I’ll start:

Solid wood worktops in kitchens. Admittedly they look nice, but only for about a week. And then they start to look crap, as they don’t deal well with hot things, or wet things, or detergenty things, or any sort of iffy substance (specific example, slight dribble of kettle descaler), you know, all the kind of things that there’s a lot of in a kitchen. Because of their inability to cope with the very environment they’re supposed to be for, they need to be periodically treated which is a PITA and involves a lot of dust and horrible varnish.

And, there are perfectly brilliant other solutions, such as formica worktops, decent ones of which can look exactly like solid wood if that’s the look you’re after, or, if you’re feeling spendy, granite, so there’s no need for the stupid effing things in the first place.

And breathe…

I’ll raise you wooden with a marble one. Our kitchen is custom made (by us) to fit the room and, as it is an old house, none of the angles are 90degrees. My GF wanted a marble worktop and we finally found a place that would do us one.

I’m amazed at how quickly you can scratch, ding and mar such a perfectly flat surface that cost, if I am honest, a ridiculous amount of money for such a small worktop.

Working for a living.

Dogs (as the owner of one).

Wooden garden furniture in the UK, table is currently very soggy and was already rotting, I’d prefer a concrete and metal one, the boos says it’s ‘boring’ though, won’t matter in this weather though.

So many other things!

I do like the look of the wood worktop though!

I’m amazed at how quickly you can scratch, ding and mar such a perfectly flat surface

See also ceramic sinks. When we had our kitchen done, we got a lot of the stuff from a friend in the trade. We specced a ceramic sink but he wouldn’t let us get one, said we’d end up replacing it quickly after it got chipped when we accidentally dropped something

See also ceramic sinks.

Oh yes, I was wondering whether to rant about wooden worktops or Belfast sinks, and picked the worktop.

horrible varnish

Varnish is your problem, they should be oiled.

My vote goes to touch screens in cars. Impossible to operate without taking your eyes off the road for (too) long periods. Prone to misfire when your finger is jolted off target. And they look manky with greasy fingerprints.

Oiling my worktop is my least favourite job.
Worktops were solved years ago. WTF have we gone backwards?

Electric opening tailgates on cars. Having spent a few weeks with cars with this feature at various times at no point have I thought ‘wow, this is so much better than lifting it or closing by hand’ usually I think, why is it so f@%##ing slow and annoying

Johnson. /PTerry

Piano black interior in cars. Need I say more?

For those who don’t know – it’s a panjandrum from ww2. About a ton of high explosive strapped to a big wheel, propelled by a large number of rockets, and with no steering. What could possibly go wrong?😀

And just complete the picture they decided to test this ‘top secret’ weapon on a beach crowded with holiday makers!

Varnish is your problem, they should be oiled.

And that will fix all the problems with with hot things, or wet things, or detergenty things, or any sort of iffy substance, and never need re-treating, will it?

Worktops were solved years ago. WTF have we gone backwards?

Exactly

Massive like to the solid worktops issue. We 100% regret our dark oak which looks utterly shite near the sink no matter how much oil or gubbins we use. It’s getting binned off for granite if we could ever find someone who would actually turn up to quote and do it.

Oil is a waste of time you cannot stop the dark patches unless you disconnect the sink and ban all liquids from the kitchen.

Gravel bikes – like road bikes but slower, like mountain bikes but less capable. We live in the UK, we do not have endless miles of graded gravel like they do in the US.

Gearboxes for bikes – less efficient, heavier and when was the last time you broke your rear derailleur – once in the last decade or more.

Loved the look of our solid wood worktop and agree that oiling it is the solution to keeping water off it. However, trying to find a 24-48hr window to oil it and not use it means that it was rarely done. Was very low down on my to do list as something to do just before locking the front door when going away for the weekend

Belfast sinks

Look good in some kitchens. As far as I can tell, that’s the start, middle and end of their usefulness. Love the panjandrum, it’s so artfully stupid like a carnival wheel of death…WW2 is filled with stuff like that.

Construction of expensive smart phones. What’s the point in charging a premium for a nice smartphone that feels nice and premium in the hand and looks nice, but then to stop it from smashing the first time you drop it you have to cover it in cheap plastic!! You don’t buy a nice car and cover it in cheap plastic that makes them look crap (well some people do but there is no hope for them). And to top it all off they make it such that they can’t be repaired!

Silly alloy wheels – super low profile tyres that make the ride and handling worse.

Agree with touch screens on cars…the most ridiculous thing ever invented. Took a Tesla for a test drive and it was a joke trying to hit the right part of the screen to adjust the ventilation whilst driving on a typical bumpy British B road. Required way too much focus and concentration away from the road and onto the screen. Worse than talking on a mobile phone whilst driving. Should be banned.

Solid wood worktop – tick
Belfast sink – tick
Rayburn – tick

*sigh*

For those who don’t know – it’s a panjandrum from ww2. About a ton of high explosive strapped to a big wheel, propelled by a large number of rockets, and with no steering. What could possibly go wrong?

Good God, here’s a recreation.

Brexit. VAR. Disc brakes on road bikes. Prawn Cocktail flavoured Quavers

Bye

Electric opening tailgates on cars. Having spent a few weeks with cars with this feature at various times at no point have I thought ‘wow, this is so much better than lifting it or closing by hand’ usually I think, why is it so f@%##ing slow and annoying

Yep, I sort of get the waving your foot under the back ones, but otherwise they’re pointless beepy things.

