Senior Moment of the day.

[Katherine]

I needed a 4-way extension lead with a short cable. I had a 4-way extension lead with a long cable and a damaged moulded plug. I also had a redundant kettle lead. Since I could not reuse the moulded plug from the original lead, I decided to discard that, cut the kettle lead down to size, and use that as my new power cable. I completed the job, and stood back to admire my handiwork ...

View attachment 126249

D'oh!!!

That's a good one!

 

[The Jogger]

My senior moment was also at a petrol station, when I filled up my wife's silver fiesta which I was driving and she was passenger. I walked back to the car, got in, thought this is a bit dirty, looked in the back of the car to see a boy with big eyes looking at me in shock with his mother who was about twenty stone munching on something and didn't seem to notice. I said ooops wrong car ( it was a silver ford fusion). I quickly got out jumped into my wife's car with a sense of urgency and said quick lets get out of here. I couldn't tell her until I stopped crying with laughter, what a mistake to make. It was just the silence in the other car and look cracked me up.

 

[ColinJ]

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of me and my redundant kettle leads ...

More Senior problems ...

1. To my surprise, I don't actually seem to have any more spare kettle leads.
2. #1 Wouldn't have been a problem because I don't have any old kettles in need of leads ...
3. Unfortunately, what I had described as a 'redundant kettle lead' was in fact a 'required printer power cable'! Now I am going to have to transfer a file that I wanted to print from my desktop computer to my laptop and print it from there because I need to borrow the power lead from the desktop PC to power the printer!

Bonus Senior Problem:

'A cyclist' () walks into a deli and orders a large cappuccino, a piece of parkin, and a piece of flapjack. The total cost is £4.25. He hands over a £10 note. The deli woman takes the note to the till and returns with 75p in change. The cyclist looks at the coins, ponders a moment, and decides to speak up ...

Cyclist: I gave you a £5 note!

Deli woman: And I gave you 75p change!

Flustered cyclist: I, er, oh, er, I meant to say that I gave you a £10 note ...

Deeply suspicious, glaring deli woman: You gave me a £10 note ... Are you SURE about that!

Embarrassed cyclist: Definitely. I came out with two £10 notes and three 20p coins. I haven't spent money anywhere else today and I now have a £10 note, a 50p piece, a 5p piece and FOUR 20p pieces. That means you shortchanged me by £5.

Silence. Eventually followed by a slow shaking of the head, a deep sigh, and a resigned trudge to the till. The way that the extra £5 was slapped into the palm of the cyclist's hand told him that deli woman suspected a con ...

 

[Asa Post]

'A cyclist' () walks into a deli and orders a large cappuccino, a piece of parkin, and a piece of flapjack. The total cost is £4.25. He hands over a £10 note. The deli woman takes the note to the till and returns with 75p in change. The cyclist looks at the coins, ponders a moment, and decides to speak up ...

Cyclist: I gave you a £5 note!

Deli woman: And I gave you 75p change!

Flustered cyclist: I, er, oh, er, I meant to say that I gave you a £10 note ...

Deeply suspicious, glaring deli woman: You gave me a £10 note ... Are you SURE about that! ... [snip]

It has become my habit, when offering to pay with a note that's more than twice the value of the purchase, to say "Sorry, I've only got a 10" (or, occasionally, a 20). This acts as a reminder to myself, as much as to the shop assistant.

 

[ColinJ]

It has become my habit, when offering to pay with a note that's more than twice the value of the purchase, to say "Sorry, I've only got a 10" (or, occasionally, a 20). This acts as a reminder to myself, as much as to the shop assistant.

I made a joke of it in my post, but it was actually a bit cringe-worthy. I'm pretty sure that the woman in the shop thought I was lying. I decided that I would adopt the same technique as you in future. (The other thing I thought about doing was writing my initials on notes but that would be a right pain to have to remember to do. It is probably also a criminal act under some 300 year old law!)

 

[ColinJ]

The other thing I thought about doing was writing my initials on notes but that would be a right pain to have to remember to do. It is probably also a criminal act under some 300 year old law!

Ha ha - it IS illegal, but the law only dates back to 1928!

Defacing Banknotes
Under the Currency & Banknotes Act 1928 it is illegal to deface our banknotes (by printing, writing or impressing upon them words, letters or figures, etc.), although the question of whether or not to prosecute in individual cases is up to the police and the courts.

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, and I DID manage to find one last kettle/printer power lead. I thought that it was unlikely that I would have got rid of all of them. Having 5 or 6 was OTT but I usually err on the side of caution and keep spares of things that I might need at some point.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Ha ha - it IS illegal, but the law only dates back to 1928!

