The woman next to me at the dinner party asked: "And what do you do?" I said I was a builder. She looked at me hesitantly for a moment before her next question. 'Tell me," she said, "why do builders never turn up?" Well, I can only speak for myself. I always turn up. Except when I have to go and price up the next job. Or the job after that. Or when I have to attend an emergency call-out, or spend a few hours on the phone chasing up materials or plumbers. But apart from that, I turn up. And when I don't turn up, I phone in and make my excuses. I've got good telephone etiquette, you see. And you can't say that for every builder. When you call most builders at home, their phones either ring out or are answered by grunting teenagers who don't pass on your message. And when you call builders on their mobiles, they answer "Yeah?" or 'That you, Dave?"
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