WAMT....what annoyed me today!

[sphexx]

The go compare ad on TV has been saying that insurances are due to DROP this year.
And I didn't believe it either..

I did try gocompare but the quotes were way higher than my renewal price.

 

[Cobra]

I did try gocompare but the quotes were way higher than my renewal price.

It think they were saying generally across the board and something about refunding the £250 excess.
but I was only half listening to to podgy Tenor TBH

 

[Nod]

The driving courses I went on when in the police taught us to drive defensively and how to be aware of everything that was happening around you, both on and near the road. Reading the road/traffic ahead was one of the main way of avoiding problems before they arose.

The BikeSafe day I did a few years back was an eye opener and well worth the time. Shame the person I got lumped in with was a numpty who could have done with another round of CBT (IMO).

 

[saltireblue]

Very similar to what I was taught on the IAM courses. The big thing with a bike in traffic was to look at the driver and the positioning of the wheels, it gives you an insight into whether they are looking to "jump lanes" quickly. Something I still maintain in the car today.

Yep, even after 40 years, many of the habits I learned then are still with me.

 

[JohnC6]

Simply do what parents do with their baby buggies at the roadside, push the bin out first and see if anything hits it, if not it’s safe to cross.

Yes. That's very true. When I see a mum..it's usually mum.. with a buggy with a child in..at vehicle exhaust level..btw.waiting at the kerbside with 6" of the front of the buggy over the kerb/gutter I think what an unsafe thing to do but most do it. The only safe thing to do is to wait with all the buggy on the footpath until the nearest car is a decent distance away but that's not always practical with our busy roads. You have to wonder what baby or toddler thinks.

 

[MrRichAllen1976]

Yes. That's very true. When I see a mum..it's usually mum.. with a buggy with a child in..at vehicle exhaust level..btw.waiting at the kerbside with 6" of the front of the buggy over the kerb/gutter I think what an unsafe thing to do but most do it. The only safe thing to do is to wait with all the buggy on the footpath until the nearest car is a decent distance away but that's not always practical with our busy roads. You haver to wonder what baby or toddler thinks.

They're probably too little to care...

 

[Cobra]

You haver to wonder what baby or toddler thinks.

Perhaps it enjoys the Adrenalin rush?


But yes a crazy thing to do, and likely to get worse with the new highway code rules.

 

[Nod]

Ryanair cancelling our flights for both holidays later in the year.

 

[camerassassin]

City Fibre !!

For the last few months I've noticed that pavements in this area are being dug up and then replaced.
Roughly 2 weeks ago I found some folk digging a channel along the pavement outside the front of my house - my neighbours parked their cars across the road as did everyone else. After about a week they moved further along the road and finally all was clear.

To my horror yesterday I discovered that more of these barriers etc had been dropped across the road from the side of my house [ I'm on the corner] and most of the pavement outside a friend's house was included in the 'goodies drop'

Today friends went to work as usual about 7.30 and I , as I brought my bin in from the kerb , spotted that they had erected the barriers etc across 3 neighbours driveways !! No one could get access. Phoned my Friends at work to warn them of this. I suspect that my friends will be parking their cars in my garden tonight !!

Why am I annoyed - we had absolutely no notification of any of this work being done !!

 

[Nod]

Journalists using the wrong homophones. Why don't motoring writers know the difference between brakes and breaks? Photography writers should know the difference between flair and flare. These words are the tools of their trade so they should have the correct ones in their toolboxes.

 

[AgentOrange76]

Journalists using the wrong homophones. Why don't motoring writers know the difference between brakes and breaks? Photography writers should know the difference between flair and flare. These words are the tools of their trade so they should have the correct ones in their toolboxes.

I’d rather read something from someone that is respected and has experience than someone with just an English degree but yes the editor should of corrected

 

[sphexx]

I’d rather read something from someone that is respected and has experience than someone with just an English degree but yes the editor should of corrected

Your post peaked my interest because when I took a pique at it it appears you have employed a grammatical error that stands at the peek of all those that are annoying

 

[cambsno]

I was putting out the bins on the grass verge (between the pavement and the road..a metre wide) at about 5.30pm..so it was dark. As I turned to walk back across the pavement and down the drive I heard a whirr very close to me and saw a light and a flash of yellow (Hi-Viz jacket) of man on an electric bike as he came off the pavement a couple of paces from me across our 3m wide concrete 'drive in' off the road for our cars across the verge and onto the road and went off at what I estimated to be at least 30mph. That really was a near miss. When I put the bins out I can't turn to walk across the pavement in one manoeuvre. I have to first turn..check the pavement both ways for cyclists then walk across it and onto our drive.

