to think that almost 14 years after

[FuckThisShit]

the area code for London changed to 020, there seems to be a ridiculous number of total idiots people who still can't get it right?

The code is NOT 0207 or 0208 FFS, it is 020 followed by an 8 digit telephone number. For example, my number starts 020 3xxx xxxx, where the fuck is the 7 or 8 in that then? If I want to dial a number within London I will dial 7xxx xxxx, 3xxx xxxx or 8xxx xxxx. The 020 is irrelevant you inefficient twats

I have seen four, FOUR, brand new shops/restaurants this morning whose twattishness have ordered sign writers to do the 0207/0208 thing. Why? What's so fucking difficult.

AIBU to think they're all idiots?

AIBU to get the RAGE?*

• this one I know I am, but I will continue to do so I fear.

Folk?

I have never used that word before in my life.

I thought it was 01??? northern person

I had the opposite problem when I moved to Belfast.

All Belfast numbers start with 90 but I wasn't told that.

When I started as a PA people would say 'it's Belfast, 23 4567' and I didn't know I had to dial the 90. I couldn't figure out why none of my calls were going through until I mentioned I thought there was something wrong with our phones at work and it was explained to me.

Lisburn is, I think, 92, in case anyone is wondering.

Folk? FOLK? You're meant to be younger than me FGS!

I KNOW!

I have never used that word before.

I blame Joanna Trollope.

I've got 0181 811 8055 stuck in my head - what was that for?

Anyway, I share your rage. When the 020 numbers came in in 2000, our phone number already had loads of 8s in it, so we had all sorts of problems with people unable to understand our new number. It took the form of 020 88X8 8Y88, which was easiest said as 020 88X 88Y 88. I know that's not the 'right' way to say it, but it was just so much simpler!

Just to add to the mix, the local dry cleaners' number was 020 88X8 88Y8, and we used to have all sorts of fun and games trying to explain to the caller that they had the right numbers but in the wrong order.

Solution - we moved.

Yes, my cake analogy was shit.

I remember the 811 8181 number! I remeber it when it was 01 811 8181!

The thing about people paying more for 0171 numbers is funny, over my neck of the woods, if you had a 0171 number, it meant you lived in the 'ghetto' part! and 0181 was definitely more desirable.

I find the saying mobile numbers much more annoying, I say them 07939 then XXX XXX NOT 07939 XX XX XX

My Dad still answers the phone not with 'hello' but 'town-4 digit number'

In fact when we lived in The Seaside Town With A Bad Name he just used to just say the number, but when we moved to The Naice Parish to the West of The Seaside Town (let's call it Pagwatch) he insisted on answering with his very best telephone voice "Pagwatch 9843"

such a snob

Doesn't the 3 signify that you're signed with a provider using VOIP? Or your phone is digital or something? At least that's how it was explained when my work switched over. When speaking with most people we NEVER leave the 020 off and tend to phrase it as 0203 xxx rather than 020 3xxx because then you avoid the 5 min conversation about you missing digits off, or surely it's really 0207 3.

Ho-hum. Them's the breaks.

So, I humbly apologise that my work is perpetuating this.

What I can't understand is, given that 020 is the general prefix for London followed by 8 digit numbers, why the hell we couldn't have got 01 back as the prefix at that stage?

Why 020?!? Why not 01 3567 6543? (Eg) then there'd be no anguish and confusion for the 3ers as everyone would know, from clear historical context, that 01 was a prefix.

And we'd have 01 back! I still mourn it 020 in my view has no soul, no character and no history!

The thing about 1990...

I was in a meeting, in 1999, so only a few years ago , where we had to come up with candidates for Man (Person) of the Millennium.

Someone blurted out: 'I know. Jesus.'

He was quite senior. We underlings shuffled for a while until someone said he might want to rethink it. The most senior person in the room said: 'Yeah, maybe we shouldn't bring religion into it.'

More shuffling until the person said he meant that Jesus was from the millennium before. And then the most senior people, who all earned a lot more than us, were shocked to discover that there were indeed other millennia, yea going back unto the dawn of time...

Oh dear Limited, that's quite sad (in a teenspeak way).

Breathe, I have a feeling that someone from BT did actually say when we changed for the 3rd time, that really hey should have done that in the first place and kept the 01.

Oi. I used my landline only a few minutes ago. It is also a cool number but I prefer the word trendy because I am too old for cool.

btw saying cool marks you out as old but a bit younger than me.

I watched a 70-odd year old film recently and an actress used the word 'ridic' for ridiculous, which was probably very cool and trendy in the world of the horse-drawn omnibus.

It might be all the go again because I've heard young people today using it but I don't hear that well any more so I could be wrong.

And did you knock off the 020, that is all I am concerned about!?

Oh my lord limited.

I actually don't like 02 numbers (not just London, Southampton and Cardiff and other places I can't remember). They look Wrong.

I also don't like 011 number. Bristol's dialling code (0117) looks rubbish.

If I were to dial your number from my mobile, I would need to dial the 020 part, even if I were right outside your door.

Fenton my MIL does that. She also lives in a seaside town. It has a Butlins but it's still naice if you keep away from that end

I remember watching a period drama (Jude the Obscure) and Kate Winslet said 'oh stop intellectualising' when she was stark bollock naked.

Anyway the whole cinema laughed, I am not sure at her saying such an anachronistic word or saying it with her boobs out when next to Christopher Ecclestone.

Seaside towns have their own little dramas and snobberies. Where I come from (Ilfracombe) we generally loathed the village next door (Combe Martin) without knowing why. Probably to do with some smuggling scandal from the late 1700s.

I say 'groove' or (worse) 'groove armada' to mean something trendy and it winds my daughter up. Good.

I don't actually say the word trendy though. That is nearly as bad as the word snazzy. And Leslie Crowther (RIP) said that word on the Price is Right.

They called me. Embarrassingly I've just realised that I didn't press the red button when I finished the call so it tied up their phone (it did, didn't it?). That is such an old lady thing to do.

Trills, yes of course you would as is the case when I have to dial any number that doesn't have the same area code/is a mobile number.

Limited - yep, my teens say ridic (well the girls do). Apparently if something is cool or trendy it can be described as sick. But sick also means awesome. I get a translation for these things every once in a while.

GetOrf - the whole bloody point of having children is to piss them off/wind them up when they become teenagers. I have found that the ages of 14-16 are best for this. DD3 is screwed when her time comes.

bad things are also 'cat' in teenland.

And other hideous words which I refuse to remember but which make me shout 'don't USE that word'

And she takes the piss out of me for saying the word ghastly, ffs.