On the bright side, I won something...

Oh. My. God.

Have you ever done something reallllllly stupid? Something so toe curlingly careless that if for some bizarre reason, your life was represented by a library you would be in serious danger of having your card revoked?

I have. Yesterday in fact.

You see, I've been having phone troubles for quite some time now and yesterday, I finally went about getting a new one. Once I had everything set up on it, I checked my voice mail only to find I had four unchecked messages. One was from my mother who had arrived in Ireland that morning to begin a one month stay. The next two were from my old landlords regarding a screw up at the electric company. The fourth however, was an interesting one...

"Hello," said a crisp and efficient sounding english accented voice. " This is (insert crisp and efficient, english name) from Pringles (yes, the potato chip company) calling. You recently entered a competition in your local supermarket sponosred by us and I am pleased to inform you that you are the winner. I just need to verify your address so we can have your HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM delivered to your house (Home entertainment... OH MY GOD!!!!) Please call me at our Irish number as soon as possible. The number is 014..."

At this point, I called out for everyone in the room to kindly SHUT UP and then explained the situation (I have not only won something, I have won something REALLY COOL!!!!) and in the process missed the remainder of the message including the contact number. I vaguely heard a mechanical voice asking me to press 6 to call back, 7 to erase and 9 to save..." and stupidly enough did none of these as I was still explaining exactly how I came to be the winner of said Home Entertainment System and why I was filling out supermarket competition forms despite not being either a) a pensioner or b) a spinster.

Do you know what happens when you opt to do nothing?

The computer chooses for you. Guess which option it chooses. Go on, I dare you...

That's right. It deletes the message. Contact number and all.

Which is why dear friends, I have spent the last 24 hours stalking the pringles company and my local supermarket managers in the hopes of tracking down a certain crisp and efficient sounding englishwoman.

Wish me luck...