I doubt it - they are restricted to 15mph and the only time I have been above 30mph on a bike has been down big hills and its scary!

 

[sphexx]

I doubt it - they are restricted to 15mph and the only time I have been above 30mph on a bike has been down big hills and its scary!

I bet it’s simple to mod a leccy bike to go faster than 15mph.

 

[Nod]

Apparently it is, as well as the ability to turn them from electrically assisted to electrically powered.

 

[sphexx]

Apparently it is, as well as the ability to turn them from electrically assisted to electrically powered.

Well that’s not a surprise! I just read a reference that says some off-road bikes can go faster with the flick of a switch.

However, if the cyclist was doing 15mph past @JohnC6 in the dark and from behind I dare say it would seem he was doing 30 .

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I’d rather read something from someone that is respected and has experience than someone with just an English degree but yes the editor should of corrected

Surely the ability to use the language correctly is an indicator of good abilitiy in anyone writing for a living?

I worked on a project years ago where the team leader pointed out the importance of correct spelling in all documents. To drive the point home, he placed a dictionary on the desk of each person working on the project.

Unsurprisingly, it worked and our documents not only contained fewer spelling mistakes, they were well written!

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

Your post peaked my interest because when I took a pique at it it appears you have employed a grammatical error that stands at the peek of all those that are annoying

Yo jus sum kina grama nassy, in yo!

 

[sphexx]

Yo jus sum kinda grama nassy, in yo!

I’m not sure but that looks like it should have query not a bang, thusly: “in yo?”

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I’m not sure but that looks like it should have query not a bang, thusly: “in yo?”

It's the accusative case.

(I hope to get away with this as few people know what the accusitive case is and even fewer that there is none in English).

(OK, there is the oblque case, which merges the accusitve and dative but that's getting too picky, even for for me).

I sometimes wish we'd never started something!

 

[sphexx]

It's the accusative case.

(I hope to get away with this as few people know what the accusitive case is and even fewer that there is none in English).

(OK, there is the oblque case, which merges the accusitve and dative but that's getting too picky, even for for me).

I sometimes wish we'd never started something!

I hoped you might find that annoying which would give you a chance to make a new post in this thread .

I did Latin for 6 years at school so ought to be up on the accusative but I’ve tried fairly successfully to forget all that. ㋡.

 

[JohnC6]

Re Electric bikes apparently (to me) to be doing close to 30mph.

I doubt it - they are restricted to 15mph and the only time I have been above 30mph on a bike has been down big hills and its scary!

I bet it’s simple to mod a leccy bike to go faster than 15mph.

I do wonder because I've seen these bikes coming along the road and I'm sure doing upwards of 25mph. I judged it by the speed of cars appearing to keep to the limit.

Just checked and you're right . Overiding the speed limit sensor.

The souped-up electric bikes that could kill capable of reaching 30mph

Battery-powered bicycles are being modified to travel at almost 30mph – twice the speed permitted in public places – putting owners and pedestrians at risk.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JohnC6]

I've just sold my Prius. I then contacted the insurance company to cancel the policy. I paid £220 last July.. fully comp. The renewal was £235 and I balked at that son they reduced it to £220. Last year it was £184. It was expected that companies would do this because of the new law. From January new customers can't get a better deal than someone renewing. I've just had to pay a £48 cancellation and pro-rata will get £30 back. So..£48 for the chap I spoke to click on a computer screen to authorise payment and an A4 sent to me stating my maximum no claims. I assume it will be an A4 that will posted to me and not by Email for me to print off.

