The Upsetting News Thread

[Transwarp]

I own two cars. The first one is a perfectly ordinary family saloon that quietly and efficiently and boringly gets me from A to B and back again. The other one is a little two-seater sports car

Wow, a sports car AND a family saloon?

The sports car's okay, but I wouldn't go driving around Texas in a saloon...

[enterprikayak]

: psst: Transwarp...I think it's a Brit thing...

(And hey! Don't mock my fiance! Yeah, yeah, he hasn't accepted or even seen the post yet, but these are all niggling details...)

[Cogito]

EK, good thing you had that big Truck.

I was once rear ended in London on King's road. Woman was driving a mini morris. She was also window shopping while driving. Ran in to my 65 Mustang. Nothing wrong with my car (Detroit still built decent cars then) but her poor morris was all stove in. She tearfully admitted she had been window shoppng. Wonder what she told the insurance adjuster.

SB

Ha ha! That reminds me of a similar accident about ten years ago in Hemel. I was stopped at traffic lights in the TVR and the person behind drove into me at about 30 mph. I don't think he saw me at all. The fibreglass body took the impact pretty well - it was badly damaged but it sprang back into shape and from a few feet away didn't look too bad. The lights still worked, except that the cover was cracked on one side. For those that don't know, TVR is a very small volume manufacturer and uses lights and switches from other mass production cars. The rear lights in this case come from a Ford Escort MK2. The car that ran into me was, you guessed it, a Ford Escort MK2. It was in a hell of a state. The front had pushed in and split the radiator, the headlamps had both shattered, both front wings bad buckled and the bonnet had pushed back into the windscreen and broken it. It was obvious the car was a write-off. But the rear lights were fine, so that was handy.

[Transwarp]

And hey! Don't mock my fiance!

Of course, we *will* expect pictures of the wedding.

[justTripn]

Sounds like the best of both worlds: a man with a sensible approach to love AND a fast car.

[enterprikayak]

Yish! I know! Why do you think I'm trying to lock it down?! lolololololol

[Kotik]

Warning, Rant ahead

What is this with German railways. A Giant corporation, yet they can turn the most calm of people into Hitler! What happened? #
Had to return to Bavaria today, so I set out in my car but the radio said that there's a Thunderstorm in Cologne - 30 miles traffic jam. Ok, me thinks, forget about the motorway, go by train.
So I arrive at the station, time passes, no train. Then there's this announcement that today the train leaves at platform 10 - ath the other bloody end of the mother station. So about 300 people dash through a packed station and that nobody was trampled to death is a miracle on its own. Train comes in and we squeeze our way in - its was PACKED. I mean sardine-tin-PACKED! With my right neighbors elbow in my ear and the left neighbors suitvase handle up my nostrils, I was waiting for the thing to get underway - nothing. After 20 minutes we were still at the bloody platform. Then another announcement:

"Ladies and gentlemen, due to thunderstorms at cologne, 3 trains were cancelled and we're trying to take on the stranded passengers. We ask you kindly to move together a bit more to make room for these passengers."

WHAT??

There's not enough oxygen in here for the passengers that are already in and they tried to shoehorn some 50 more in. I can tell the poor girl behind me had a B-Cup. She was squeezed so hard into me, I've got a double nipple imprint on my back
Temperature reached something like 40 °C and oxygen was about as rare as a well-spoken Tellarite when the whole shebang got moving. After 2 hours I was soaked in sweat and I was STINKING! Not that it would've upset anyone, I wasn't the only one where premature decomposition had started
Finally, after 2 hours in the rotten sauna from hell, we rolled into Aschaffenburg Central Station, but I couldn't get through to the doors, because the whole place was completely stuffed with failed sociology students. That's when my mood approached the "Invade Poland" stage:

"Listen folks, will we manage to make a path or do I have to hack my way through, dammit!"

Well, suddenly, there was space, could've walked off with a bloody elephant in tow. Surprizing what a good-natured word can achieve at times...

Grabbed the next Taxi, apologized to the chauffeur for smelling like last weeks lunch and went straight into the shower, once I had checked in to the hotel. Having cleaned myself of the worst decay scent. I made my way to the next petrol station to grab a few beers. Having to do it by foot (my car's in Düsseldorf obviously) I asked for a plastic bag, because they only have tins. No sixpacks, nothing, only tins. "Sorry, we have no more bags". After reciting a few expletives that would make a trucker blush, I ran outta there in the foulest mood I can ever remember.
Finally I just walked into a pub and the following exchange occured:

me: "evening. Are you selling beer for take away?"
waiter: "We've got Schlappeseppel." [local bavarian brew] *shows me the bottle*
me: "K, I take a crate of that"

He looked at me as if I had grown a second head, but I finally walked outta there with 24 bottles of local hops-tea. That's one of those days, you're better off not getting out of the bed at all...

[Cogito]

"Listen folks, will we manage to make a path or do I have to hack my way through, dammit!"

We've never met. I couldn't claim to know you. And yet, from what I know of you from your posts here, and after the train ride from hell and faced with a bunch of students who won't get out of the way, I can absolutely picture you saying that!

[Kotik]

"Listen folks, will we manage to make a path or do I have to hack my way through, dammit!"

We've never met. I couldn't claim to know you. And yet, from what I know of you from your posts here, and after the train ride from hell and faced with a bunch of students who won't get out of the way, I can absolutely picture you saying that!

Wanna know who was most grateful for my little outburst? The bloody conductor

[WarpGirl]

Tell me you haven't drank all 24 bottles please! I'm sorry your day was so cruddy.

[Kotik]

Tell me you haven't drank all 24 bottles please! I'm sorry your day was so cruddy.

Nah, you crazy girl? That crate will last me all three days that i'll have to spend in Bavaria. I can take a good barrel, but the days when I drank 50 litres a week are thankfully a very long way in past

[WarpGirl]

Thank god! Here drinking two 12 packs is considered extreme by most sane people. Of course not in my father's family, but they aren't sane!

[Kotik]

Thank god! Here drinking two 12 packs is considered extreme by most sane people. Of course not in my father's family, but they aren't sane!

Well, I have a history of alcohol abuse back in 2006. I was suffering from an untreated bout of clinical depression and burnout syndrome. 15 to 18 half-litre bottles (about a pint for the imperial folk) was the rule rather than the exception. Thankfully beer hasn't enough alcohol in it to make a person addicted to alcohol, but there's a german term "Gewohnheitstrinker" - meaning "drinker by being used to". My body was used to the daily intake. I could function without drinking, but my body had "unlearned" to go to sleep without being at least mildly intoxicated. If I tried to sleep while being sober it took hours to fall asleep and if I finally dozed off, I usually suffered from bizarre and hideous nightmares.
It took me years to learn to sleep sober. But finally after a lot of work I can now drink beer for fun and in reasonable quantities, whithout messing up my life

[WarpGirl]

Now if only my family could follow your example. I don't like drinking beer myself. I always get crazy dehydrated after just 1!

[Kotik]

:clap: Now if only my family could follow your example. I don't like drinking beer myself. I always get crazy dehydrated after just 1!

Key is:

a) you have to eat. drinking without eating is a no-go. Usually small snacks work best. nothing big, just a steady intake of small snacks

b) if you get dehydrated quickly, there's a bodily problem. Alcohol dehydrates, but beer has a very low amount of ethanol. If it has such a profound effect, it looks like a kidney problem.

I cannot really give much help for your family. Unless they realize the problem themselves, you can't help them, It's a hard admission to make, but it's the only way to tackle the problem. Only if they say themselves "something's wrong with me" they can search for a solution.