Squirm Time
Have you ever had one of those days when you just know if you had a brain you’d be dangerous? Yes? Well I’ve just had the absolute day of days.
It began with an email I received. I was busy on the phone and trying to do two things at once as usual and completely mis-read the sender. Assuming it was from a friend in Scotland I duly replied in my normal fashion.
The email had been commenting on a sixties singer, quite famous at the time, who had recently done a show. The sender was saying how fantastic it was and pointing me to some photos taken at the event that were now online. At the back of my mind was a tiny spark warning me this was not the sort of thing Helena would be sending me but as I say, I wasn’t giving it my full concentration.
So, knowing a fair bit of background, I replied, giving her a complete rundown of why this person, great singer though he was, should not be idolised. I pulled absolutely no punches, then hit the send button.
Approximately half an hour later I received a reply. It said:
Hi and many thanks for your comments. You seem to have had first hand experience of the man in question? Can you refresh me on how I know you as I don`t recall your email address in my book!
Best wishes
Hannah
Hannah?
You know those sinking feelings…………..
Well I checked the original email and sure enough it wasn’t from Helena, in fact it wasn’t even for me. It was for somebody with an AOL address. Not a wonder she had no idea who I was and must have been completely stunned at this lunatic woman giving her insider info on her favourite singer. Not as stunned as I was trying to work out how this email reached me. Still got no idea.
You know the saying, “when at bottom of hole stop digging”? Well, completely ignoring that sage advice, I replied. She replied, I replied. All my replies were liberally interspersed with squirmingly embarrassed type words. I tend to use religiousisms in these situations. I know I shouldn’t but I did, so she got a lot of ‘Jeez’, and ‘Christ’ and similar.
Once I had grovelled and explained the situation and why it had happened, she said not to worry and pointed me to her blog where she had done several pieces on her idol and asked if I might like to take a look. Well it really was the least I could do. So I gaily hied me over to the site only to find that the lady in question is a Born Again Christian! I couldn’t have attacked all this woman’s beliefs better if I’d planned it.
Personally I’m blaming it all on AOL for misrouting the original email. Or maybe it’s Gmail who sent it on. Actually, I’d better be careful what I say, you can bet that poor woman works for one of them.
For other embarrassing gaffes that I’m delighted to say I had nothing to do with visit The Pickards or Todd and the power to connect.
JackP responds:
Posted: April 24th, 2007 at 11:50 pm →
Hah! You think that is bad?? Have you met my workmate?
Jaybee responds:
Posted: April 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am →
Nice to know I’m not alone, believe me I’ve done far worse in my time. Foot in mouth syndrome is one of my specialties.
When text messaging was fairly new I had a mobile that wouldn’t allow you to choose the recipient from the phone book, you had to key the number in. I typed a particularly explicit message to a boyfriend and whilst keying in the number, transposed two of the digits. A while later I got a reply from a complete stranger who figured his luck was in. It took me days to get rid of him.