It's a point of pedantry really. "Can I have" suggests asking if it's possible, to which the answer is "yes" unless they're out of stock.
I suppose the technically correct phrasing should be something like "will you get me a..." but weirdly that sounds a bit cheeky.
Language, hey.
Language, hey.
🙂
"I should like to purchase a pint of your finest blonde ale, Bar keep! Prey do tell if you are out of stock, so that I may peruse your other offerings in the hope of finding a suitable alternative?"
Doesn't quite roll off the tounge as well as "pint of the blonde, cheers mate"
The new iphone 8766 with 8 ex zoom . No mr hipster radio ad trend setting binary human . It is an 8 times zoom . Not some new fangled 8 ex zoom , like the script in your dumbed down for the masses radio advert states.
The new iphone 8766 with 8 ex zoom . No mr hipster radio ad trend setting binary human . It is an 8 times zoom . Not some new fangled 8 ex zoom , like the script in your dumbed down for the masses radio advert states.
Took me a few goes to work out what the hell you were on about, but I think you're against people saying the "x" in, e.g. 8x zoom, as "ex" rather than "times", and I've noticed this recently too and felt disproportionately cross about it.
'Can I get', assuming it's not already here. No, you cannot get. The barman can get, the waitress can get. You don't work here. You can have, and the staff will get it for you.
I also find this very irritating. However, a year or two ago, whilst feeling irritated about this, I realised something worse. It's totally normal (isn't it?) for people to say something like "I got a new bike for my birthday!"
Is that really so different? Nobody asks "what gifts did you receive for Christmas?"
So now I'm irritated by the hypocrisy of my own arbitrary lines in the sand around language. I find the best way out to be listening to Stephen Fry's take on linguistic pedantry:
So now I'm irritated by the hypocrisy of my own arbitrary lines in the sand around language.
The trick is not to think too much about it, at the end of the day language is a means of comunication, so with a degree of empathy and politeness, it doesn't really matter what you say, as long as you are understood.
Language is also constantly evolving, it's not a static construct, we can argue for better or worse, and I agree some standards need to be maintained, or it would be chaos, but if we go down a rabbit hole of correct use of apostrphes, etc. are we mising the point?
Car insurance. Annoys me every year; massive increase, ring them, "We have a campaign running this month and can reduce that amount". Why didn't you apply it on the renewal quote then!
Increase mileage by 1000 (25%) = £2 extra, less than 1% of premium
Increase excess by £100, no difference. I won't be bothering with that
Opaque time-wasting nonsense
Dragged myself to the dentist to replace a damaged filling. Was dreading it as always. In my mind it was going to be a good 3 chapters* in the chair suffering Running Man type scenarios all while staring into a harsh white light.
New dentist tho must earn twice a much as his colleagues. He works at a speed I’m not accustomed to when expecting 30 mins or so of solid unpleasantness. 😉 He did start off with “how are you” to which I replied “not great, not a fan of high speed drills especially near my face” to which he replied “you can leave it a month and we’ll just extract the whole tooth if you’d prefer”. Got to respect that kind of bedside manner.
10 mins from handshake to being gently steered out of the building via a punch in the wallet. Didn't even hurt. I'd properly physc'd myself up for it as well. What a waste of worrying.
*I really hate the dentist so I try and recite the best bits of my favourite books as a distraction tactic.
Car insurance
I just fire up QuidCo, take the cheapest quote that meets my requirements and trouser the £45 introduction fee Quidco pays out. I don't see any value add in any particular company and they mostly are just fronts for the same underwriters. Last four years I've gone Hastings, AA, Admiral, RAC. Not had to claim but that's just going to be rubbish whoever you're with.
That when people ask for tyres they say Mitcha-Lin but when they ask for Gordon Ramsey they say Meesh-Lan.
And don't get me started on people who say Double Entendre as Doo-ble Entendre, unless they're actually French like.
yeah car insurance, I have a clean licence for 25 years when some pillock parks behind me so he can get a dent, £375 for damage and lose 4yrs no claims bonus. That alone has cost more than 375.
it was £600 last year, so renewal is £700. How mental does it have to get? So i took the cheapest quote at £500, when i tried to contact my old insurers darwin(?) for a better deal i couildnt get through anyway
Houseplants- if you dont water them, they die, but if you water them they grow too big for the house, unless theyre succulents, in which case they turn brown and die anyway
People that complain constantly about things. Then when you try to help them out by explaining whos really taken their cookies, they just keep ranting and dont let you get a word in
Car insurance. Annoys me every year; massive increase, ring them, "We have a campaign running this month and can reduce that amount". Why didn't you apply it on the renewal quote then!
