Is there any reason for not sharing a vehicle VIN

[Rich Rule]

13 hours ago, AHPP said:

I can be as cynical as the next man about beggars, drugheads etc but do keep a bit of an open mind. You don't know whether the man in front of you is lazy scum with no excuse or whether he's gone down a path that started with his dad's mates taking turns to rape him while his dad put fags out on the back of his neck. Or something in between.

I totally agree.

 

I stand by my smack head comment though.  3 years at Uni and this guy was always in the same place.  Between Mc’d’s and HMV.

 

I once witnessed a young child offer the guy their happy meal.  I mean his sign said hungry and homeless, so they offered the food.  The scum, threw the bag of food back at the kid and said I don’t want your happy meal I want money.

 

That was enough for me.

 

Not all homeless are they same though.

[AHPP]

26 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

I totally agree.

 

I stand by my smack head comment though.  3 years at Uni and this guy was always in the same place.  Between Mc’d’s and HMV.

 

I once witnessed a young child offer the guy their happy meal.  I mean his sign said hungry and homeless, so they offered the food.  The scum, threw the bag of food back at the kid and said I don’t want your happy meal I want money.

 

That was enough for me.

 

Not all homeless are they same though.

Aye. That’s fairly hard to find an excuse for. I went through Stockton on a bike the other day as it happens. Didn’t stop. Shithole.  

[Doug Tait]

I remember being in Edinburgh once, subjected to a particularly aggressive "homeless" guy who was trying all sorts to get my money.

He left me alone eventually after I started explaining in a patronising way how much better he'd do in the countryside. Could build a shelter in the woods, have fire, plenty of foraging, meat/fish to trap and eat, a burn to wash in.

 

He wasn't at all receptive to my help but it was more effective than telling him to f off had been.

[Steven P]

1 hour ago, AHPP said:

Aye. That’s fairly hard to find an excuse for. I went through Stockton on a bike the other day as it happens. Didn’t stop. Shithole.  

 

You should stop.. not wanting to do it a disservice, but it was a lovely town once (grew up near there). Says something when the Weatherspoons is right next door to the DSS, get your cheque and be buying beer with it within 5 minutes. I once asked a taxi driver, who knew all the town, which bits he would save rather than start again and he had to think hard about that. I guess that is the same with a lot of towns, nit wanting to be a grumpy old man, but town centres have had their hearts ripped out all over with our preference to buy all our stuff from Amazon

[AHPP]

15 minutes ago, Steven P said:

 

You should stop.. not wanting to do it a disservice, but it was a lovely town once (grew up near there). Says something when the Weatherspoons is right next door to the DSS, get your cheque and be buying beer with it within 5 minutes. I once asked a taxi driver, who knew all the town, which bits he would save rather than start again and he had to think hard about that. I guess that is the same with a lot of towns, nit wanting to be a grumpy old man, but town centres have had their hearts ripped out all over with our preference to buy all our stuff from Amazon

Same as Hartlepool and any number of other post-industrial shitholes up here. Lovely buildings and great history but the towns as they present themselves now do themselves no favours. I was passing through to some soulless new build estate at Ingleby Barwick, two financed Audis on the drive etc. I hate those places but the top and bottom of it was that I was able to buy a bike helmet and fiddle about fitting it for ten minutes sat on the bloke's front lawn while he filled my bottle. The same transaction in the centre of Stockton would have come with the risk of hep c. There's gritty and then there's just shitty.

[Rich Rule]

33 minutes ago, Steven P said:

 

You should stop.. not wanting to do it a disservice, but it was a lovely town once (grew up near there). Says something when the Weatherspoons is right next door to the DSS, get your cheque and be buying beer with it within 5 minutes. I once asked a taxi driver, who knew all the town, which bits he would save rather than start again and he had to think hard about that. I guess that is the same with a lot of towns, nit wanting to be a grumpy old man, but town centres have had their hearts ripped out all over with our preference to buy all our stuff from Amazon

Stockton BC have a lot to answer for.  Pedestrianising the high street 20 odd years ago do wonders for stopping the passing market trade.

 

Then the decision to dismantle the Castlegate centre and the swallow hotel didn’t help.

 

I fear the damage was done by then as the majority of the shops were closing and a lot of general trade moving to Teesside park.

 

So they are trying to do the town centre up to make it a nicer place.  Basically more free areas with a view for the scumbag to hang about on.

 

I grew up in Stockton and each time I go back the difference is startling.

[AHPP]

Hartlepool particularly offends me. It's next to quite substantial industry on Teesside, nuclear power station, oil rig recycling, big chemical place etc. Surely loads of opportunity for support and ancillary work. I tried to get the wheels aligned on the van, a perfectly ordinary 3.5t small commercial vehicle, a perfectly normal example of support work to heavier industry. Nobody had a big enough shed, nobody answered the phone, nobody committed to a time, nobody cared. A complete absence of get up and go. When I eventually found somewhere, they tried to con me into a four wheel alignment and only relented when I asked them to show me on the rear hubs where they planned to make adjustments. Their neighbour did it after I'd hung around for ages. He dropped it off the hoist, took more money than quoted and had ****************ed off by the time I was back two minutes later to tell them the steering wheel was off sixty degrees. 
"Well it drives straight doesn't it."

By the time they'd finished lunch and deigned to have it back in, I'd spent 6 hours trying to accomplish a 20 minute job. Utterly feckless town.

Edited July 31, 2022 by AHPP

[Steven P]

.. but it is 'home'.....