Call Me

One of my passenger's was telling me that she worked in a directory enquiry's call centre today, and I thought to myself wow that must be boring. Are you working over the Christmas holidays I asked, "yes I drew the short straw" she said "I will be working right through". "That must be a drag" I replied" no one will need to find numbers then surely." How wrong I was, apparently this is one of the busiest times of the year. A lot of people when they are off work and are perhaps mellowed by one or two drinks start to get a little sentimental about long lost family members and old friends. They then spend hours on the phone chasing up names and addresses that they can barely remember and in a lot of cases are long gone. She then went on to tell me of the busy period they get in the late evenings, when young males in particular arrive home from the pub and start to ring them for the number of their local escort service or massage parlour. "Some of them either get angry or very disappointed when told that there's nothing in their area" she hesitated for a minute and then said " and then that's when they start to ask about me where I am and other personal stuff and I end the call" Well this got me interested and lo and behold my next fare also worked in a call centre, this one a travel agents specializing in luxury cruises. After some chat she told me the tale of a regular customer who had booked a cruise with her that day, as he has every December for the past ten years. He always books a double cabin for him and his partner, nothing but the best and no expense spared. Only thing is that it's a different partner of less than half his age every year and he's now seventy eight! Yes I know I'm jealous too.