Robin, the Bat Guitar and the Cricket World Cup

Robin has been very busy recently with several of his more unusual gigs...

For the last few weeks, he has been playing an electric cricket bat guitar at Old Trafford and Headingley as part of the ICC Cricket World Cup. His first match was a massive one between Pakistan and India to a worldwide audience of over a billion!
Standing on a podium at the pitchside, following a cue in his earpiece, he plays a famous guitar riff every time a wicket is taken. The riffs are an eclectic mix of Hendrix, Guns 'n' Roses, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Clapton, etc., etc.

The spectators have been loving it as they can view proceedings on a giant screen. Over the tournament, word has spread and Robin has been getting many messages of encouragement on Facebook and also some requests! (which he has snuck in from time to time...) He has also been talking about it on BBC Radio and made the local newspapers!

One of the perks of the job has been an excellent view of all the matches he has performed at and he has thoroughly enjoyed the phenomenal cricket he has been able to observe at close quarters.

If you aren't able to attend but are watching on Sky, you'll still be able to hear him in the background!

It has been an honour to take on this role and he still has a couple left to do, so why not try and spot him...

Here's Robin practising one of the riffs, 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC...

Telesales and How To Survive Them

Today we had one of those annoying telesales calls.
I find them frustrating, politely say I'm not interested, put the 'phone down, and fume for a few minutes.
Robin uses an alternative approach.
He actually has a few, sometimes he reads poetry to them, then puts the 'phone down, but on this occasion he went into a sort of bumbling aristocrat mode.
A nice young man called James was trying to sell him Sky T.V. and all the paraphernalia that goes with it.
After passing a few pleasantries, about how delighted Robin was to hear from him and that it was very nice of him to call, poor, unsuspecting James, went into his sales pitch.

The first problem he encountered was the satellite dish.
Robin declared they are, 'rather unsightly and would look incongruous on our Grade3 listed home'. (which we don't have..)
James obviously didn't know what incongruous meant but talked his way out of it by extolling the virtues of the improved dishes.
"Are they similar to a large dog bowl?" asked Robin.
"Well, yes, they are," replied James.
"Oh, well, that's the problem, we have two large dogs and they're likely to get confused."
I think by now you are getting the drift of the way the conversation was going.
Unbeknown to James, the whole call was taken on loudspeaker, which enabled the entire family to listen in, with increasing levels of mirth.
Suffice to say, James didn't sell us anything, and I'm pretty sure has been left rather bemused by the whole experience.
I just hope that they recorded the call for training purposes. I'd love to hear how they taught their staff how to deal with this sort of situation.

The point is though, that instead of being angry and frustrated at the interruption and intrusion of an unsolicited sales call, we all had an exceedingly good laugh, and were able to go about our day feeling much lighter and happier.

So the next time you get a call like that, remember, you don't have to take it seriously. You didn't asked to be called, so, just go with the flow and let your imagination take over.
It's much better for you.
Son number ones comment on the whole thing, "This is what makes living here so unusual..."