Increase mileage by 1000 (25%) = £2 extra, less than 1% of premium
Increase excess by £100, no difference. I won't be bothering with that
Opaque time-wasting nonsense
Back in the day, I had a H-reg 1.3 Mk2 Golf. My girlfriend at the time had a G-reg 1.3 Mk2 Golf. They were both insured with the same company, mine cost £400 (cos I was a young driver, and therefore reckless), hers cost £300 (cos she was a female driver, and therefore careful). I rang to add her onto mine and they wanted £500 extra, because she was a young driver...
Then, after said girlfriend had become my wife, and then become my ex-wife, I rang to have her removed from my insurance. They said it would put my premium up, so she stayed on it.
Probably get heat for this one, but people who walk their reactive dogs on lead in typically dog off lead areas then get shirty when you can't give them 5 metres of personal space because the path is a narrow singletrack running through sand dunes. Look, I've actually trained my dog to ignore yours dog and keep trotting along giving as much space as possible. Your dog lurching at mine, being reactive and closing the gap whilst you struggle to hold the lead back on a narrow track where you're gonna come across another 6 off lead dogs before you get to the other end ain't my issue, and neither is you being all shirty about it
Sounds like a you problem, walk your dog on the beach instead
In the same breath people with reactive dogs on extension leads that act like you're the problem when they're too in their own little bubble to realise we're near them and to lock the extension
Anyway, two from me today:
Ramming pedal bins into the corner so that when you press the pedal the lid ****s the wall with a loud clang.
Scraping butter from the knife back into the tub. Her home-made blackberry jam is amazing, but I don't really want to dunk it into my tomato soup. Rationing ended some time ago.
Scraping butter from the knife back into the tub. Her home-made blackberry jam is amazing, but I don't really want to dunk it into my tomato soup. Rationing ended some time ago
I have a separate tub for this very reason 😀
I have a separate tub for this very reason
Wouldn't work, unless I hid it. We'd end up with twelve tubs all with half an inch of butter left in them. Our cupboards are rammed like this, the concept of "open something, use it up before opening another" is completely alien. I went on an archaeological dig in the bathroom cupboard looking for something the other day, the first three items I removed were empty boxes.
Which reminds me,
There are, that I'm aware of, nineteen toothbrushes in this house. Granted, two I use for general cleaning rather than for brushing teeth, and there are three kids she looks after during the week, but that's still 17 brushes for five mouths.
We're up to 21, I found two more in the process. To be fair, one of them was an old travel toothbrush of mine bought in an emergency, so we're back to 20 after I binned that.
Not getting my free flu jab. Being asthmatic and over 50, NHS sends me about 10 texts a year reminding me I can go and get a free shot. It's 30 mins away tho and I decided as they've binned off the Flu/Covid BOGOF I wouldn't bother.
What do I have now? Not Covid and if it's just a cold, it's about the worse one I've ever had. Sweats, shivers, fever dreams, raspy cough, aches and snot. All of my internal organs have apparently been reconfigured to produce mucus.
Still probably not worth getting the jab now.
I've popped onto facebook to create a for sale ad in marketplace. Nope, apparently I can only do that in the app now, not through internet browser. I don't want the app, I am perfectly happy the way I was accessing it thank you. Ah well, anyone want a set of roof rails for a VW T5?
I've popped onto facebook to create a for sale ad in marketplace. Nope, apparently I can only do that in the app now,
Seems to still be available for me;
Taken me weeks to find any Russet apples, finally found some at Chatsworth Farm Shop. 59p per apple!
Changed the bedding yesterday. Mrs Shep has a habit of stuffing paper tissues down the gap between the mattress and the headboard. Had previously recovered 17 in one sweep and asked her very nicely not to be so manky. This time I stopped counting at 50 tissues. Murder may be done. In her defence, if they're crammed down there, they ain't disintegrating into a million pieces and cementing themselves to clean clothes in the washing machine, so there is that.
The poster drove into a stationary vehicle and is blaming them for it?
yes I know, but Im sure it wasnt there when I looked, before I backed out of my space
drove into a stationary vehicle [which wasnt there] before I backed out of my space
Which is a pretty good argument for backing into a space, so as to be driving out of it. As per standard instruction issued at work about 15 years ago on all company sites, and I've just automatically done so ever since. On topic,it makes my wife disproportionately cross, as she bangs on about not being able to get stuff in and out of the back of the car, but tough titty.
