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| Sunday, February 19, 2006 |
| Where? |
Another Story from Work.
The office I have been working in is located on a major road that leads into the city. It is long and confusing and the numbering is a little strange. The office is in a block of assorted offices, next door to a pub. Ours is the only door that opens directly from the footpath - the rest of the offices are accessed by turning down a small side street. It is also the last block of buildings before the road heads into the city. Adelaide city is surrounded by parklands - planned such that they are exactly the distance a cannon can fire, apparently - so if you're looking for an address on or near our road, our office is the last stop to ask questions at.
This means that we get a reasonable number of lost persons stopping in to ask for directions. Like the gentleman on Tuesday.
"Yeah, gudday love, I'm looking for Crompton St in Bowden." Ata is frowns. She has never heard of Crompton St, Bowden, but something sounds familiar about the address.
"Sorry," says Ata. "I don't know, I'm not too familiar with the area." Ata doesn't have a street directory on hand, either. Lost Man is about to leave, but the Service Manager, having overheard the conversation, comes to the rescue with a shiny new street directory. Meanwhile, Ata has figured out why the address has a familiar ring.
"Are you sure about the street?" she says.
"Yep. Crompton St, Bowden. I'm meeting someone there. It's a carpet place." The Service Manager has begun looking up Crompton St, Bowden. Ata is now sure of her theory.
"Are you sure it's not Coglin St, Brompton?" There is a large discount carpet place in Brompton, on Coglin St.
For some locational perspective - the office is in Hindmarsh. The suburb immediately west is Bowden. The suburb immediately east is Brompton. Ata believes Lost Man has just mashed the street and suburb names together into "Crompton" and then - hearing that the suburb started with B - picked the wrong suburb.
Ata's suggestion on street name is dismissed, even though she points out that there is a large discount carpet place on Coglin St. The Service Manager and Lost Man are too engrossed with looking in the directory to consider that Lost Man might be Really Lost.
Their search is fruitless. There is no Crompton St in Bowden. Lost Man makes a phone call.
"What's that address again? Crompton St? No, there's no Crompton St. What? Crompton? Yeah, we looked for it. C-R-O-M-P... Oh. What? Crompton? Yeah, I told ya we - what? Coglin St.? How'd ya spell it? In where? Bowden? What? Brompton? Oh, okay. See ya soon!"
Ata suspects he would have worked out the address sooner if he had not kept shouting over the person on the other end. But Anyway. They look up Coglin St and Lost Man is on his way. Gone without even a chance for Ata to say "I told thee so". |
posted by Ata @ 8:56 am  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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I think in that situation people should have the good grace to wait at least until you get to say 'I told you so!' Anything else just isn't cricket ;)
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Keep working ata. It's providing serious entertainment for us.
:)
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Yes, you should work full time and provide us with as many stories as possible, while we get to lounge around with our part time jobs, eating icecream.
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I think in that situation people should have the good grace to wait at least until you get to say 'I told you so!' Anything else just isn't cricket ;)