We're going to see how we go with one car. Should be ok. It was a real bind having to put the Prius into the garage and not easy trying to squeeze between the car and the garage wall, twist my back trying to get into the driver seat then back out being careful I didn't catch any of the car on the walls or door frame and then hopefully remembering to pull out the retractible wing mirrors which I sometimes forgot to do and had to stop and do down the road. Then there was also the anxiety of leaving it in a supermarket car park because the cat converters were being stolen from places like that when shoppers went into to do their shopping. Look-outs would follow the driver and stand by the supermarket entrance doors to keep an eye on them to ensure they carried on shopping and not immediately return to the car for something or were only in there for a few minutes whilst their mates stole the cat converter. They are being stolen overnight from cars parked on drives and outside homes in the street as was the case with my Prius. It was on the drive. Cost me £720 for an after-market cat. converter. A new but not from Toyota which would have cost £1250. A month ago Avon & Somerset police issued a warning to hybrid car owners that cat converter thefts were on the increase again. The thieves would get £400-500 for one and they can be removed with an electric hand-held grinder/metal saw (?) in 3 minutes. I had to garage mine after replacing the converter because they knew where the car lived. A man in London had a stolen converter replaced and he collected his Prius at 2.00pm,parked it outside his home..maybe no choice..and at 6.00pm that new converter was stolen. I heard another driver on the radio say that he'd had his converter stolen and had to sell a "perfectly good car" He couldn't risk having a second one stolen.

Now I can replace the low garage shelving which I had to remove to get my car in. Food tins etc were on them freeing up cupboard space in the kitchen. We had a new kitchen put in and the old cupboards were fixed to the garage wall so we have a row of Schreiber units in the garage..how's that for posh ? The hose reel for the front garden and car washing can go back in there along with the spin dryer . My wife is delighted.

 

[JohnC6]

I hoped you might find that annoying which would give you a chance to make a new post in this thread .

I did Latin for 6 years at school so ought to be up on the accusative but I’ve tried fairly successfully to forget all that. ㋡.

Not wishing to denigrate your learning experience,Richard but on reflection do you not think the school would have benefited the pupils more had so much time spent learning Latin not been put into learning something useful ? They say Latin was only useful for those wanting to become doctors.

Unbelievably, Latin is enjoying 'a resuscitatio' but as far as I'm concerned for a less than useless reason. It's being reintroduced into Secondary schools in England so that it sheds it's elitist reputation at a cost of £4 million Gavin Williamson said it helps pupils/students to learn not only english language but other laguages. I learnt German..written spoken and reading without the help of Latin. He said that school children will go on trips to Roman heritage sites to help with a greater understanding of classics. We need engineers, tradesmen, graphic designers. Ok, pharmacists, doctors and nurses might need Latin but it would be better to anglicise prescriptions. Maybe more Latin in the medical world than I appreciate but nevertheless...Granted there are terms we use in daily life like Status Quo; Mea Culpa; De facto; Bona fide; Ad infinitum ; Per se etc etc but to be honest I think many people use those expressions not realising they come from Latin.

Guardian article dated July 31st 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/31/latin-introduced-40-state-secondaries-england

 

[sphexx]

Not wishing to denigrate your learning experience,Richard but on reflection do you not think the school would have benefited the pupils more had so much time spent learning Latin not been put into learning something useful ? They say Latin was only useful for those wanting to become doctors.

Unbelievably, Latin is enjoying 'a resuscitatio' but as far as I'm concerned for a less than useless reason. It's being reintroduced into Secondary schools in England so that it sheds it's elitist reputation at a cost of £4 million Gavin Williamson said it helps pupils/students to learn not only english language but other laguages. I learnt German..written spoken and reading without the help of Latin. He said that school children will go on trips to Roman heritage sites to help with a greater understanding of classics. We need engineers, tradesmen, graphic designers. Ok, pharmacists, doctors and nurses might need Latin but it would be better to anglicise prescriptions. Maybe more Latin in the medical world than I appreciate but nevertheless...Granted there are terms we use in daily life like Status Quo; Mea Culpa; De facto; Bona fide; Ad infinitum ; Per se etc etc but to be honest I think many people use those expressions not realising they come from Latin.

Guardian article dated July 31st 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/31/latin-introduced-40-state-secondaries-england

It wan’t a choice. It was a Grammar School (around 600 boys as I recall) and each year was ‘streamed’. Very occasionally people were moved between streams but not by their choice as fas as I recall. Streams were supposed to be equal but were generally thought not to be and differentiated by the foreign languages Latin > Greek > (can’t recall, Spanish maybe) > German. All did French. The “lowest“ stream did wood/metal work though in substitute for what I can’t recall. Completely bonkers arrangement really except that it was a good school and everything seemed to work.

I did find the Latin useful though not directly but it gave me a feeling of familiarity with the names used in plant and animal classification which are jokey sort of Latin and Greek.