Sorry, slight thread drift... anyway, wasn't there a discussion on this very subject a few years back? Or maybe I imagined it.
I thought the highway code recommended reversing into a driveway or parking space on a main road?
I've always done it where I live even if it inconveniences another car for 15 seconds when I park up. 🤔🐌🚗
I don't even think it's a recommendation, reversing out into a majorerer road is a MUST NOT, eg reversing out of a side street onto a main road. I would assume it's the same for driveways but I'd have look it up to be certain.
Which is a pretty good argument for backing into a space, so as to be driving out of it. As per standard instruction issued at work about 15 years ago on all company sites, and I've just automatically done so ever since.
I did a site visit to the AA once. I almost always reverse into parking bays but in this case I had a load of kit including a server to unload. On Reception I was met with "you have to reverse into the parking bays," I replied "oh, sorry, I didn't realise." There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment before informing me that I had to go back out and turn it around before he'd let me into the building.
This latest attempt by Facebook to make its own platform an unpleasant place to be and annoying af, that's aside from all the AI crap forced on you now.
Automatically making the first few words of a post massive and ugly. Oh look, they don't fit in now 🙄
For example
The way delivery drivers are treated... how is this a fair schedule? and not encoraging dangerous driving?
before he'd let me into the building
Was that the Ellison Building on Newcastle Business Park by any chance? If he was bald, he was known as the 'major'...
People who make shit up without doing a simple bit of research...
Rule 201
Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.
Yes, I still have no idea how he got there with me watching all the timeThe poster drove into a stationary vehicle and is blaming them for it?
yes I know, but Im sure it wasnt there when I looked, before I backed out of my space
umm... I think its standard advice to look where you are going. you know, as you are actually moving?
Was that the Ellison Building on Newcastle Business Park by any chance? If he was bald, he was known as the 'major'...
It was one of the HQs but I don't think it was Newcastle (I really have no idea now), but "major" tracks. The AA's internal staff all have military ranks, so you don't have a Line Manager you have a Sergeant or some such. It was in many ways a deeply odd place.
I know of an auto industry company where, several years ago, staff were berated for not reverse parking at the office. A few weeks later, as the white painted exterior walls were slowing darkening, staff were politely asked not to reverse park.
I did a site visit to the AA once. I almost always reverse into parking bays but in this case I had a load of kit including a server to unload. On Reception I was met with "you have to reverse into the parking bays," I replied "oh, sorry, I didn't realise." There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment before informing me that I had to go back out and turn it around before he'd let me into the building
Had the same thing at one of the big energy suppliers. I explained that if I reversed into the space it’d be impossible to unload.
They actually told me to unload then turn the vehicle around.
I then had to drive out of the space and block the car park whilst I reloaded my equipment at the end of the job.
During the site induction I got a look for laughing out loud that they had disciplined someone, for putting out a fire without having a fire extinguisher ticket.
More importantly why do shops never put Alcohol free beer in the fridge? Bloody annoying.
We were banned from reverse parking at our old site, as the fumes went straight into the weird air circulation system of the buildings
We were banned from reverse parking at our old site, as the fumes went straight into the weird air circulation system of the buildings
We were banned from reverse parking at a place I worked in Texas because the standard of driving was so bad that reversing took up too much time and resulted in too many accidents. Luckily it was also prohibited to take firearms onto company premises, so the only consequence was dented car body panels, and not mass fatalities.
We were banned from reverse parking at our old site, as the fumes went straight into the weird air circulation system of the buildings
We were banned from reverse parking at a place I worked in Texas because the standard of driving was so bad that reversing took up too much time and resulted in too many accidents. Luckily it was also prohibited to take firearms onto company premises, so the only consequence was dented car body panels, and not mass fatalities.
Make one wonder about driving standards in general, my neighbours park like pricks and it was irritating me until the penny dropped.. They are simply not confident/skilled enough to reverse park or parallel park.
Unless they can drive in 'nose forward' they don't even try and they'll park further away.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they don't attempt it and crash into my car every evening! But c'mon it's not hard with a bit of practice.
The W on my keyboard is currently producing multiple Ws. It is inconsistent, which makes it even more annoying.
They are simply not confident/skilled enough to reverse park or parallel park.
Are they of the older persuasion?
