Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

I am 5 foot 8 tall and I live in the tallest country in the world as far as I know.  Almost every **** is over 6 foot yet amazingly It feels like I walk 5 % faster than every one of them.

How can this be,  train stations,  pavements and shops.  Maybe its cus they are going to topple over or something but they are words removed and they make me miss trains and stuff.  Its not like they have hooved stock feet (hooves maybe, clippity clipitty cloppy words removed) so they get stuck on escalators with their little mountain goat feet, no , that's not it at all, they just all walk slow,  They don't care if they are late for work either so maybe that's it.  

On a side note:  I saw a Policewoman who was almost 7 feet tall at Amsterdam Sloterdijk station the other week.  I will now look if she is in the Guinness book of records.

[Chindie]

1 hour ago, darrenm said:

6 miles and you don't commute by bike? That would've taken you 20 mins.

I'm not a good cyclist at all. I've seen cyclists on my route and suffice to say they are clearly braver than me. I'd I cycled to work I'd be dead inside a month. I also wear a suit to work, which introduces a whole lot of hassle twice every day if I cycled.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

31 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I'm not a good cyclist at all. 

Tricycle with a basket maybe ?  

 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, Chindie said:

I'm not a good cyclist at all. I've seen cyclists on my route and suffice to say they are clearly braver than me. I'd I cycled to work I'd be dead inside a month. I also wear a suit to work, which introduces a whole lot of hassle twice every day if I cycled.

Wise man. Cycling in city traffic is suicidal insanity. Another cyclist was killed just down the road from me this week. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

18 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Wise man. Cycling in city traffic is suicidal insanity. Another cyclist was killed just down the road from me this week. 

It is a shame though,  not sure what the death rate is Holland for bikes but most people ride them 1 or twice a week but I never hear of any problems or deaths etc.  If you have ever been to Amsterdam then you know what its like,  trams ,  cars,  buses other bikes etc.  All works fine every day so WTF.

It is possible but it takes the whole nation to want it safe i suppose.

 

[mjmooney]

8 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

It is a shame though,  not sure what the death rate is Holland for bikes but most people ride them 1 or twice a week but I never hear of any problems or deaths etc.  If you have ever been to Amsterdam then you know what its like,  trams ,  cars,  buses other bikes etc.  All works fine every day so WTF.

It is possible but it takes the whole nation to want it safe i suppose.

 

Don't know if it's significant, but most cyclists I saw in Amsterdam looked like British cyclists from the 1950s - sit up and beg bicycles with bells and shopping baskets, riders in normal street clothes, no helmets or lycra, etc. 

[tonyh29]

3 hours ago, darrenm said:

6 miles and you don't commute by bike? That would've taken you 20 mins.

and then 40 minutes to tell everyone at work you cycled in  ...

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

28 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Don't know if it's significant, but most cyclists I saw in Amsterdam looked like British cyclists from the 1950s - sit up and beg bicycles with bells and shopping baskets, riders in normal street clothes, no helmets or lycra, etc. 

That's becasue it's a way of life rather than a special thing,  the bikes are designed like that becasue it is the most efficient way to sit/peddle when there are no hills to go up / down.  They don't need helmets becasue they don't crash I suppose & you will see 4 and 5 year olds on the roads with their parents learning it but again,  its a way of life thing.  You go to school on your bike,  that's it and they all do it and then when you are older to work if you can.

I often think about Brum though,  for 1 day a week for a month in the Summer holiday they could make one of the shit roads bikes only and see how many use it.  (Hagley road or similar) just ot see how many,  what if there were thousands and thousands though,  would force the issue.

 

[mjmooney]

16 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

and then 40 minutes to tell everyone at work you cycled in  ...

I think I outdid the cyclists when I used to run to work. 

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

That's becasue it's a way of life rather than a special thing,  the bikes are designed like that becasue it is the most efficient way to sit/peddle when there are no hills to go up / down.  They don't need helmets becasue they don't crash I suppose & you will see 4 and 5 year olds on the roads with their parents learning it but again,  its a way of life thing.  You go to school on your bike,  that's it and they all do it and then when you are older to work if you can.

See, I could get behind that. Have an old boneshaker bike, and when I want to use it, the only gear I would need would be a pair of trouser clips. But all my mates who cycle are the exact opposite - they LOVE all the cycle 'culture - several specialist bikes each, team racing logos on their expensive lycra, endless nerdy discussions about gear ratios, etc. Fine, if that's your thing, but it all leaves me cold.

[chrisp65]

34 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

and then 40 minutes to tell everyone at work you cycled in  ...

don't forget then needing a shower

oh, and perhaps a light breakfast to restore the 337.5 calories my app tells me I've used

just another 5 minutes to download my go pro footage to youtube

then all I've got to do is log my stats for the journey from this other app so I can compare my PB with others doing a similar commute...

 

.....right, I'm ready for work now. Anybody mind if I leave early. It's dark by 4:30....

 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

I often think about Brum though,  for 1 day a week for a month in the Summer holiday they could make one of the shit roads bikes only and see how many use it.  (Hagley road or similar) just ot see how many,  what if there were thousands and thousands though,  would force the issue.

