mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Last week gas stopped coming out of my taps. Phoned British Gas and they said I'd been cut off so I paid 'em a load of money I hadn't got. Then they said it wasn't cut off at all. I investigated further and it turns out that someone from one of the other flats had an engineer round and he turned off my gas by accident because the metres are incorrectly labelled. BG sent a man round to turn my metre back on but said that they were unable to do it because the cunt had stuck some sticker on it saying it was unsafe, they advised me to ring the original engineer. Got his number off the girl in the other flat and phoned him and he told me to ring either Group 3 Energy or Countrywide Estate Agents - two companies I've never even heard of - he gave me a number for Group 3 which turned out to be wrong but I eventually managed to contact them through the internet - at which point they advised me to ring BG - on being told that I'd spoken to them and that they'd sent me to the engineer who had sent me to them they told me to ring the engineer again. His phone was on ansaphone all afternoon but finally I got hold of him and after some arguing he said that he would try and fit me in to look into turning it back on again. Apparently he's going to get back to me later. The wanker.
Anyone got an electric heater?

I've taken, when I get stuck in those sort of officialdom loops, to doing the whole 'can I speak to your manager' thing as soon as I ring up or, even better, the 'I'd like to make an official complaint' thing. It works and you get results rather than the Kafka loops. I spent a fucking whole day a while back to BT and eventually the only thing that worked was turning into someone horrid. You should try and get compensation as well for the inconvenience if you can be bothered. I never can, but I got friends who do that sort of shit all the time and get crazy money back from things. I just post advice that I never take myself on the internet.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I've taken, when I get stuck in those sort of officialdom loops, to doing the whole 'can I speak to your manager' thing as soon as I ring up or, even better, the 'I'd like to make an official complaint' thing. It works and you get results rather than the Kafka loops. I spent a fucking whole day a while back to BT and eventually the only thing that worked was turning into someone horrid."
Yeah, think that's right up to a point although if you are in totally the wrong place it's gonna get you nowhere. I mean, I've discovered that Countrywide are the girl in the other flat's landlord and would have nothing whatsoever to do with my gas.
At the moment I feel that some giuy came on to my property uninvited, turned off my gas, stuck a sticker on it saying that it was dangerous so that no-one else could turn it on, and is demanding money before he turns it back on himself. I'm being held to ransom and I'm happy to shout at this guy.

"You should try and get compensation as well for the inconvenience if you can be bothered. I never can, but I got friends who do that sort of shit all the time and get crazy money back from things. I just post advice that I never take myself on the internet."
Think I'm the same as you - I see the logic of doing this stuff but I never get round to it.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
That's pretty effing cheeky. My brother had a similar thing once, he was getting his flat surveyed before selling it and there was something wrong with the electrics inasmuch that some switch that should have been on was off, or vice-versa. Of course he's not allowed to touch it so he had to pay a hundred quid for some qualified electrician - presumably with an MEng in switch-flicking - to turn up, flick the switch and bugger off again. It's a total racket.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
The guy has agreed to come and turn it back on now on Saturday as long as I pay him fifty-five quid for coming out. I'm down with the first bit.... we'll see how the second bit pans out.
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
Living with folk who don't give a fuck about politics, current affairs, film, music or anything beyond the X-Factor and Swedish House Mafia.
 

luka

Well-known member
son, thats your housemates, i live in a whole country like that... i deserve more pity than you. lets make that clear.
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
That's probably true. It is frustrating though. Why is pop culture so popular? Why aren't people even slightly open minded? Why is being interested in politics seen as being the mark of a weirdigan cunt? I despair.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Why is being interested in politics seen as being the mark of a weirdigan cunt?

And not just politics but, for a lot of people, any kind of culture, art, interest or thought that's even slightly outside the most banal mainstream. For all our cherished stereotypes about the British respect for individuality and eccentricity, a huge swathe of people in this country are stultifyingly conformist and anti-intellectual.

"Nerd", "geek", "boffin", "anorak"...
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
And not just politics but, for a lot of people, any kind of culture, art, interest or thought that's even slightly outside the most banal mainstream. For all our cherished stereotypes about the British respect for individuality and eccentricity, a huge swathe of people in this country are stultifyingly conformist and anti-intellectual.

