Christmas notebook
Christmas notebook
Barry Humphries on battling BT and Australia's new Prime Minister
The trouble with living in London is that apoplexy is always just around the corner. A few weeks ago my telephone developed a funny sub-aqueous rustling noise sufficient to drown all conversations, so after a few stiff cups of tea, and setting aside several hours for the task, I phoned BT to have it fixed. The next day a nice man appeared with a name a bit like a Sudanese teddy bear, and within a mere hour had found and fixed the problem — a corroded wire outside the house. He departed smiling into the sunset, having refused a £10 tip. The next day we realised that in fixing the problem he had cut off all extensions within the house: the bedroom, the kitchen, the office, all except the sitting room.
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D Brennock
January 3rd, 2008 5:11pmMr Humphries, the correct amount to tip a tradesman is £20 and has been for so long now, that it will surely be inflated to a 'nifty' before the end of this year. Had you offered the correct gratuity to your BT engineer it would have been accepted and trousered faster then the speed of a digital telephone exchange, followed, most importantly of all, by the words "Thank you very much Sir, before I leave I had better just check that all your internal extensions are working" This, as I am sure your esteemed colleague, Mary Killen, can confirm, would have saved you many hours on hold to BT and would have proved cost effective in the long run.
David Page
January 8th, 2008 2:01amI've just caught up with this. From Barry Humphries account inflation in Brown's Britain must be well under control.The BT bill for GBP 346 plus VAT is about what Barry's alter ego Bazza McKenzie had to pay for a taxi ride from London airport in the 1960s.
Rex Mutton
April 16th, 2008 3:48amThe spelling of "Labor" in the Australian political sphere derives from one King O'Malley, American, teetotaller, orator and foundation Member of the Australian Parliament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_O'Malley