Cash dispenser notes are often in number sequence. Take two of those along with you and you can show them the notes neighbour.

 

[ColinJ]

Cash dispenser notes are often in number sequence. Take two of those along with you and you can show them the notes neighbour.

That would only work with new notes - mine were old and crumpled.

I just thought of an easy way of doing it ... Fold one corner of the note before handing it over. If they query it, say "I gave you a £10 note with the corner folded over". Hmm ... which would be fine as long as they didn't straighten it out when putting it in the till!

The "I am giving you a TEN pound note" statement does seem like the best solution.

 

[Profpointy]

Rather inspired by Colin's cable shennanigens....

Lost the rubber o-ring / band to attach my bike lamp so stuck it on with a cable tie. On removing the lamp, thought, better be carefull cutting the cable tie so I don't nick the power lead (to the seperate battery). Careful ... now cut. Bollocks ! I had carefully cut the cable leaving the cable-tie unscathed. How T-F did I manage that?

And some years back, soldering up a 5 pin DIN cable; a fiddly enough task. Forgot to put the rubber shroud on. Never mind, I'll thread it on before doing the other end. Threaded on both end, soldered up the other connnector. Again bollocks! I'd put both shrouds on facing the wrong way so each was oriented to cover the opposite end's plug. Harrhumph

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

That would only work with new notes - mine were old and crumpled.

I just thought of an easy way of doing it ... Fold one corner of the note before handing it over. If they query it, say "I gave you a £10 note with the corner folded over". Hmm ... which would be fine as long as they didn't straighten it out when putting it in the till!

The "I am giving you a TEN pound note" statement does seem like the best solution.

Have you considered the simple expedient of keeping note of all the numbers on your banknotes, possibly on a spreadsheet carried on your iPad. This would make it incredibly easy (assuming you update regularly) to keep track of what note you used, when and where.

 

[Fnaar]

Just remembered this one... putting bottle cages on one of my bikes a few years back.
I managed to put them both on upside down.
It wasn't until I was about to go out for a ride that I realised, when I couldn't (obvs) get the bottle into the cage

 

[raleighnut]

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of me and my redundant kettle leads ...

More Senior problems ...

1. To my surprise, I don't actually seem to have any more spare kettle leads.
2. #1 Wouldn't have been a problem because I don't have any old kettles in need of leads ...
3. Unfortunately, what I had described as a 'redundant kettle lead' was in fact a 'required printer power cable'! Now I am going to have to transfer a file that I wanted to print from my desktop computer to my laptop and print it from there because I need to borrow the power lead from the desktop PC to power the printer!

Bonus Senior Problem:

'A cyclist' () walks into a deli and orders a large cappuccino, a piece of parkin, and a piece of flapjack. The total cost is £4.25. He hands over a £10 note. The deli woman takes the note to the till and returns with 75p in change. The cyclist looks at the coins, ponders a moment, and decides to speak up ...

Cyclist: I gave you a £5 note!

Deli woman: And I gave you 75p change!

Flustered cyclist: I, er, oh, er, I meant to say that I gave you a £10 note ...

Deeply suspicious, glaring deli woman: You gave me a £10 note ... Are you SURE about that!

Embarrassed cyclist: Definitely. I came out with two £10 notes and three 20p coins. I haven't spent money anywhere else today and I now have a £10 note, a 50p piece, a 5p piece and FOUR 20p pieces. That means you shortchanged me by £5.

Silence. Eventually followed by a slow shaking of the head, a deep sigh, and a resigned trudge to the till. The way that the extra £5 was slapped into the palm of the cyclist's hand told him that deli woman suspected a con ...

I've had the reverse happen in Sainsburys a few years back, paid with my last fiver before pay-day and was given change for a tenner, I said to the woman on the till "I think you've made a mistake" but before I could tell her she'd given me the fiver back she snapped "I don't make mistakes"
"Fair enough" I replied and had a couple of beers on the way home.

 

[ColinJ]

I've had the reverse happen in Sainsburys a few years back, paid with my last fiver before pay-day and was given change for a tenner, I said to the woman on the till "I think you've made a mistake" but before I could tell her she'd given me the fiver back she snapped "I don't make mistakes"

"Fair enough" I replied and had a couple of beers on the way home.

Snap! (But the woman eventually snatched the surplus change back from me.)

 

[ColinJ]

I've got the ultimate solution to the problem of being given the wrong change ... From now on, I will carry only 1p pieces and will count out the exact number required to pay the bill!