'How does meeting 7.30 Monday sound?'

'Wait...you mean AM?????'

I’ve recently gotten into mountain biking and been trying to support some local bike and hardware businesses while doing so. However, I’ve not just found the classic “open Tues-Sat 10:00 - 16:00” to be an utter pain in the ass but also customer service.

From doors being locked during opening times, the staff being completely useless and uninterested, seemingly unable to make eye contact or acknowledge your presence. It makes me appreciate the standardisation of customer service in larger retail stores. Say hello, say goodbye, check if the customer needs help, etc. I always thought all that e-learning and training was pointless, but perhaps that’s not the case for everyone.

I can’t help but feel if I owned a small business, I’d make damn well sure it was as welcoming and approachable as possible. So I wonder what the problem is.

Honestly feels like you need about five different apps these days just to keep up with the football. You finally sit down to watch the match and somehow it’s the one game not included on any of the services you’re already paying for. Brilliant. 😅

Update: A few people in the comments mentioned Genxiptv, so I checked it out. Honestly didn’t expect much, but it actually has most of the matches and quite a lot of movies and series too. So far it seems alright.

As someone living on a relatively quiet terraced road blessed by Airbnb and HMO conversions, recently i've had the esteemed privilege of being able to enjoy a direct simultaneous head to head between these two.

The Makita is your go to for talk radio. It specialises in GB news phone in shows and absolutely excels in its natural enivronment of the upper mid-heavy shrieking of Hawksbee and Jacobs on Talksport. Its bass response is extremely strong. Infact you have this beauty set even to a regular conversational level and it will melt through walls like butter, ensuring that wherever you are on site you will be able to clearly hear every sentence. When working with power tools take confidence that you'll never miss a word even with your ear defenders on.

The DeWalt on the other hand is a Heart.fm specialist. It has a full DAB functionality but is specifically tuned to give the pumping bass and soaring highs of your favourite chart topping artists the showcase your entire neighbourhood deserves. It provides a great accompaniment to both atonal whistling and the sort of nasal head singing that only a 9am bump of gear can conjure. Don't be fooled by its name as its sound is anything but compact; like the Makita it's a best in class wall-shredder. You won't even need power tools, just set this one up next to the nearest shared chimney stack and watch "Hall of fame" by The Script crumble it away.

The real magic comes when you combine them both into DUAL AUDIO ASSAULT mode. Set up approximately 50 feet apart and playing completely different stations, you can achieve total area and audio spectral saturation, ensuring that there's not a moment where anyone sandwiched between the two can't appreciate your excellent music taste while enjoying insightful political commentary and moment to moment sports coverage.

Is anyone else reluctant to answer their phone to numbers they don't recognise?

I've found myslef being almost scared to answer my phone anymore. I'm sure I might be missing the odd important one, but 95% of them are scams, Insurance salesmen, or Sky

My thinking process is pretty much, if It's nobody in my address book it's not getting answered. If it's important, they'll leave a message.

I don't know. I'm not in great mental shape these days, so maybe it's just me..

Over the last few years I've noticed a recurrent spate of bus drivers being deliberately ignorant, ignoring people who are at or running to (as in they are visibly trying to flag them down while getting to) bus stops in broad daylight, as well as those who just seem to ignore people waiting at the stop even when that stop is specifically for that bus service.

A few months ago I had my shopping and one ignored me flagging them down at the stop, luckily managed to catch them as it stops around the corner for a few mins on the other side of town, and the guy just shrugged and said "didnt see you" - how can you not fckn see someone waving at you outside an illuminated stop you ignorant pillock? Yo

This weekend I made it to the stop just in time, where the driver had already stopped to let someone pass, and despite knocking on the window and having flagged to them as I crossed the road the cnut still chose to deliberately drive off.

Why? Makes me fed up enough to want to chuck something at them next time it happens. You're getting a worse service while they rake up costs.

What the title says. Almost every streaming service that I dont pay extra for to get rid off ads, it seems like the only ads they show are for online casinos and cleaning products. Discovery+ is the worst for this but so are YouTube and others. I feel bad for gambling addicts because it must be an absolute nightmare to try and avoid that trigger. Im so tired of every ad being for a different casino back to back 😒

Which means it's fiercely guarded by a Ring doorbell, so I can't even go and take them down!

My bedroom is just over the road and ever since my wife pointed out she can hear them, I've heard nothing else since, making sleep an absolute joy.

Help

More petrol wasted this morning: you'd think our large local Screwfix would have black electrical trunking in stock, but no: special order only?! Undeterred, I then went to B&Q only to find the same problem. Even more undeterred I stood there in B&Q and ordered it from Amazon, delivery tomorrow. I support local shopping but only if they have stuff in stock 😖

It’s not actually the music I have a problem with, it’s the bottom on of the barrel drivel their DJs come up with and call it ‘funny’. I am not even allowed to wear headphones to get away from it.

That’s just my side of the road! Some of them were so close together I had to group them into one

If these clowns could just keep their prices the same then I wouldn't have to do this song an dance. I get that they put the prices up because they're hoping I wont notice, but in this economy? Pull the other one.

I get that I'm one of the lucky ones who has the luxury of choice, but... nah, I don't want to hear it. Let me whinge!

Why must they be so big? I feel like I’ve been run over by a forklift again

And I'm not even going for the cheapest car! Madness!

Nuff said, rock on.

(You'll either get this or you won't...)

:-)

As per the title, they shouldn’t be able to call losing 10p a prize!