David Grayling Books Blog

Well after all that palaver with the water in the phone, my answer machine stopped working.  My able assistant is keeping my overheads down and produced a selection of telecom kit from her junk cupboard and I selected one which worked perfectly well… for a couple of weeks!  Then the phone became more crackle than communication so I asked her to get me a new one.  I should know by now that her prudent bargain-hunting isn’t always what I’m after.  She has managed to pick me up a brand new phone with answer-machine for considerably less than a tenner, which would be fine were it not for the fact that the instructions are miniscule and, as far as I can gather, complex.  She (the bargain-hunting assistant) has set it up twice now, and if I don’t press a wrong button it will work just fine.  And she has printed off enlarged instructions.  Isn’t office equipment wonderful?  I preferred it when I wound the handle on the side of the phone and asked a charming operator to connect me.  And if I was out birdwatching in the Pennines, I was OUT!