I was never taught those things. Reverse was used for the "reversing round a corner" manoeuvre and the "turn in the road using forward and reverse gears." I taught myself how to parallel park years after passing my test in 1990.
People on holiday in Jamaica moaning. You won't be there in a week then inhabitants will be rebuilding.
"winch and plummet"
Awaiting a new bike. Despatch dates were in a 5 day window. This is the last day of that window. Still pending. And the delivery options shop is dodgy as chuff. So will have to arrange something else but can't because....
And with that it's now heading to me.
Bought two bottles of Radox bath stuff, his'n'hers. Just run a bath and accidentally picked up the wrong one, now I smell like a tart.
(Quite literally. It's cherry and raspberry, just missing the almonds and I could be in Bakewell.)
Needing to be age checked for alcohol free beer at a sel service till.
Needing to be age checked for alcohol free beer at a sel service till.
+1.
I used to think it was a "computer says no" issue, it's in the 'alcohol' category so gets flagged. But alcohol-free spirits are security-tagged also, whoTF shoplifts AF gin?
That driving to work is almost traffic free during half term and takes me half as long.
The spring loaded gates on core paths/right of way, why do they need to be so snappy highly strung?
Why do they really need to be there?
The price increase of mince and beef in general
The spring loaded gates on core paths/right of way, why do they need to be so snappy highly strung?
Why do they really need to be there?
Er, to keep livestock in the right place? To mark a boundary? You know, all the usual reasons a gat might be needed.
Anyway, setting up TSB internet banking and it asking me for a password (fine) and then, get this, a memorable word. In other words two, different, passwords and I have to remember which one is for which bit. Genius. A pain for me, pretty much impossible for anyone with anyone who's not very digitally savvy.
The spring loaded gates on core paths/right of way, why do they need to be so snappy highly strung?
Why do they really need to be there?
Er, to keep livestock in the right place? To mark a boundary? You know, all the usual reasons a gate might be needed.
Anyway, setting up TSB internet banking and it asking me for a password (fine) and then, get this, a memorable word. In other words two, different, passwords and I have to remember which one is for which bit. Genius. A pain for me, pretty much impossible for anyone with anyone who's not very digitally savvy.
This forum *eyeroll*
Ok I get it if the path goes through a field but why do they need the industrial heavy duty metal if the path goes between two hedgerows with fences. Have a gate by all means to stop motors or motorbikes but easy access at the side
Then there's the Amazon bought signs stuck on the fence to say no parking 24hr access required to field, farmers they don't own the verges ok don't block the gate but some are a law unto oneself.
I agree with the meat is too cheap idea. But there is simplistic reporting. Good quality grass raised meat is low impact. It's the intensive farming and the American battery farming models that are massively impactful but keep prices down.
I enjoy lamb/hogget but the lamb jigsaw in my freezer came from fields I can see from my kitchen.
So I suppose intensive farming techniques really anger me.
whoTF shoplifts AF gin?
Why TF does alcohol free gin even exist?
The literal point of spirits is to distill the alcohol from whatever brewed stuff you have. And then you take it out afterwards? WTAF? What fresh new manner of utter crazy is this?
I enjoy lamb/hogget but the lamb jigsaw in my freezer came from fields I can see from my kitchen.
So I suppose intensive farming techniques really anger me.
So basically what you're saying is if you live in the middle of Wensleydale or Derbyshire with access to a farm shop its fine to eat meat but not if you live in central Birmingham or Manchester?
The only way everyone can enjoy what you are enjoying is if the production is ramped up from a few animals in a scenic pasture to an industrial scale delivery system.
What you are really saying is exactly what I'm saying - meat is too cheap.
I mean there is plenty of feral pigeons in city centres? Wood pigeon tastes good and they're basically cousins, right? 😆
People increasingly losing their shit over Halloween. It's yet another example of the creeping infantilisation of society.
Aka "having children."
I dislike trick-or-treat because I think "give us free stuff or else" is a terrible message to be sending to young children. Halloween itself is just a bit of fun.
Halloween itself is just a bit of fun
If Halloween was just a bit of fun for children, you know dressing up in sheets, a bit of trick or treating and doing a bit of apple bobbing, I'd be all for it.
What Halloween actually is is an industry of disposable tat.
Bought two bottles of Radox bath stuff, his'n'hers.
What a time to be alive! 🤣
@winston no what I'm saying is intensive farming is pretty polluting and not good for animal welfare but it is what keeps meat prices low. When I was a nipper, so 40-50 years ago parents were teacher and nurse but as a % of household budget meat and food in general was much higher. So we now have cheap meat but at a cost.
