Rant of the Day v2.

[Woody]

The French safety video is a bit of better than average one.

[TheGreenAnger]

I have no desire to be a narrow minded French basher, even when ranting in jest, and thus I note that, of course the French have waiting rooms, except the common or garden waiting room is known as 'la salle d'attente'.

The protocols of waiting room politeness and etiquette are still observed in some of the more rural towns and villages. Paris is a country on its own and can appear rude or brusque, but that's the same for big cities whatever the culture...

https://www.myfrenchlife.org/2021/11/01 ... -protocol/

I had to visit the doctor in the little village of St Alvere when my parents lived there and my only complaint was that those waiting wanted to converse, thus stretching my limited French beyond the confines of "la plume de ma tante est dans le jardin!"

[OFSO]

Obviously tickets for the TGV sold to the French don't have carriage or seat numbers printed on them. How else to explain French overloaded with bags, cases, pushchairs, rucksacks, babies and large dogs, getting in wrong carriage, shoving their way to the end, finding no seats available, and having to fight their way back to the entrance...

The only waiting room at the Gare de Lyon is part of a café. Sitting there obliges one to buy something.

[G-CPTN]

The only waiting room at the Gare de Lyon is part of a café. Sitting there obliges one to buy something.

Do they accept crypto?

[TheGreenAnger]

Obviously tickets for the TGV sold to the French don't have carriage or seat numbers printed on them. How else to explain French overloaded with bags, cases, pushchairs, rucksacks, babies and large dogs, getting in wrong carriage, shoving their way to the end, finding no seats available, and having to fight their way back to the entrance...

The only waiting room at the Gare de Lyon is part of a café. Sitting there obliges one to buy something.

When did you last try and catch a train here in the UK? I mean like between London and Manchester, for example.

[TheGreenAnger]

Obviously tickets for the TGV sold to the French don't have carriage or seat numbers printed on them. How else to explain French overloaded with bags, cases, pushchairs, rucksacks, babies and large dogs, getting in wrong carriage, shoving their way to the end, finding no seats available, and having to fight their way back to the entrance...

The only waiting room at the Gare de Lyon is part of a café. Sitting there obliges one to buy something.

I sit and relax in the 1st class lounge (waiting room) when I fly business class to Johannesburg. Guess what, I pay for that. Not uniquely French at all.

[OFSO]

Mrs OFSO trained first class from London to Edinburgh a couple of years ago and back. Described it as magnificent. TGV in France a bit tatty. AVE in Spain, far newer trains, much smoother. German high speed trains ok provided you behave correkt. Italian express Rosso fun because of the other passengers.

[Ex-Ascot]

I am getting really pissed off with our health insurance people. They want proof of an actual address. We live in the middle of the bush. We have a plot number and district. I have sent them proof of the fact we own this. We have a postal bag in town. A postie is not going to come 40 kms out of town and flog his way through the bush to find us. They now want, with an address on it:

✓ A current driving license
✓ A state pension, benefit book or other government produced document showing benefit entitlement
✓ A current year tax assessment document
✓ An account statement from a bank **
✓ Statements which show a "care of" or accommodation address are NOT acceptable
✓ Proof of ownership or current rental of the address
✓ Proof of payment for a PO Box service (which must show the residential address), where the PO Box shown is also the correspondence address of the applicant
✓ A current mortgage statement
✓ A letter from the employer of the individual confirming the residential address and the policyholder's position within the company - if the client is the owner/part owner of the company a letter from the company will not be accepted **
✓ Obtain a letter from an officer or representative of a residential home, care or nursing facility confirming that the address is the current residential address of the individual; **
✓ A utility bill sent to a PO Box or 'care of' address which references the residential address of the individual **
✓ Use of an address validation / verification service **
* Where a document has been provided which shows the residential address of one spouse of a legally married couple, this can be used as address verification for the other spouse. Where this is not apparent (e.g. policyholders do not share the same name) a marriage certificate would be required in support of this.

FFS. Bloody idiots. Have they ever left the UK?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Have they ever left the UK?

Nope.

Same is true everywhere.
The systems in place do not consider the systems in other countries, even though they claim to do business there.
I recall being unable to withdraw cash from a Spanish bank, despite having a valid international card, and holding an account with them in the UK, and which the bank in Spain acknowledged I did.

When I was residing in Oman, my street had no name. That scuppered everything for me too.

And don't get me started on US officialdom. They have more than once told me that I must do X due to some bit of the regs, and was also prohibited from doing X by another bit.
Same in the UK. I gave up teaching scuba when the diving regs required me to take an oxygen kit to pool training, whilst the pools regs, also issued by HSE, forbad me from doing so.

