There’s a piece of technology that sits in my hallway, which I haven’t used for years, so it came as a bit of a shock when the fucking thing started ringing.

I stood beside it, staring and listening to the incessant noise as I tried to remember what I was meant to do. By the time I realised that I was supposed to lift the handset bit out of the cradle in which it had been resting, the noise stopped.

I blame all the new technologies; all that emailing, tweeting, skyping and texting. I don’t want to sound as if I’m promoting BT here, because they can be a real fuck-up at times, but I have to say that the unexpected ringing in my hallway yesterday did remind me that things used to be simpler and, once I dug out the manual and read all there was to know about dialling 1471, I was immediately in touch with the person who had made that call.

A ‘call’, for those of you who have forgotten, is like a two-way voice text thingy.

The Tea Maker

PS: You can comment on this story by emailing me at [email protected] and I’ll respond to your emails in next week’s column. We’ll never publish your email address.


“Dorset Cream Tease is where you’ll find the relaxing, maddening, hilarious and bewildering stories, gossip and rants that help all of us to cope with life in Dorset. Everything you read here will be 90% true (almost). So get yourself hooked by visiting every week, and feel free to comment or add your thoughts by emailing me at [email protected]

The Tea Maker

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