'What fresh hell is this?'

How do you answer your phone? Our landline is ancient and doesn't have caller-ID, so we never know who's on the line. Usually I answer 'Sue Hepworth?' in a rising tone, as I used to do when I worked as a researcher. Sometimes I just say 'Hello?' If I'm in a frivolous mood I say 'Hepworth Towers?'

The husband of a friend of mine - a lovely man who was polite and friendly in person - often worked at home, like her, and if I rang her during the day and he picked up the phone he would say in a tone of undisguised annoyance 'Oh! It's you.' It always creased me up. (However, I once blurted out the same thing to a member of the family when I was expecting an urgent phone call from someone else, and my response did not go down too well.) 

I loved that episode of Friends where Phoebe is trading in stocks and shares and is really hyper and answers her phone: 'Go!'

Dave and I are watching an old TV series on dvd this week in which a particular character, when stressed, answers his office phone by picking it up and barking: 'What?'

It makes me laugh every single time. I really, really want to answer my phone like that, just once. So if you ever ring me and that's how I answer you'll know what's going on.

Later...

 A friend just rang me up hoping to hear me say 'What?'

So I told her to ring me back, and slammed down the phone, and she did, and I did. 

I'm so easily amused.