Conference calls

For a woman who hates talking on the phone, I seem to have participated in more than any one's fair share of receiver holding the past day. Surely seven con calls is a bit ludicrous for anyone but a call centre operator??? Seven!!! Internal, external, existential..... like a zombie, punching in dial in numbers, pass codes, jabbing the mute button just in time to let loose with some libelous expletives about clients that resemble cretins, vain attempts to interpret voices garbled in agitation, each shouting over the other, crying babies and honking taxi's in the background, patiently coiling fingers around the phone cord instead of a colleagues neck as they falter their way through a simple question, too many 'sorry, but what was that?' as cross cultural accents clash....
Still, as con calls go (and many have went!), 71.4% actually had a clear outcome, and glory be, only 2 more in the diary for the rest of the week..! There is a God.