Dear LPG,

Isn’t it funny how some actions just come to us automatically.  You take the pan off the hob and instinctively turn off the gas, you leave the room and automatically turn off the light and shut the door.  These things become subconscious for us all and can only be to our advantage or so you would think. 

I often dip into the LPG website and I came across a really helpful idea that was featured on your pages nearly two years ago (►►►).  I thought this a really practical idea and I have adopted TF’s way of utilising my telephone waiting time ever since.  The article talked about how to make your time count when waiting for an answer from one of those phone calls that we all have no choice but to make to companies or government agencies that leave you hanging on for what can be hours at a time. 

She suggested that you can do just about anything while waiting, as long as the phone is in ‘hands free’ mode first, and with some two years’ practise under my belt, I totally agree.  I have become quite adept at this multitask. 

I am an ‘old girl’ in more ways than one because, while I am a pensioner myself, I am still my mum’s daughter and we have spent the best part of 2020 in our own little lock-down bubble.  Life goes on however and somehow the younger ‘oldie’ often ends up helping when it comes to making those telephone calls.   My mums quite capable but, as she gets older, she finds herself with limited patience for waiting around.

So, there we were waiting for an answer and our multitasking task of the day was a good chat, but then she felt the need to pop to the loo.  She went about her business and I kept listening for the answer.  You just know what happened next.  The advisor chose that very moment to answer the call and ask for my mum’s permission for me to talk on her behalf.  I am sure you can imagine me running up the hall while asking the person at the other end of the line to, ‘hold on just a moment’.  Fortunately, my mum had just washed her hands so I gave her the telephone in order that she could say who she was and that is when she took multitasking just that little bit too far. 

My mother, with her left hand holding the phone to her ear, instinctively used her right to flush the chain as she gave the information needed.  As a very ex-telephone operator the one thing the job left me with is what we used to call ‘telephone ear’; the ability to hear a lot more background noise than the average telephone user, and as soon as the familiar noise began I did try to get both mother and phone out of the bathroom so that I could shut the door (and instinctively turn off the light), but it was all too late.  The poor girl at the other end of the line stuttered a little but carried on the conversation regardless after a short pause.   I can only imagine what the operator was thinking while listening to my mother’s permission-giving statement.

So, I have learnt that while you can do just about anything and wait for the telephone’s recorded message to become the voice of a real live person at the same time, you must be careful about the sound effects that you produce along the way.

OL, Sydenham