Have you ever felt like striking up a conversation with someone on the end a wrong number ...making a connection with a stranger ? (like as in blogging LOL - except a wrong number calling might be crazy stalker and they might know your number - scary)
I get a few odd wrong numbers and I often forget phone etiquette ... remember this phone nightmare.
Yesterday
phone rings ...
Me: Hello
Lady with chirpy voice : Is this the Wild Hibiscus Company?
Me: No ...
Lady : Oh ...sorry wrong number .
She hung up quickly ...
So , I damn couldn't ask any questions
It sounded interesting.I thought 'I have never heard of it' and I wanted to ask her about it..Since I was a bit bored I googled it.
The Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup was "discovered" by happy accident at a lively Australian dinner party in 1998, when Lee Etherington and a group of (tipsy) friends playfully dunked a crimson wildflower into a champagne flute.
The flower slid gracefully to the bottom of the glass, and the friends watched, agog, as champagne bubbles streamed across it, and the petals slowly unfurled. Lee, a 21-year-old tour guide who owned a small food business and had only ever used the edible Hibiscus as a dessert garnish, took a sip of his exotic creation.
It was a Eureka moment.
It was an Eureka moment for me too because about 3 years ago I went to a dinner party and I tried a wild hibiscus dipped in syrup, then floated in sparkling wine ... I think my friend knew someone who invented it. They are delicious if you want a unique gift...I digress.
A few weeks ago my phone rang ...
Me: Hello
Older Guy: Hi - do you know /does Random boy's name - our surname live here ?
Me: No, don't know him , he doesn't live here , why ? [because I am nosy]
Guy: He was involved in an accident this morning. I need to speak to him
That very morning we had passed a car accident just down the road , a few minutes after it happened involving a P (under 1 year provisional licenced driver) plater. So I asked ...
Me:Was that the one on the New bridge about 8am ? [ because I am extra nosy]
Guy: YES ??? [in a very puzzled voice - like I was a psychic or crazy]
Me: Sorry I really don't know him and we really did just pass by.
Guy continued to say the kid had given him a mobile number but it kept ringing out . I guess he was trying the names in phone book. Ours is quite common though.
In my 20's and early 30's I worked as a registered nurse in a children's ward. One night, late, the phone rang for Judy, a single mum in her 40's, my nursing colleague.It was a older guy.
Jude was out having a } smoke with a bloke who had come to visit her. It was not on an official meal break but she never bothered about the rules. A few other nurses were on the same shift but we were busy enough.
The guy asked where she was /when she would be back -I said "I think she is outside with [lets call him Mike] Mike" ?
Long silent - pause ...
the random guy says 'Okay' in an irritated voice , and he hangs up. I am too busy to tell Jude. I don't see her for a while.
Fast forward to a few weeks ... Jude asks me if I remembered talking to "Pete" her no 1 at the time, the night "Mike" came to see her ...oops !
It reminded me of this joke ? ...
It was last Wednesday night, and I was sitting in my room watching television when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
A girl's voice came over the line. "Can I speak to Ben, please?"
I live by myself, and my name definitely is not Ben. It was probably a wrong number and I was bored.
"I'm sorry, he's not in right now. Can I take a message?"
"Do you know what time he'll be back?" she responded.
"I think he said he'd be home around 10:00."
Silence on the other end... a confused silence.
"Is this Steve?"
My name isn't Steve, either. This was definitely a wrong number.
"Yes, it is. Do you want to leave a message for Ben?"
"Well... he said he would be home tonight and asked me to call him..." she said in a slightly irritated voice.
I replied, "Well, he went out with Karen about an hour ago, and said that he would be back at 10:00."
A shocked voice now: "Who's Karen?!"
"The girl he went out with."
"I know that! I mean... who is she?"
"I don't know her last name. Look, do you want me to leave a message for Ben?"
"Yes... please do. Tell him to call me when he gets home."
She was sounding pretty irate at this point, and I could hear her temper flaring. "I sure will. Is this Jennifer?"
She exploded this time. "Who's Jennifer?"
Apparently she wasn't.
"Well... he's going out with Jennifer at 10:00. I thought you were her. Sorry... it was an honest mistake."
"Ben's the one that's made the mistake! Tell him that Alice called him and the she's very upset and that I would like him to call me as soon as he gets home."
I smiled and said, "Okay, I will... but Becky isn't going to like this..."
Then I remembered a dumb joke I had been sent ...and I googled more.
One morning the phone rang at 3:00 a.m. in Jeff's house. He picked up the phone and a woman asked, "Is this 555-1111?"
"No, this is 555-1112." Jeff replied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for disturbing you." The woman said.
"That's alright," Jeff said. "I had to get up to answer the phone anyway."