"Nerd", "geek", "boffin", "anorak"...
Aye, we've got a respect for eccentricism as long that's in the confines of people who feel comfortable using that word in a sentence.
It's hugely frustrating that this includes university students too though...I thought there would be at least a few 'geeks' (in a good way) in these halls but it seems alas that isn't the case... At least there's a few in my uni. Would be losing my nut otherwise. It's not even that I care about what in particular you are interested in...Just something...Anything. I asked a girl at a party what she was studying - english literature she replied. I thought 'oh great' and asked her what authors she liked. 'Any of them' was the response...

'Are you a big reader then?' I continued - 'I'll have to learn to be' she says. Christ.
 
Last edited:

luka

Well-known member
hahaaah, you should come to australia! i would like to able to be able to drone on at great legnth to anyone i met about all the things i love the most too but i think there is some fun to be had in communicating with people who dont share your interests. part of my job is talking to people and they very rarely have any interest in anything outisde of shopping and the odd bit of tv but if you're not feeling too jaded you can usually strike up a rapport. i quite like it. i dont change the way i am. im my normal self. i just tease them gently usually. they love it. james joyce was being sanctimonious when he said there was no such thing as a boring person but i can see where he's coming from. there's a grain of truth there....
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
I know, I feel a bit snide for moaning about it, but I really just wanted a bit of an outlet. I feel much better now. I was feeling stultified as Tea neatly put it.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Not so much being sanctimonious as talking outright bollocks, I fear...a few years ago I had this housemate who was a Maltese woman, and she was a perfectly pleasant enough person but she was obsessed with all this Pop Idol/X-Factor crap and would watch it on TV in the kitchen - which is fine, I'm not a Nazi about what's on the TV, but she'd then try and make conversation about it, the kind of conversation that requires responses from the other person: "I think this guy's really good, what do you think...?". Used to drive me nuts. She was just one of those people who lack the gene that allows most of us to be able to tell when the person we're talking to has no interest in what we're saying. Young kids do it to0, but that can be kind of endearing and you know that most of them are going to grow out of it.

I guess I just have a very low tolerance for dull conversations. When there's football banter going on around me I just have to sort of duck my head and tune it out, as there's no way I could meaningfully contribute even if I wanted to.
 
Last edited:

luka

Well-known member
i think boring people are really rude and lack consideration for other people. you have a responsibility to be engaging when engaging in conversation.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
What's boring and what's interesting is to an extent subjective, I mean I'm well aware that a lot of the things I'm interested in might seem boring (or at least obscure) to most people - the consideration lies in not talking someone's ear off about your pet interest when they clearly couldn't give a toss about it.

Of course this doesn't apply to people who apparently aren't interesting in anything at all.
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
It's not a moral thing, it can be quite boring to listen to boring people. Also, if they look snidely at me because I express an interest in politics as if to say 'you sad cunt' then I'm entitled to feel aggreived...And I don't really care what people are interested in, but it seems to me that if you consume only pop culture then you're not really passionate about anything. It's ersatz interest. It's commiting yourself to absolutely nothing.
 
Last edited:

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Living with folk who don't give a fuck about politics, current affairs, film, music or anything beyond the X-Factor and Swedish House Mafia.

True enough, but living with people who do your head in in any way whatsoever....does your head in. Actually, the worst thing is when they try to engage you in conversation in the morning - that's just fucking awful.
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Ah but there are people out there somewhere right now typing
"Living with folk who don't give a fuck about xfactor, glee, who ever broke up this week or anything beyond the books and politics. "


Do you not like because it sets the people up for disappointment and crushes there 'dreams' ?

Nope, its just aload of bollox..
 

BareBones

wheezy
the worst thing is when they try to engage you in conversation in the morning - that's just fucking awful.

talking to anyone at all in the morning is fucking awful, i find. I hate bumping into people I know in the morning, on the train to work or whatever.

PS people who like x factor sort of like politics by default, because x factor is democracy in action. As Simon Cowell says, "The great thing is when you start seeing it [X factor] in places like China and Afghanistan. It's democracy. We've kind of given democracy back to the world."
 
Top