Piano black interior in cars. Need I say more?

No, no more to be said. If you want your car to look great for about 2 hours on the day you pick them up, then it’s the way to go, just accept it will look a manky mess the rest of your ownership.

For some reason I was expecting that panjandrum to be a lot quicker.

Edit: Sorry can’t agree with wooden worktops. We have oak ones, had them for getting on 8 years and give them a coat is osmo top oil every couple of years. Still looking good. Any scratches just get sanded out. Agree if your silly enough to put hot pans on them they will scorch, but who would do that?

Disc brakes on road bikes

There also now seems to be a push for 1x on road bikes as well. I know, let me spend lots of money to have bigger jumps in my gears and a higher friction / faster wearing drivetrain.

(Wondering when the triple MTB chainset will return as the new amazing way to get more gear range)

Good God, here’s a recreation.

A modern approach to this concept doesn’t look much safer either….

I’ll add anything Oak Furniture Land sells.

Many years ago I bought a bed frame and dining set from them. I naively just thought “Oak, how’d they manage to sell furniture out of oak for this money, there can’t be many oak farms”

So, it turns out it’s not really sustainable, but at least they seem to have a reasonable sourcing policy and I vowed to keep it forever. The table is pretty good, despite having rice crispies mushed into it on the regular, but the chairs are crap, the legs are wobbling and the kids have destroyed the coverings, I could have them repaired, but by the time I’ve found someone who does that kind of work and someone who could recover them it would cost twice what I paid for them. At least one of my mates in work is keen to take them when they’re finally written off at home, he love word working and fancies a chess set out of the legs and frame.

The bed frame is near useless. It weighs a tonne and it’s made from big chunky bits of wood, but they wetn really cheap on the fixings and such and it needs a lot of work to be perfect again. My Wife’s opinion is it’s lasted 10 years, that’s not bad, which is isn’t for furniture, but I think if you’re going to run a shop that’s tearing through hardwood at the rate they must do, why not just work a little harder to make it last as long as it’s could quite easily do.

Things that are just a bloody stupid idea? How about the very idea that things shouldn’t look aged and used..? Be it worktops, sinks or mountain bikes… so I’ll suggest Invisiframe for room 101.

We live in the UK, we do not have endless miles of graded gravel like they do in the US.

*looks at map of the borders, smirks, continues think gravel bikes open up a huge area of land*

Other thing with marble worktop, and Belfast sinks **** broken crockery.

Dropper posts for gravel bikes. Really? I suppose that farm track won’t shred itself!

We have oak ones, had them for getting on 8 years and give them a coat is osmo top oil every couple of years.

Which you don’t have to do with formica ones

Still looking good.

Decent formica ones look the same

Any scratches just get sanded out.

Decent formica ones don’t

Good God, here’s a recreation.

Catherine Won’t.

Catherine Won’t.

Bravo!

I agree with @wobbliscott on the smartphones. Specifically Google. They make a huge amount of fuss about how their phones are splashproof, even to the point of it being the second feature that shows up on their website. The only thing is water damage isn’t covered under the warranty, so why even **** bother!

Contactless shopping. Use the app, fill your bag, scan the till qr code all good so far. The press the screen to say no bags, the press the screen for contactless payment. So every single person touches exactly the same areas.

Solid wood worktop – tick
Belfast sink – tick
Rayburn – tick

*sigh*

We had the full set in the kitchen of our last house, which was a Aberdeenshire farmhouse.

The Rayburn, installed by the previous owner, was a solid fuel burner and was the sole means of cooking and providing hot water / heating (apart from the immersion heater). It was installed in such a way that it couldn’t be supplemented with an oil boiler.

The Rayburn and I had a love / hate relationship while we lived there, mostly me hating it.

Worktops were solved years ago

Were they?

Formica is ruined if it gets compromised and a bit damp. it also has shit edges and crap joins. all these things are design issues as much asnything else though. Wooden worktops shouldn’t have sunken sinks or draining boarfds or taps moutned through them in them standing water be bad on quite alot of things.

Infact on that note.

bowl type wash basins. the shoul be nothing that isn’t basin between the tap and the basin. Its going to get wet, its for washign, why would you make it a less resistant layout meaning more cleaning.

Which is bradly aligned with any kind of open shelf in a kitch, seperate kitchen units and freestanding cookers.

 the press the screen for contactless payment. So every single person touches exactly the same areas.

I think there’s a misunderstanding between what you think they mean by contactless, and what they rest of the world understands it to mean?

(Wondering when the triple MTB chainset will return as the new amazing way to get more gear range)

Can’t decide if this is irony of not…

– Opinion-based ‘news’

the shoul be nothing that isn’t basin between the tap and the basin

THIS ^^^

In fact, I’d like to see taps being mounted IN the basin. Yes, you need a bigger basin… but you need room for the tap somewhere anyway.

Low profile tyres on huge rims on 4×4 cars making them useless off road.

Standard cars (non track day cars) that can do well over the national speed limit.

The concept of a 9-5, 5 day working week.

Religion.

I think if you’re going to run a shop that’s tearing through hardwood at the rate they must do, why not just work a little harder to make it last as long as it’s could quite easily do.

Becuase then you wouldn’t have to go back and buy a new one?

I’m definitely a fan of the Sam Vimes “boots” theory of economics

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned

I pay for quality now. Initial purchase costs a lot more (£300 for some Barker shoes) but they last a lot longer (5 yearsold and they look like I nought them last month)