Friday, March 19, 2010

Pet hates

When we were playing Scrabble last night I asked Dave about my pet hates, and he said that I have so many they would fill a book. But he was confusing pet hates with pet preferences. e.g. I would prefer him not to whistle the first few phrases of Rachel and the Boys over and over and over again, all the way through a game of Scrabble.

I hate…

1/ ringing up a business at half past ten in the morning and getting an answering machine message that tells me “Our opening hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.”

2/ shop assistants who carry on a conversation with a colleague all the time they are serving me and don’t even flash me one second’s eye contact.

3/ people in call centres who pick up the phone and say “How are you today?” as if they know me, as if they care, as if it it is at all relevant to the call. The Co-op Bank staff get ten gold stars on this count as they say “How can I help you today?” and proceed to be helpful and friendly and human, without that inane question at the outset.

4/ people who put their hiking boots on in the kitchen and don’t notice when they stand up that all the dried bits of mud fall out of their soles, all over the floor. (You know who you are.)

There – four pet hates – that wasn’t so very many, was it, Dave?

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