Cruise Tease

Sometimes I can't resist gently teasing people.  Today I had to take my car back(yet again) to the garage.  The dear old thing, 122,000 miles on the clock still goes well, but it suffers from the garage mechanic's nightmare - an intermittent electrical fault.  The man rechecks all the connections on my new starter motor, and says if the fault reoccurs to bring the car back and they'll take the motor off and have it looked at.

"OK," I say, "but that won't be for a while because I'm going away for a month or so".  "Ooh, " chips in Debbie the garage receptionist, "Going on holiday then?"  I smile.  "Yes, on a cruise."

"Oh I'd love that" says Debbie.  She momentarily drifts off into a private dream of the Greek islands or maybe the Norwegian Fjords.  Consciousness returns.   "Where will you be going?"

 "Oh, you know," I reply, " Coventry, Burton on Trent, Loughborough*, Market Harborough . . ."

"Oh." An embarrassed silence, then she gives an uncomfortable smile and with some hesitancy says "That's nice".



* reportedly pronounced Loogaborooga by some American tourists.