i'm a service engineer, people phone me and make appointments for me to visit them because they need something fixing, i offer what most people see as a good level of service in that i respond same day/next day and am usually able to offer them a two hour time slot in which i will attend and yet i still get a small percentage of people not in when i get there in which case i always leave a card to say i'd called
on one occasion i had gone out of my way to try and help someone yet when i arrived there was no one home, i was extremely annoyed and left a rather sarcastic note. later that day i received a phone call from someone i know well explaining to me that the person i had just flamed was their daughter in law and her young child had had an accident and she'd shot off to a and e in a panic.
the result of this is that i now try and avoid condemning peoples actions without knowing the full facts, the only facts i know so far is that you didn't show at a social because you were at home doing your washing and you didn't even have the courtesy to inform the organisers.
your actions are making my blood boil, i need to go chill.
i would've asked why you didn't have trade plates but you already answered it. that was bloody careless of you.
your area must be totally different to mine, i wouldn't dare drive round here round about the tenth of the month without making sure that what i was driving was completely legal.
the bloody holdups caused every month by tax cameras, vehicle inspectorates, customs and excise, the list seems endless. fortunately for me i'm rarely in a rush when i'm working, i just pull into the roadside phone customers to advise them i may be late and the general reaction i get is, feckin 'ell we're just amazed your gonna turn up on the day you arranged :-)
i've never tried the chatrooms as a form of communication (though on occasion i've perved at one or two webcams)
living on a hillside i generally find it best to get loads of beers in, light a bonfire, get p*ssed, p*ss on the fire and then start sending smoke signals which can be seen for miles across the valley
evening, a pint please :beer: