Swerv-o

The latter. It's shortsighted and stupid to only learn on an automatic, but it seems to be a growing trend these days. This grumpy is born out of experience - I have this argument with my GF all the time - she can only drive automatic, and is almost proud of the fact, yet it's a complete pain in the arse when it comes to who is doing the driving, and where, and what car we are going to take etc...

Grrrrrr....


S

moneypenny20

Daughter's learning at the mo and thankfully refuses to even do a few hours in an auto which is a bit of a pain as her car is a bit shit compared to mine . A friend of hers did about 10 hours in a manual and gave up, claimed it was too hard and is now going for her auto licence. Madness.

Swerv-o

Yeah, it's great until the driver gets bitten by a snake and automatic only friend can't drive them to a hospital.

I think a fundamental part of driving is understanding how and what the gears are doing. GF drives hers like it's a go-kart.


S

Pulaski

It's got pretty bad in the US. I increasingly think of manual transmission as an anti-theft device!

Dreamy

I can only drive automatic cars.

Mostly because my left knee objects

I love a manual though - the boys did all their initial driving in our automatic, then we bought them a little manual Ford Fiesta (quite amusing to see them squeeze into it) for the rest of their driving. I loved driving it before the knee op! Scared to try again now.

That makes me grumpy.

GarryP

But on the other hand, we have to expect the rise of the autonomous self-drive vehicles within the foreseeable - and they all, at a minimum, HAVE to be automatic. So manuals are going to end up being like double-declutching, only strange people will bother to know it.

Pulaski

Are you suggesting I am "strange"? ..... I have to double declutch my truck to get it into the extra-low gear.

bourbon-biscuit

I learned in a manual in Britain. I didn't even know automatics existed. When we arrived in NZ in January 2007 I hopped in an auto and have literally never looked back. Yes I can drive a manual but I don't see the point and for me I know I am a safer driver in an auto because my attention isn't split in the city. However, I know this isn't an issue for my husband. It might be that I learned a bit late or am not well wired for hand-eye coordination tasks but I LOVE driving autos. Also, how the hell else am I supposed to drive whilst eating a magnum?

Having said that we bought an old manual car to teach our daughter in and will likely do the same for dd2 because otherwise you can't ever drive a 4-wd in the bush or whatever. If I had to I could drive a truck (I've done it!) but I hate it. I am a total convert to autos to the extent I insisted on one when we moved back to the uk, much to my husband's shame and horror.

Swerv-o

The point is that while you prefer not to, you can drive a manual if push came to shove. My irritation is people who see it as a badge of honour that they can't drive a manual car.


S

ozzieeagle

Auto's are the reason there is a high prevelance of oldies driving their cars through shops windows and through Garage walls etc..... wouldn't happen in manuals... in fact I'd make everyone over 60 drive a manual car.


Anyway what makes me Grumpy is people who walk at a snails pace in rows of two or more on High streets, shopping malls, and other crowded walkways thus blocking anyone that wants to transit through the area. Only eclipsed by people who actually stop in the middle of the footpath without moving to one side to chat to friends and acquaintances.

On that note, one of the positives I noticed in the UK was people do walk at a far more decent pace over there compared to people in Aus, here people tend to crawl along. Another interesting thing is foot traffic is a hell of a lot faster in crowded areas in Hobart than Melbourne.... must be something to do with the colder climate.

The old Mediterranean types around here, which are probably the majority on the shopping strip, are woeful at walking in a straight line. I end up having to walk on the actual road to get past them just about every time I go up to the Sydney Road shopping strip.

Wol

.
QANTAS.

(I repeat - QANTAS!!)

I have spent - honestly - most of the afternoon trying to find out the close-out time for my flight SYD - SCL (Santiago).

It's been booked with QF, QF flight no. and operated by LAN. The QF website says that I need to check with LAN: The LAN website says it has no record of my booking.

Back to QF: the site says the latest checkin time is on the boarding card - which of course you get after you have checked in.....

Phone LAN - the agent is virtually incomprehensible but I manage to get "Tree hores" from him - THREE HOURS??

Phone QF: wait time "more than one hour" - give up after 20 minutes. About 5pm try again, and this time put in my QF frequent flyer no. (This will of course give me some advantage .

97 minutes later, as I cross the room to disconnect, QF answers: I put the question to her. Lots of keyboard noises for about ten minutes, she comes up with "I don't really know, could be 60 minutes or perhaps ninety: hang on and I will check."

After ten minutes she comes back " better to check with LAN - but they have gone home now...." Then "Hold and I will see what my colleagues say"

Ten minutes. " Probably best to allow 90 minutes".

For Pete's sake - asking the airline that I have booked with, and paid, for the check-in time! How difficult can that be (Clarkson). Four hours of my insignificant life.

And on that bombshell..................

Parnell

Women who think acting childish is sexy


Bullies who think they are tough, and then having to spend hours listening to them whining and crying when they find your nuts are granite to their egg shells.


Teachers bored with their profession


Parents (at school) more concerned with social status than their children's future.


Middle class slagging off the poor/misfortunate while spouting envious venom at the well off.

Gordon Barlow

Pulaski is unusual (not strange, no) in having to double-declutch. I can do it because when much younger I bought a 1960 (?) VW Beetle in Germany that had a crash-gearbox. I taught myself to do the necessary, and I was damn lucky I didn't send the box through the floor while learning! Garry is right in predicting that manuals will become obsolete. I must say I'm surprised they aren't already - except for motor-racing, where managing the gears is a highly skilled function. I would never rent a shift-car, now.

manekeniko

Working for broke clients makes me grumpy. I'm forced to chase them for 2nd half payments so I can pay other people.

I don't understand why people ask for work to be done when they can't pay. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal with drinks, then pay for the entree but not the drinks, appetizer and avoid tipping. Why do people think it's okay to do this to freelancers?

As I said, avoid working for broke people.

Wol

What's been making me grumpy for several years now, but has in the last twelve months made me really really mad, is the constant emails from hotels, airlines, shops, government agencies and the like requesting me to "fill in a short survey". They arrive now about twice a day.

It will only take 10 - 15 minutes of your valuable time, they say.

Most are about things you did six months ago - I can't remember where I was yesterday, let alone six months ago.

But, in a spirit of co-operation and feedback, you start. Page after page is filled in - and then you get to the personal questions: "What's your post code?", "How old are you?", "When did you last do rumpy-pumpy?" and so on.

Ignore any one - and you are admonished. So you leave the survey, having wasted half your waking life.

A week later in comes another: " Mr Wol, you have not returned the survey we asked of you. Please do it - it will only take ...................................."