Mud, Wine and religion

Reader, I have just landed an acting job in which I shall be spending a Sunday afternoon knee deep in the depths of the Thames. What a job. However, the scruffy six year old within is ridiculously delighted. A chance to roll around in mud? What could be better? I really do have a big love for those roles where I get to mess myself up. Whether that be with fake cuts and bruises, mud in my hair or prosthetics all over the place. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love just a nice simplistic rom-com as much as anyone, but horror movies are just more fun! Apart from when you have to walk home covered in fake blood and mud if there's no cleaning apparatus around...yes, that's happened before.

In other news, am doing jolly well at the new job! Selling wine seems to suit me. I've managed to overshoot my target two days out of three and the only day I didn't was the day they put me on a really hard campaign, which no one seems to do too well on. It was one where you have to call people who quit wine plans ages ago and try and convince them to buy wine, and barely any of them are up for it. The most common replies I experienced were:

• Sorry, we quit because we couldn't afford it and we still can't. Don't you know there's a recession on?
• I've given up alcohol because of an operation/my liver failing/diabetes/my weight.
• I'm pregnant.
• I hated the service you gave me, you're an awful person for calling me and let me now list all the reasons I won't buy from you ever again.

And then once...

• We cancelled his account because he died.

Gulp.

The worst response I had was when I was having a perfectly nice conversation with a lady who was quite interested in a wine plan, and could vaguely hear her husband in the background yelling something, but I assumed he was being jokey or asking her to ask me what wines they had. We rarely get a really angry response because we only ever call people who are members of the wine club and who have ordered through us before, so in general they sort of expect us to call. In this case, the man grabbed the phone off his wife just as we were closing the deal and screamed at me 'Sod off! I hate these bloody cold calls, don't you ever call us again!' then hung up on me! I was pretty shaken up after hours of people saying either 'ooh yes please' or 'oh no thanks, we've got plenty of wine' so instantly pressed the DO NOT CALL button. At least no other poor call centre worker will have to deal with his rudeness! I do feel sorry for his poor wife though, what a horrid man to have to live with.

Finally, a friend of mine is a keen debater and was telling me the other day about a debate he is trying to set up between Atheist Richard Dawkins and Religion philosopher William Lane Craig. You see, R. Dawkins is highly famous for his rejection of there being a God, which is fine but his arguments can be a little nonsensical. E.g. If 2+2 is 4, Michael Jackson must be dead. Useful stuff. And thus far he has refused to debate with William Lane Craig (who is widely seen to be someone who fights for there being a God but is actually very logical and reasonable instead of a mental preacher man who thinks we're all going to die in a fiery pit for enjoying champagne) listing a whole series of invalid and frankly silly reasons. It would be a really interesting discussion and rather than Dawkins picking on small fry, he'd be arguing with someone on the same level as himself, making interesting viewing/listening for both sides of the argument. Below I have listed the link to a video my friend has made as a sort of trailer as it were for a tour Craig is doing and a enticer to Dawkins for the very debate he seems to be shying away from. It makes interesting viewing so do have a look! (as well as the debates going on in the comments section!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ldYmg0lpE

On that note my lovely people, I'm off to babysit, have a great evening!

Ash

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