mostly david ephgrave

I adopted a similar dialing technique when making an appointment today that I used to use when phoning 'Going Live!' in the late 1980s. Back then, the redial button was your invaluable companion. No sooner had you heard the stuttered beep of the engaged tone than you’d pressed one finger on the hook to hang up and another on redial to call again. This saved valuable handset-in-the-cradle / number-punching time and upped your chances of being connected. You were a step ahead of any kids whose houses still had rotary-dial phones. With one of those, you had no hope: you may as well have sent a letter to TVC. (...though I wasn’t aware of this abbreviation back then.) It’s only on looking back that I realise how much of my childhood was spent knelt next to the telephone table by the stairs. It’s probably why I have bad knees as an adult; I may sue Sarah Greene for personal injury. With the rise of mobile phones today, it’s so much easier. To paraphrase the ex-Tory PM ...