 

They do something similar in Bradford. 

Skyride

Quote

MOUNTAIN bikes, tiny bikes, bikes with stabilisers, electric bikes, tandem road bikes and more bikes whizzed round sun-soaked Bradford at Britain's first Sky Ride of the summer today.

 

[tonyh29]

25 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

don't forget then needing a shower

oh, and perhaps a light breakfast to restore the 337.5 calories my app tells me I've used

just another 5 minutes to download my go pro footage to youtube  so I can show where a selfish motorist overtook me without giving me 18.5 foot of clearance  so I had to chase him down the road for 2 miles so I could shout at him for being almost a murderer

then all I've got to do is log my stats for the journey from this other app so I can compare my PB with others doing a similar commute...

 

.....right, I'm ready for work now. Anybody mind if I leave early. It's dark by 4:30....

 

 

but , you missed a bit off

[darrenm]

I see we all have the same post-ride routine then.

[sharkyvilla]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

I think I outdid the cyclists when I used to run to work. 

I walk to work and often see an odd-looking bloke (think Stephen Hawking but without the wheelchair) running to work in his suit.  He must be minging by the time he gets there.

[darrenm]

3 hours ago, Chindie said:

I'm not a good cyclist at all. I've seen cyclists on my route and suffice to say they are clearly braver than me. I'd I cycled to work I'd be dead inside a month. I also wear a suit to work, which introduces a whole lot of hassle twice every day if I cycled.

Yeah the suit think is a pain. My work's just got showers so I leave a wardrobe at work.

It's a shame that people are scared into not using the roads because of fears for their safety. WM police treat it as a lifestyle changing threat so have started arresting people in cars who don't respect other road users' safety: http://road.cc/content/news/211510-west-midlands-police-if-poor-driving-makes-people-too-scared-cycle-its-police

Police behind a ground-breaking “close pass” initiative say if poor driving alters people’s lifestyle choices by making them too scared to cycle on the roads that is a police matter, as it would be in any other area of life.

Edited November 18, 2016 by darrenm

[Davkaus]

I spent a few hours helping out at a local food bank for the first time today, trying to give a little backi, and all that.

As much as I like to think I'm a pretty tolerant, liberal, open-minded kind of guy, I have to admit I had some preconcieved ideas of the kind of people that would be there.

I wasn't mentally prepared for the amount of fairly well presented, well spoken people, who were just paid too little to live on, or the amount of people that were out of work and had their benefits sanctioned for absurd bullshit reasons. How the **** as a country can we justify widespread sanctioning of people already absolutely reliant on means-tested welfare.

So we take away money from people who have none, because they missed an appointment, then what? They still need food and shelter. So for food they can go to a charity, but all food banks seem to have limits, the one I was at is only able to provide a hamper with about 4 days' food, once a fortnight to any person. So if you're sanctioned, you can visit the foodbank, what do you do for the other 10 days?

The job centre may as well put up a sign saying "if you miss an appointment, we're not satisfied with your 'evidence', or we don't like the cut of your jib, try not to get caught when you go shoplifting".

It **** enrages me that this can happen in a modern, wealthy country.

Part of me thought, well, if people obviously take the piss, sure, there has to be a limit, but now I can't agree with '24 hours ago me', what can we possibly expect to achieve by financially punishing people already on the breadline, it's insane.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Davkaus

[Xela]

On 11/17/2016 at 19:01, Chindie said:

Hour and 40 mins to drive 6 miles because of 1 broken down car.

**** the state of commuting to north Birmingham.

6 miles north of Brum... my Poirot skills would put you living on the Erdington / Sutton border...say, Boldmere? Or maybe Walmley?

/nosey bastard

 

On 11/17/2016 at 19:06, Chindie said:

Also, the current fad of aggressive toilet use.

I've noticed in the last few months a new trend to piss you off on the long running series of office toilet related irritants. Guys how slam their way into the toilets, slam their way into the cubicle, slam the seat down, tear toilet roll off as loudly as possible, thump the flush, and clatter back out.

Annoying but no big deal. Until your just opening the door of the loos when one slams the door into your hand. Really **** hard. Utter word removed.

I'm convinced you work at my place! I have nearly posted about this in the past! 

[Xela]

On 11/17/2016 at 13:47, dAVe80 said:

That's why I hate Aldi! It's like being in Erdington Kwik Save with my Nan, in the 1980s, or Soviet Russia.

Coincidentally the old Kwik Save on College Road/Chester Road (Kingstanding/New Oscott border) is now an Aldi

Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss

[Chindie]

9 minutes ago, Xela said:

6 miles north of Brum... my Poirot skills would put you living on the Erdington / Sutton border...say, Boldmere? Or maybe Walmley?

/nosey bastard

 

I'm convinced you work at my place! I have nearly posted about this in the past! 

Not quite

I'm convinced there's just some weird hive mind in the men's office toilets of Birmingham. Every office I've worked in has been a horror show every time you set foot in the gents. Only seems to be Brum too. **** vile.