EMAIL

Have you noticed how many emails you receive? Its a lot. On a daily basis I must receive upwards of 30 plus. What do you do? You delete them, many without even looking at the content! So why do we eagerly open our inbox each day. You just might have a message that is worth getting, that informs you about a subject, you either knew nothing about or is of interest and thus introduces a fresh place you have never seen. 

I received such an email last year in March, the email in its self, was not of any great interest but something in it's presentation peaked my curiosity, so I clicked a link and was directed to it's website, I looked around with mounting disinterest and was about to close it when in the bottom corner, I spied a familiar surname. Upon further investigation I discovered a friend with whom I had not spoken for over 30 years and lost contact with. The friendship is now re-kindled and whole branch of my life brought back and expanded on. Who new!

If, like me you do a lot of research and "surfing" on the inter-web,  your details are registered on websites like splattering paint on a canvas at random. A box unnoticed or miss ticking can unleash a storm of emails from companies you had know idea you'd contacted! Every now and then I go into my deleted email, it never ceases to amaze how many messages from the same sender there are that I've not read.

Recently on a competition site I decided to tick the yes box on a number of offers, where the company concerned, would phone you, I gave my home phone number and waited. My phone rang the next day and continued to ring for some days after. Talk Talk, were the most persistent, having rung at least 6 to 7 times over 4 days, the calls were from different call centre operatives and at different times during the day and evening. I have a particular method of answering the phone from someone I don't know. When they ask to speak to me, I immediately reply by asking who is calling, if they persist in asking for me, I persist in replying with the same question. It appears that throws many of the callers, as it must be "off script" for them. After all they are calling me, it is common courtesy, to say where you are calling from!  If they do say who they represent and I do not wish talk to them, I apologise and say that I am not at home and don't know when I will be back! On the odd occasion I will continue the call, the bland uninteresting spurious nonsense they spout is quite incredible. Enough of the boring minutiae of my screening calls.

It was not until I was about 10 years old that we had installed this large baker-lite handset on a table, which appeared in our hallway. It had a dial and when you turned it with a set of letters and numbers, you could hear a ringing noise and then magically a voice spoke to you  from out of the earpiece and the effect for a small boy was beyond imagination. Some 50 years later I sit at the most incredible piece of technology than can literally connect me to almost anywhere in the world at the press of button and click of a mouse. We take it for granted but in such a short space of time (relatively) it is incredible!

So what do you do with you emails? Why not share any stories you have of how an email took you somewhere you never expected?