 

[Nod]

I learnt German..written spoken and reading without the help of Latin.

Latin's not much help with German but it is with some other European languages.

 

[sphexx]

Latin's not much help with German but it is with some other European languages.

I agree and don’t know what’s done nowadays though I think it would be better to get pupils actually learning to speak and write in one modern foreign language rather than just pass exams in two or more.

 

[Jelster]

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even "English" has its roots in Latin. Not sure about Greek. The biggest issue I can't get over with foreign languages is the fact that nouns are either male or female, that has never made any sense to me.

 

[Nod]

English shares its roots in German as well as Latin. A few words come from Greek too, some via Latin.

 

[mj4456]

Reckon that even if JohnC6 was hit by a leccy bike doing "only" the legal of 15mph it would still hurt, moreso at even higher speeds though.

 

[sphexx]

English" has its roots in Latin.

Source? English is a Germanic language that has borrowed much from Norman French and other languages. I seem to remember that the simplification of the grammar came about by the melding of English with the Norse languages spoken in the Danelaw once the country was united.

It does share a common root with Latin and Greek and Sanskrit etc in an original (though unknown) Proto-Indo-European language:

Indo-European languages - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Suvv]

I’d rather read something from someone that is respected and has experience than someone with just an English degree but yes the editor should of corrected

Should that be "but yes the editor should have corrected" ?

 

[Jelster]

Source? English is a Germanic language that has borrowed much from Norman French and other languages. I seem to remember that the simplification of the grammar came about by the melding of English with the Norse languages spoken in the Danelaw once the country was united.

It does share a common root with Latin and Greek and Sanskrit etc in an original (though unknown) Proto-Indo-European language:

Indo-European languages - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was taught that Latin had a large influence on what is now known as English, and you only have to look at some nouns & verbs to see that they are similar in many Latin based languages. "True English" is what they speak in Cornwall, which is similar to Welsh (lot's of L's in everything)....

 

[simon ess]

"True English" is what they speak in Cornwall, which is similar to Welsh (lot's of L's in everything)....

Nothing to do with English, sorry.

Angleish, as spoken by the Germanic tribe the Angles is a German dialect from which English developed with considerable influence from Latin and French, together with later loan words from everywhere.

Welsh and Cornish are based on pre Roman Celtic languages.

 

[sphexx]

I was taught that Latin had a large influence on what is now known as English, and you only have to look at some nouns & verbs to see that they are similar in many Latin based languages. "True English" is what they speak in Cornwall, which is similar to Welsh (lot's of L's in everything)....

Cornish is a Brittonic language like Welsh etc AFAIK but it still comes fro the Proto-Indo-European. What you say is true about many nouns similar the Roman e languages but most of that comes from the Norman French and there is often a Germanic alternative. I think you’ll find all the commonest words in daily use are Germanic.

Derivation from Latin was the popular idea (no doubt from when Latin was widely used in academic discourse) and is responsible for some of the erroneous ‘rules’ like the ‘split infinitive’ and so on.

The nearest language to English is the nearly mutually intelligible Frisian spoken in parts of the Netherlands as often cited as:

“Butter, bread and green cheese is good English and good Fries.” sounds almost like the Frisian “Bûter, brea en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.” That’s the classic rhyme that linguists use to show the relationship.

or some similar version.

 

[simon ess]

and is responsible for some of the erroneous ‘rules’ like the ‘split infinitive’ and so on.

Erroneous indeed. Made up Georgian class identifier nonsense. See David Crystal for more info.

 

[MartynK]

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even "English" has its roots in Latin. Not sure about Greek. The biggest issue I can't get over with foreign languages is the fact that nouns are either male or female, that has never made any sense to me.

German has a third gender, neuter, to further complicate things ...

 

[sphexx]

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even "English" has its roots in Latin. Not sure about Greek. The biggest issue I can't get over with foreign languages is the fact that nouns are either male or female, that has never made any sense to me.

We used to have gendered nouns in English. I think we still do in some sense: boy, girl, etc.

 

[engine driver]

Yes well I am annoyed with strangers who try to strike up a conversation.

 

[Nod]

I was taught that Latin had a large influence on what is now known as English, and you only have to look at some nouns & verbs to see that they are similar in many Latin based languages. "True English" is what they speak in Cornwall, which is similar to Welsh (lot's of L's in everything)....

NEVER heard Cornish being spoken, other than in demonstrations on TV.