Dear LPG,

I read with interest the news item you posted on June 4^th 2018 about the best way to use the time you spend waiting on the phone for a shop, company, Doctor’s surgery, hospital, police station, the council or some other professional organisation to answer.

I found -TF’s solutions interesting and I have started to adopt some of the suggestions that were made, but there is another aspect of waiting that can be a source of contention for me, and that is the music that is accompanied by the wait. 

I think that some of the music is designed to make you feel really depressed while other bits remind you of just how long you have been waiting which, leads me to anger to adopt a state of agitated frustration, but there is one particular piece that I really do like a lot and, if I have to spend the best part of an hour hanging on, I would rather listen to this than anything else.  Luckily it is used quite a bit and I bet everyone can hum along when it gets started.   Unfortunately because I like this tune I get all the more frustrated when it is interrupted every couple of minutes by the obligatory ‘Your call is important to us’ message.

Like many others I have spent quite a lot of time hanging on and I found an online article, that firstly appeared in  Time Magazine, which implies that the average American spends about thirteen hours a year hanging on;  I have no doubt that we English are not far behind.

I have often found that if I need to make one of those official calls, first thing in the morning is a good time so; I often spend the time humming, eating and actually finishing my breakfast while hanging on.

HL, Bellingham.

LPG has found the piece of music that HL is referring to and also some other information on the subject. 

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