Time for a Danish
If you thought the only thing to come out of Denmark was Sandy Toksvig and a kilo of smoked best back, you’d be wrong.
In a thorough grilling of Tommy Sass, sales executive of Needahotel.com who’d popped in to see us, I discovered I was dealing with a Dane.
It’s easy to mistake Tommy’s roots as he speaks with a lovely, soft Irish brogue that he acquired when living in Ireland. Now that Needahotel and Octopus have joined forces, the company is no longer based across the water and Tommy has made a new home for himself in Bournemouth.
Tommy was obliged to reveal his Danish origins when it became clear he was failing my Irish nationality test, that is to say, he looked completely blank at the name Ronan O’Gara (Irish fly-half), confessed he did not like soda bread and admitted he has never seen Riverdance.
In place of Guinness, Tommy said he enjoys a pint of Carlsberg, but it would seem Bournemouth’s lager-drinking population prefers Foster’s. I can only hope he has more luck finding Danish bacon for his breakfast.
Visiting the shop to update us on company news and tell us about the launch of the new website, Tommy said we Britons should think about importing some Danish working practices to make life more efficient.
“Danish working practices?” I asked, intrigued.
“Around four o’clock, while you are eating cake, we Danes open a bottle of wine or a can of beer it stops the guys from rushing off to the pub after work.”
“Working practice? The managers would prefer the staff to practise working before they introduce alcohol,” I joked. If there’s anyone in management brave enough to try out this strategy, I’d love to know how you get on.
At six feet, four inches tall, Tommy makes a most striking Viking and I couldn’t help but ask if he had any current romantic interests. It turns out he’s single. And a dab hand in the kitchen.
I pondered Tommy’s situation later. Denmark is in the media spotlight at the moment as David Tennant is playing Hamlet, so I’m pretty sure there’s an Ophelia just waiting out there for him.
Summertime blues
It’s the height of the summer, which means agents across the country will be receiving those nasty phone calls from operators that start with the words: “I’m sorry to let you know we have an overbooking problem”.
How we hate these situations which are not problems of our creation, but we undoubtedly take the flack from the clients involved.
Our Frome office received a call on Thursday afternoon about a hotel in Turkey that had been booked several months ago for a family of five who were due to fly the following day.
The hotel had been overbooked. Thomas Cook offered alternative accommodation at a lower grade which had been flatly refused by the client.
He was irate and upset and vented his feelings in no uncertain terms to the women in the office, who had been trying to find a suitable alternative with another operator ever since they’d received the news. This cut no ice with the client, who became threatening and intimidating, blaming the agency and demanding his money back there and then.
He returned the following day to collect his cheque and told the agency staff he had phoned the hotel direct to “get the full picture”. They’d told him Thomas Cook had been informed of the overbooking problem over a week before. Why is it we always bear the brunt of other people’s mistakes?
Gland to be of help
Of course, the other conversation you don’t want to be having with a client revolves around the insurance medical check.
When a dignified, ex-military octogenarian asked me to ring the health line on his behalf as he’d been having problems understanding what they wanted to know from him, I was forced to relay the question: “Do you have an enlarged prostate gland?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Where would I find it?”
Dear me, it seems all those government health campaigns had passed him by. Thank goodness for your local travel agent!
Maureen Hill works at Travel Angels, Gillingham, Dorset