The whinge thread

[SparkOut]

I just started looking this morning, and have got Scorpio done. That's all I'll be allowed to do for a while

[katsmom]

Aries, Pices, Scorpio....I get it now.

No, I don't

[giraffe]

Why do your unhappy smileys all have bones in their mouths?

[katsmom]

That's me gritting my teeth. I want to hurt someone Probably myself. I have a splitting headache and it's not from doing puzzles this time.

[giraffe]

Where's Kat? You sound like you need a hug!

[katsmom]

She's now laying on the floor by my feet Like a cat I suppose. We're off to make a doll out of cocounts Any idea how to do that?

I think I need to go back to bed and start this day over. But the minute I do, the phone will ring and it will be Hasbro again calling to tell me the Christmas present I bought in December for katherine won't work until February! But that's another whinge isn't it!

[gill216]

I know the theory on the coconut doll if this helps.

You need several different sized coconuts and you put holes top and bottom. Start with the head and string a double length of elastic folded in half (you will have 4 strings emerging from the bottom of the head) and put a stick through the loop at the top of the head to hold it in place.

Take strings 1 and 4 and thread small coconuts for arms. Middle 2 strings are then used for the body. Split them after the body is in place and use them separately for the legs.

Have fun.

Gill

[katsmom]

Oh no! Now we have to go buy 3 more coconuts! I think we are going to make a skewer stick body with a very big head! And she is reading this over my shoulder. When did she learn to read

[Laura]

Thought I'd better post this on here, just to explain away future posts. My flippin' E key keeps getting stuck!

It's driving me up the wall. Everything I type has very dodgy spelling cos the EEEEEEs keep disappearing and then I have to go back and change them all. aaarrgghhh!

[Bunnylump]

Oh how irritiating!! I've got a return key at work which keeps sticking and if you're not careful you go off to do something and suddenly discover you have 136 extra pages of spaces in your document!

[giraffe]

Aha! I've found it. I knew there was a moan thread somewhere.

Neff Oven, less than 2 years old. Lightbulb has ceased to function in the main oven. I can't get the cover off to get at the bulb. The instructions unhelpfully tell me to unscrew anticlockwise. It moves about 2 or 3 mm and then stops. I have no idea if this is a far as it is meant to go. I phoned the number in the manual and it rang about 50 times then someone answered and told me to ring another number which was engaged. I tried several more times and then ot through to the queue. After about 15 minutes of being told that if I needed dimensions I should ring another number, or I could email them with my problem and thery were sorry that I was still in their queue, I then got a message saying they had technical problems with their queue and if I would leave my number and name they would get back to me. So now if I go out I will think I have missed thwem and if I stay in they won't ring.

Does anyone have a NEFF U1422 and if so do you know how to get the bulb cover off.

PS, thought I'd see if there was any advice online and I found several pages of people saying they changed the oven bulb and the oven never worked again!

[SparkOut]

I don't know. I downloaded the manual for it, and the instruction picture seems to suggest quite a turn, not just two or three mm. It does also show that it's just being turned with just a couple of fingers and thumb so a great force shouldn't be needed. I don't think you'd really damage it if you tried a bit harder to turn it, but of course it shouldn't be forced. If it does turn just a bit and then stop solidly, can you simply pull it off at that point, like a bayonet fit lightbulb? I'd think more that it's just not unscrewed enough though. Sorry I can't be more help.

[giraffe]

I have tried brute force to turn it more and turning and pulling down. It's tucked right in the corner of the oven, so hard to see and feel what you are doing. I even took the oven door off so I could get closer. It's probably sealed up with grease, because it gets a lot dirtier than my old gas oven. It seems to need cleaning almost every time you use it. Are all fan ovens like that?

I might try putting the oven on low to melt the grease, but then It will be too hot to grab and turn.

edit: I tried the hotline again and eventually got through to a human. He said to put the oven on low and then when it has cooled down enough to touch try again using a rubber glove for extra grip.
It doesn't seem to working though. Oh, and he said " Hit it with a hammer!" I've been trying to stop myself from doing that all day

[kathlyn]

The one on my oven I lever off with a screw driver.

[giraffe]

Apparently it does two complete rotations and then falls off! (At least I now know it is meant to turn more than it does.)

[clvrlad]

Everything I type has very dodgy spelling cos the EEEEEEs keep disappearing and then I have to go back and change them all. aaarrgghhh!

wish i had an excuse

[Bunnylump]

> soapbox<

Hospital car park charges.

I've been taking my Mum to hospital quite a bit lately for various check ups/ consultant visits / blood tests. She's only able to walk about 20 yards and has a blue badge. How many disabled parking spaces were there in the hospital car park? One. (Filled, obviously). So I had to leave her sitting on a park bench as near as I could get (not very) to the entrance in the cold while I parked the car miles away. MINIMUM CHARGE (up to 30 minutes) £3.

I then went off in search of a wheelchair to take her in (had to go up and down several levels to find one), and took her in. Saw the huge queue in the path lab and realised I'd have to go back and put another £3 because I wouldn't have long enough.

When my husband's parents were in there a few years back we were visiting every day for months on end, and paying a minimum of £21 a week to do so.

If this isn't a tax on sick people I don't know what is. Absolutely ludicrous.

>Back off soapbox<

[brian]

When I was on the Patients Forum for our local hospital we raised the problem of car park charges with the CEO. He reckoned they paid for a lot of things the NHS won't fund. Accepting this we then queried the cost when you are regularly visiting a close relative who is incarcerated (I was going in twice a day when Ann was in) so they have now a 'season ticket' which lasts a week and is an enormous saving. However the catch is they don't publicize this saving, and you have to get a chit from the Ward Sister which you then have to take round to the Traffic Control room -- situated in the most god forsaken part of the hospital -- but it is available, you just have to make a nuisance of yourself.
(That's probably the reason why the Patients Forums were disbanded by the Minister of Health last year)

[Looby]

Our local hospital has the season ticket system and it's very easy - there's a man behind a window just by the 'pay on foot before you leave' machines. The charges are £1.00 an hour or £10.00 for the week which makes a huge saving.

[eirian]

well, MFI have finally admitted that we won't be getting any of our £9.5k back. We've no way of getting any money to even mean we can have *any* kind of new kitchen.

About the only thing I can think of is getting the builder to finish the room enough to mean it's safe for me to move all my books into, we can then turn what is now the library (you know, that really tiny room estate agents call the 3rd bedroom) into a study and hopefully free enough room for the nursery to be a nursery.
So much for my nice new kitchen and having a dining room!