Often, the reason is a simple as their computer form having some of the boxes as compulsory, and the form cannot be entered without it completed.
Naturally, getting the form changed is impossible. I've heard many reasons why, and they are all true.
So, one becomes an impossible customer.

Either you have to lie, or the person you are dealing with at the company has to.
Around here, most folks in admin, even for the provincial government, are still prepared to lie to get around an obvious stupidity in the procedures. However, Federally or for national companies, they won't.

[PHXPhlyer]

Catch 22!

PP

[tango15]

Obviously tickets for the TGV sold to the French don't have carriage or seat numbers printed on them. How else to explain French overloaded with bags, cases, pushchairs, rucksacks, babies and large dogs, getting in wrong carriage, shoving their way to the end, finding no seats available, and having to fight their way back to the entrance...

The only waiting room at the Gare de Lyon is part of a café. Sitting there obliges one to buy something.

When did you last try and catch a train here in the UK? I mean like between London and Manchester, for example.

Hmmm, went up to Crewe recently and didn't encounter any unpoliteness. There is an indoor heated seating area on the station for the hoi-polloi, but strangely, most people seemed to prefer to wait outside. Mind you this was at Milton Keynes Central, where life is - how shall I put this? - slightly different!

[OFSO]

Many Spanish companies, utilities, gv'ument offices, only accept Spanish (mobile) phone numbers. Six digits. Or Spanish addresses. Or Spanish double-barrel names. However as with everything in life, all criticism of the **** is silenced by contemplation of the..... No, I won't write it.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Catch 22!

Quite, and it is in nobody's remit, or interest, to fix it.
The fact that administration has just effectively banned an activity is of no interest to government either.

I only discovered the diving regs problem by accident. I had just finished a pool teaching session when the next group in was a lifeguard instructor course. The course director asked me if I minded staying so the lifeguards could practice teaching rescuing a scuba diver. So, I acted as the disabled diver for them. He said they'd been unable to get any of the local dive groups to help them out recently. It was in the course of the discussion that the pool supervisor happened to be passing on his chemical checks, overheard the chat, and mentioned the new pool regs. At which point we all realised the idiocy of the thing.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I am now warned to wear safety goggles whilst using a pair of tweezers, and that using them may expose me to chemicals Known to the State of California .. yada..yada..

It's a wonder I'm still allowed to fart in my own home without wearing safety goggles.

[llondel]

I am now warned to wear safety goggles whilst using a pair of tweezers, and that using them may expose me to chemicals Known to the State of California .. yada..yada..

It's a wonder I'm still allowed to fart in my own home without wearing safety goggles.

You usually only need take special precautions in the presence of a naked flame or if there's any possibility of follow-through.

[PHXPhlyer]

I am now warned to wear safety goggles whilst using a pair of tweezers, and that using them may expose me to chemicals Known to the State of California .. yada..yada..

That warning is posted on the exit door to ramp in every jetway in every airport in California.
I often wondered whether I could refuse to do a walkaround on the basis of not wanting to get cancer. Or alternatively, to be able to hold the company accountable if any occurance of cancer should arise at any later time.

PP

[ExSp33db1rd]

..........They now want, with an address on it:

Common practice with many orgs. when trying to simply change address in the same town. One UK org. replied with a letter to the new address (!) advising that they couldn't accept my change of address without completing a form that I had to download and send back to them, along with two "proofs" certified by a G.P., Minister of Religion, J.P. or similar. Madness. Cannot access an overseas bank account now without downloading an App. on a smartfone, not available on computer, but when I try I get "Page not available" Can't access my account, or use any services of that bank now. Many overseas banks refuse to deal with an address out of "their" country.

World's gone mad.

Million years ago, in Ontario, Canada, sent a 35 mm film cassette back to Kodak for processing, took weeks to return and it eventually it arrived from someone with the same surname living on the West coast, despite my having written my Ontario return address correctly.

Whe posted to RAF Scampton as P/O. there was an Aircraftman of the same surname - I got all his mail.

[jimtherev]

... and yet, when I ordered some batteries from the South American River mob this time last night, they were delivered at lunchtime today.
From Germany.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Because SAR, like almost all transnational large corporations, gets to ignore whatever laws and regulations it likes as long as it keeps the politicians in clover.
I have received illegally-shipped lithium batteries via SAR.
After every increase in restrictions on ordinary banking customers, money laundering increases.
And the same applies to a host of other things, e.g. motorcycle regulations and accident rates.
Because the purpose of the regulations is not what they say it is.

[Ex-Ascot]

At last our medical insurance company have accepted a plot number and district. Bloody idiots. Do they think that everyone in the world has post delivered to the door?