I live in an area with cheap housing that is pretty rural but that has terrible transport links and has lost its industry. I also know a few farmers that have animals slaughtered and butchered. The meat comes to me straight from the abattoir not some twee farm shop.
I am renovating a house that I bought a few months back, and I'm still living in the place I rented before. I've moved a load of tools over, and a load of stuff, and now absolutely everything I ever want, is in the wrong house, or sometimes it's in the right house but I'm not
It's quite reasonable to be cross about this, but the two houses are about 150 metres apart, which makes it disproportionate how furious it makes me. If they were further apart, it'd be worse but I'd be more careful and plan more. But 150 metres is perfectly designed to be an annoying distance to walk with a heavy thing, but too short a distance to ever actually plan ahead and get my shit together.
(tonight it was my kitchen scales, which I took to the other place to weigh out some plaster mix, and then forgot to bring back. No way am I walking 300 metres in the rain to get them, but instead I made a Guess The Quantities meal and screwed every single one up. And that made me DISPROPORTIONATELY CROSS
I share your pain. For various reasons I am not allowed to park in front of my garage so I work on my car in front of the house. All my tools are 50m away up the drive in the garage. I think I have all the socket sets , spanners etc required but every time its back to the garage for the 10mm e star 1/4 drive soocket for the 1 E star bolt BMW saw fit to use when every other fixing is Hex. I have a shopping basket that I load up with stuff beforehand but axle stands and trolley jacks I drive up to the garage and hand ball them in first with what I think are the required hand tools, but I always miss things .
This time of year.
It's worse this year cos of the way the dates / days of the week have fallen but you've got Halloween, Bonfire Night, War Christmas* and Black Friday all rolled into one exhausting 3-week period where the shops are trying to stock and advertise Halloween tat, fireworks, Black Friday promotions and early Christmas stuff and in the middle of it all some poor army cadet selling poppies.
The whole place is a awash with a mix of plastic Halloween tat and plastic War Christmas tat accompanied by endless adverts for Black Friday (which now appears to start in late October and run for a month...) and Christmas (which now appears to start on 1st November).
And it's dark at 5pm.
*I have nothing against Remembrance Day at all, what I do object to is the way it's become a willy-waving contest of how many silhouettes of the fallen (or of tanks and Lancaster bombers) you / your village can put up alongside ever more ostentatious poppy displays.
I have nothing against Remembrance Day at all...
Neither do I, but I wish it was only in a three week period. As far as I can tell, there's now a two month period when the people who hate wokey virtue signalling get very wound up if you are not *checks notes* virtue signalling enough.
A lady at work was fundraising by getting her bum length hair cut.
Fair play to her I thought, and duly sponsored her via the just giving page. Can't be easy going from that length to a shaved head.
Saw her a day or two later expecting the full Grant Mitchell.
She's got a chin length bob ffs! 😂 It looks very nice too.
I feel a bit short changed somehow. 🤔
Oh well. Good cause.
A lady at work was fundraising by getting her bum length hair cut
The fact that had to read that sentence a couple of times to make sure I understood what exactly was being cut for charity.
Big kitchen utensils allegedly placed in the cutlery drainer after washing up, spilling out and taking the cutlery with them.Upside down mugs and bowls, AND ESPECIALLY SAUCEPAN HANDLES etc placed on the (why can't I think of the name for this) draining rack thing after washing up with little pools of cold washing up water to drip all over the unsuspecting collector of said items for putting away! Gsrrrrggghh!
"Please may you"
I know you are trying to be polite but it actually riles me more than if you said "do this now"
The outer freezer door of my integrated fridge/freezer has started catching on the edge of the cupboard so needs adjusting. I can detach the outer door from the freezer door no problem, but the adjustments for the hinges are obscured by the freezer door. I can get to the hinge fixing screws with it open. I now have a choice of trying to take out the whole fridge freezer single handed or going through several (to probably too many) iterations of removing the hinge, tweaking the adjustment and refitting the hinge. Bah.
a willy-waving contest of how many silhouettes of the fallen (or of tanks and Lancaster bombers) you / your village can put up alongside ever more ostentatious poppy displays.
Like this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy400y9ydqzo
The outer freezer door of my integrated fridge/freezer has started catching on the edge of the cupboard so needs adjusting.
Can you adjust the cupboard?