in the some scheme that looks a bit like TSS with a bit of the scheme used later in the war. The roundels were a mix of God knows what and cue footage of pre war Swordfish and the odd Firefly to keep us on our toes. The CGI looked about 20 years old. I gave up in disgust. 

 

Sounds like a pretty standard TV documentary to me.  Superficial and slipshod, but acceptable to the majority of the audience.

[Ray S]

57 minutes ago, Mr T said:

Started watching a 'documentary' about the last 24 hours of the Bismarck. Gets off to a bad start with the loss of the Hood and no mention of HMS Prince of Wales and the damage suffered by Bismarck which caused her to set course for Brest. We then get the first strike by Swordfish finished in the some scheme that looks a bit like TSS with a bit of the scheme used later in the war. The roundels were a mix of God knows what and cue footage of pre war Swordfish and the odd Firefly to keep us on our toes. The CGI looked about 20 years old. I gave up in disgust. 

 

In one of the TV magazines supplied by the papers, the write up about that programme said that HMS FLOOD had been sunk by Bismarck. It is not only the doc makers that muck things up!

 

Ray

[fatfingers]

Car insurance renewals. Got mine today and the cheeky duffers are wanting to whack it up by 115 quid! Suffice to say i'm now looking elsewhere 🤨

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[JohnT]

2 hours ago, Mr T said:

Started watching a 'documentary' about the last 24 hours of the Bismarck. Gets off to a bad start with the loss of the Hood and no mention of HMS Prince of Wales and the damage suffered by Bismarck which caused her to set course for Brest. We then get the first strike by Swordfish finished in the some scheme that looks a bit like TSS with a bit of the scheme used later in the war. The roundels were a mix of God knows what and cue footage of pre war Swordfish and the odd Firefly to keep us on our toes. The CGI looked about 20 years old. I gave up in disgust. 

That’s the one. On the CGI I truly could not believe the scenes created to show the Swordfish attacks. The aeroplanes jerked around like radio controlled models and the mode of attack was straight out of the Ju87 Stuka dive attack with the torpedo dropping into the water at an angle of at least 45 degrees and just off the side of the ship. Who passes this garbage for showing?

[JohnT]

44 minutes ago, fatfingers said:

Car insurance renewals. Got mine today and the cheeky duffers are wanting to whack it up by 115 quid! Suffice to say i'm now looking elsewhere 🤨

 

Regards,

 

Steve

And then when you tell them you have a cheaper quote elsewhere they tell you they will match it. That gets my goat. Sorry you are telling me that you thought I was a sucker and wouldn’t notice but now you are caught out you will do me a deal???  I usually tell them only if they now undercut by over £100 seeing they had been so shifty

[Mr T]

I entirely agree about the Swordfish, even Combat Flight Simulator 2 had better graphics and better  physics (trying to shoot down a Fury with a DH Hornet was good fun) The other thing that about the documentary was that the expert talking heads didn't seem particularly 'expert' to me. 

[Bonhoff]

Adding to the general rubbishness of the Bismarck docudisappointment was a piece of archive film, ostensibly of the Home Fleet but in reality showing the two most distinctive aircraft carriers of that era. 

 

That's right - The Lexington and Saratoga....

 

IanJ 

[IanC]

6 hours ago, Bonhoff said:

Adding to the general rubbishness of the Bismarck docudisappointment was a piece of archive film, ostensibly of the Home Fleet but in reality showing the two most distinctive aircraft carriers of that era. 

 

That's right - The Lexington and Saratoga....

 

IanJ 

 

I used to work with a few freelance film and picture researchers involved in historical documentaries. They really knew their stuff. The key part in the old days was visiting museums and other photo/film archives and getting expert help with selecting material.

 

The internet has made it cheaper and easier for someone to just log on to a picture library website and pick something they deem suitable. And unless they're a subject expert and really know what they're looking for, mistakes will inevitably be made and feed through to the production and design teams too.

[Vince1159]

I thought i'd post this...

 

[Biggles87]

I watched about 5 minutes of it before giving up in disgust.

 

John

[lasermonkey]

Second-hand kit prices again. It's getting out of hand. An example is a s/h Tamiya 1/72 Mossie on eBay that someone's asking £25 (plus £4 postage) for, when you can buy a brand new one for £17.99 all-in. While it might seem delusional, what happens is that very other chances sees this and prices their kit similarly (rather than sending a couple of minutes checking what the sold prices were- it's not exactly difficult!). Unfortunately, all it takes is an impatient or uninformed punter to buy one and suddenly the apparent going rate increases.

 

Don't give in to the scalpers. Do your homework and remember: if it's not from a shop, it's not brand new. It's as new, but still second-hand.

[Biggles87]

I hardly ever look at Evilbay for kits these days, as you say the prices are getting seriously unrealistic and the postage charges out of the UK are ridiculous, I suspect some people are taking advantage of the events of last January.

 

John

[lasermonkey]

53 minutes ago, Beermonster1958 said:

I would agree with you there. I rarely use Ebay now unless I have no alternative.

A lot  of my purchases nowadays are second hand, given the often prohibitive cost of brand new items.

I tend to use second hand outlets like Kingkit most of the time now.

TBH, I’d never pay the prices that most second-hand retailers charge. I’ve  learnt to be patient. Very patient. More often than not I get outbid. Thats just how it is.

It’s rare that I buy anything new these days unless there’s some kind of offer on. I know that there are many valid reasons why manufacturers have had to increase their prices, but it’s more or less guaranteed that they won’t see any of my money. What little I have has to be spent wisely. 

[IanHx]

Heard about Angler's Direct website being redirected to a well-known porn site.

Does that conversely mean that somewhere in a basement there's an incredibly disappointed

teenager thats just been presented with a page of fishing tackle ?   

[Jered]

45 minute drive home turning into sitting in traffic for 2 hours. I knew I should have cycled today!

[lasermonkey]

Not so much a grump, but more bewilderment. I went to bid on something on eBay last night, only to find I had been blocked. I'm as sure as I can be that I haven't dealt with the seller before, so I think it's unlikely I have offended him in some way. Neither are either of us in unusual geographic locations. I've sent him a polite message about it, but haven't heard back as yet. The only thing that bothers me is that I was quite keen on the item he was selling, though It's unlikely I would have won it, being as the going rate seems to be higher than I'm willing to pay.

 

It's just a little odd, and I hate not knowing.