The other half is on the phone to the Council tax helpline and has just given our address and postcode.
Call Centre Operative: ‘Oh, Nearest Village, whereabouts in Nearest Village?’
Other Half: long detailed explanation that is the only way to give directions where the roads have no names and the houses have no numbers
Call Centre Operative: Oh right I stay* up near the church further long explanation – it’s nice around there isn’t it?
I’m guessing that either Bigtown Council haven’t bought into the whole outsourcing thing, or that the training for Bangalore call centre staff is incredibly detailed. They’ve got the accent spot on too, apparently.
*Nobody lives anywhere around here. You just stay.
March 24, 2009 at 8:53 pm |
It sounds like bliss to me. We STAY on the corner of Springbank Lane – I wish there WAS a spring, or even a bank. If you took all the houses away there might be one.
March 24, 2009 at 9:25 pm |
Ah, yes, that reminds me I must contact the local Council so I can also pay my council tax. I’m also waiting a refund from my last council. I wonder if they’ll be just as quick at getting my money back to me as they were to get me to court for not paying them last year.
BTW, I( see you still have me as living in London, I’ve moved to the country now, and have a real fire, cold walls with damp bits, mice and the locals speak funny nd all seem to drive at 0.5 mph.
Loving living here.
March 24, 2009 at 9:35 pm |
Whenever I try to do a Scottish / Welsh / Wherever accent it comes out sounding like I’m from Bangalore. So maybe that also works in reverse, so the Bigtown accent just comes naturally to the call centre staff.
March 24, 2009 at 10:44 pm |
Did the words “turn left where the bucket used to be” pass OH’s lips?
March 24, 2009 at 11:51 pm |
Funny lot up here eh? I had to double-take when someone said they’d “give me a phone”…
March 25, 2009 at 8:34 am |
Jenny – you’ve got to love the town planners’ habit of naming streets after the things they destroyed in order to build there…
LLD – yep, that sounds like the country all right. I shall recategorise you to make the move complete
Karl – could be. Or they could *gasp* be employing local people … nah, silly idea.
J – no, but I found myself giving that very direction the other day
PaperBoy – my favourite is ‘outwith’, followed shortly by ‘uplift’ in the sense of picking something up
March 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm |
Don’t forget the “deputy XYZ” being referred to as the “XYZ depute” too…
March 25, 2009 at 6:25 pm |
I’ve not heard that one yet, but it’s surely only a matter of time
March 26, 2009 at 11:15 am |
Sometimes it’s nice to ring up one of country cooncils and speak to a nice wifie, rather than the unhelpful school leavers the city councils specialise in.
March 26, 2009 at 5:54 pm |
Wifie – another fine Scottish word
March 28, 2009 at 10:30 pm |
It’s a rather common word in the Newcastle area too… then again I think NE England has way more in common with Scotland than it does England