(if it was our phone ringing at 3am I wouldn't be this cheerful or polite )
An man rang labor room of hospital to to know about his pregnant wife. By mistake he dialled the number of a cricket stadium.
Man: How's it going?
Reply: Fine, four are already out. The last one was a duck.
A woman meant to call a record store, but dialed the wrong number and got a private home instead. "Do you have 'Eyes of Blue' and 'A Love Supreme?'" she asked.
"Well, no," answered the puzzled homeowner. "But I have a wife and eleven children."
"Is that a record?" the caller inquired, puzzled in her turn.
"I don't think so," replied the man, "but it's as close as I want to get."
"Well, no," answered the puzzled homeowner. "But I have a wife and eleven children."
"Is that a record?" the caller inquired, puzzled in her turn.
"I don't think so," replied the man, "but it's as close as I want to get."
The last one is hilarious if you make it to end ...
Maybe I should get an answering machine or more friends ...
I still detest talking to answering machines myself . I sound like a gibbering fool- if I did I would use this message.
... a quote I nabbed from somewhere by River
I don’t have a machine, but if I did it might say,
“River’s answering machine is on holiday, this is the refrigerator speaking. If you speak slowly and clearly I will take you name and number and stick it to myself with a little magnet”.
♥
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15 comments :
Trish, you are in great humour tonight :-)
I love Wild Hibiscus in my champagne, and always have a jar in the fridge.
Telemarketers with the wrong number are always fun, when they ask if you're Mrs Bloggs, and you say no, and they go on toask who they are speaking to, you just have to answer with "Well, I'm not Mrs Bloggs, so you don't need to know who I am, do you?" That doesn't fit into their spiel, and so leaves them speechless!!!
Thanks for that! Glad to have found you through ICLW. Thanks for visiting me and your sweet comments.
http://blissfulbodyyoga.blogspot.com
At one point my dad left a message like this on our machine:
"Hello, if it's sunday, we're at church. If it's monday, we're having family night. If it's tuesday or thursday we have soccer. Wednesday is scouts. Friday is date night--you wouldn't possibly call then would you? Saturday we work in the yard. So that's why we didn't answer the phone, and why we may not be able to find time to call you back...but if you want to leave a message then go ahead and we'll probably listen to it."
Here was my favorite one he ever did (on our machine, if someone pressed a button it would just skip the rest of the outgoing message and go straight to the beep):
"To leave a message for [dad] press one.
To leave a message for [mom], press two.
If you have a dog, press three.
If you have a rotary phone, press four.
If you want to press five, press six.
Have a nice day!"
wow those are some great phone call stories and jokes!! i should try that talking to the wrong number person, I think I am to impatient though! haha
I'm a bit of a practical joker so my friends are cautious. One time one of my best friends dialed my number wrong.
Lady: Hello?
Friend: Junebug?
Lady: No
Friend: C'mon Junebug I know it's you.
Lady: No I'm really not.
Friend: Stop messing around. I need to talk with you.
Lady: But I'm not Junebug.
Friend: Stop it Junebug! It's not funny anymore.
This went on for a bit before my friend finally hung up on the poor lady and called me at the right number.
Me: Hello
Friend: Did I just talk to you?
Me: No Why?
Friend: Oh Crap! (Tells me story.)
I laughed so hard.
Once I accidentally called a guy and after talking for awhile almost tried to set him up with a friend but chickened out. I thought it might seem weird since it was a wrong number call.
Great Post!
ICLW
oh my...I needed a good laugh......
mmmmm people and phones.......some times its just not a good mix!!!!
For some reasons I can leave a proper message on voicemail, I'd come out with gibberish words that myself wouldn't be able to understand LOL!
Great post, Trish, I needed a good laugh! Enjoyed the JibJab's video too, classic!
I am totally cacking myself at the labour room joke. My 10yo daughter wanted to know why I was laughing, I told her and she didn't think it was at all funny. She will in about 20 years time I figure.
Sorry, I don't have a joke or a wrong number experience. However, I have to say that I use online messaging with a friend in Melbourne and I have on some ocassions "chatted" to her for some time before realising I'm "chatting" to her husband instead - the little bugger. The perils of online chat.
I LOVED Carol Burnett, I used to hide beind the couch as a small kid just to watch :)
That's a crazy coincidence that you happened to drive by that accident, then get a call later in the day about it and it involved somebody with your same last name! Wild!
I used to have an answering machine message that started "the real people of the house are unable to answer." Every time a friend of mine saw me, he would yell out "its the real people"
You're post made me LOL, love the Becky's not going to like this.
Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it.
ICLW
:) :) Brilliant LOL
I've got to change ours to that refrigerator one now!! lmao
this is so funny! I enjoyed the giggle :) Thanks!
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