I had a drink with my friend Melissa Hardwick (above) and Karen Firbank (below) last night. These pictures are from the gardens in Reading near the old Abbey ruins.
I have a special bond with Melissa because her husband is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis like my mother did. Very few people really understand what Melissa and her family are going through, so I try to use my experience with my mother to be understanding and compassionate with Melissa. Melissa sells the greatest jewellery, by the way. Check out her website at: www.socharming.co.uk
Karen Firbank, as usual, cracked us up last night. She and her husband have an exhibition company, and she was telling us about her conversation with a marketing executive at KLM airlines earlier that day.
"The show in Cairo," she was telling him, "will give you unparalleled access to market leaders and government officials," and on and on she went, giving him her marketing spiel. Then she said she went a bit wild with her English and said, "in addition, we offer you prestigiousity," by which she meant it was a great location in Cairo, loads of important people there, great hotels, etc.
The guy at KLM said he couldn't make that decision. "Then who should I speak to?" Karen asked. "Can you put me through to him or give me his name so I can call back?"
The man said, "I could tell you, but I won't."
How rude. He'd let Karen go through her entire speech and she'd even offered him 'prestigiousity' and then he treated her like that.
Luckily, we had these beautiful drinks served at our table just then to take our mind off of our problems:
4 comments:
I think you're being a little hard on the guy from KLM. I get calls like that all the time - so many, in fact, that I've stopped answering the phone unless it's a number I recognise.
If I give the caller a name, I'm afraid they'll start their next conversation "I've just been speaking to Mel Thomas and he thinks you should use our 'Zippy-Quik' database on your new project." That's not going to win me many friends.
Of course, I'm sure Karen never does anything like that.
But if any of those callers offered you 'prestigiousity,' you'd give them the info they needed.
Zees ees exactement ze kind of zing what confuse us who try for to understand ze Angleesh leeg-wich.. Why can one speak of "religiosity" mais non du "prestigiosity?":):)
Oh, I love these soliciting calls I get at home, asking to speak to "Mrs. Jones." Requests to answer survey questions, etc. I immediately assume a Hispanic accent and claim to be the nanny. They never call back. LE told me to quit doing that because the IRS might come after us for employing an illegal alien. I only wish we did!
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