Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Rory wrote:Indeed he was - it's just that I read that a lot of traditionalists got all upset - I thought they were pretty good actually.

Not all change is bad...

Great Plum wrote:

Deb GP wrote:Oh how I really HATE that. Almost has much as I detest being referred to as "Ms" Smith. (rant surpressed here)

Mrs Plum nearly attacks people if they call her Ms Plum...

yeah me too... I don't answer letters or pay bills if they have the audiacity to call me Ms. or spell my name wrong (no offence Old Blue ed)

Great Plum wrote:

Deb GP wrote:Oh how I really HATE that. Almost has much as I detest being referred to as "Ms" Smith. (rant surpressed here)

Mrs Plum nearly attacks people if they call her Ms Plum...

I once tried to explain to someone that if he was going to use my title (ie. Mrs), he ought to write Mrs Simon Standing as calling me Mrs Catherine Standing implied I was either separated or widowed, neither of which do I want (yet ...!). The chap looked at me blankly, so I gave up. I ventured he could call me Canteen Cath, but that was just as confusing.

Hurrah for CJ. Thank you. Someone else out there understands. I'm not a pedant. Honest. But it's my name FFS and I'm more likely to buy your blasted double glazing / switch telephone supplier / take out another bank loan if you actually get it right.

Deb GP wrote:Hurrah for CJ. Thank you. Someone else out there understands. I'm not a pedant. Honest. But it's my name FFS and I'm more likely to buy your blasted double glazing / switch telephone supplier / take out another bank loan if you actually get it right.

There are 3 of us now!

I find it exceedingly irritating (after the first time when it might be a genuine error) when businesses cock my name up.

cj wrote:

Great Plum wrote:

Deb GP wrote:Oh how I really HATE that. Almost has much as I detest being referred to as "Ms" Smith. (rant surpressed here)

Mrs Plum nearly attacks people if they call her Ms Plum...

I once tried to explain to someone that if he was going to use my title (ie. Mrs), he ought to write Mrs Simon Standing as calling me Mrs Catherine Standing implied I was either separated or widowed, neither of which do I want (yet ...!). The chap looked at me blankly, so I gave up. I ventured he could call me Canteen Cath, but that was just as confusing.

I shall show your post to my wife cj! She gets annoyed if called Mrs Andrew Miller rather than her name. She gets even more annoyed with me when I tell her that, strictly speaking, they are correct and she is not

It is very out of date and somewhat unpleasant but technically when a woman marries, she becomes Mrs (his first Name) (his surname). I my case my wife Ann is Mrs Sean O'Callaghan. She is actually quite proud this title but I never ask her to use it. I can understand women getting upset about this but must companies and indeed most people are totally ignorant of this form of address

Some years ago, when Joe and I had insurance policies with the same company, they kept getting our names mixed up.Admittedly it doesn't help that his initials are JM and mine are MJ. I kept getting letters addressed to MR.M.J.O'Riordan, and I could not get them to alter it. Finally I wrote to their Head Office to say that as my policy was due to mature soon,I was getting worried that they might expect me to have a sex change operation before they would pay up. IT DID THE TRICK. They apologised,got the name right and coughed up.

It is amazing the lengths you sometimes have to go to to get companies to do the simplest of things.

Companies?? I feel a new thread starting!

Sorry, my spelling has been bad today. One or two personal problemsto sort are affecting me

Mid A 15 wrote:

cj wrote:

Great Plum wrote: Mrs Plum nearly attacks people if they call her Ms Plum...

I once tried to explain to someone that if he was going to use my title (ie. Mrs), he ought to write Mrs Simon Standing as calling me Mrs Catherine Standing implied I was either separated or widowed, neither of which do I want (yet ...!). The chap looked at me blankly, so I gave up. I ventured he could call me Canteen Cath, but that was just as confusing.

I shall show your post to my wife cj! She gets annoyed if called Mrs Andrew Miller rather than her name. She gets even more annoyed with me when I tell her that, strictly speaking, they are correct and she is not

I don't mind what people want to call me (within reason - oldest daughter once tried, "oi, you there" and got short, sharp shrift) as long as it's correct! I'm not a militant feminist (btw not implying your wife is, Mid A 15!!) so had no problem with being Mrs and taking my husband's surname, but neither do I mind people using my christian name.

Personally, I object to any form of categorisation: I am not Mrs Borgars ( that is my mother) , I am NOT Ms - horrible invention, and I'm far too old to be Miss...

I took my first husband's name on marriage ( I plead youthful innocence here, plus a desire to piss off the mother-in-law), but refused to do the same the second time around , on the grounds that he had married me, not bought or adopted me .... after all, in many countries a woman's legal name is her birth-name, and here is Spain women keep their names even after marriage - despite abundant spanish male machism !

So I'm Barbara Borgars sans title to all and sundry...

For me it really does depend what situation I'm in. At work - I can be either. For home stuff or things that affect both Smith and me, I prefer the more traditional approach.

What is possibly more annoying than being called Ms. Smith, is when companies presume to call me by my first name without asking first. er.. sorry.. do I know you? Have we been introduced?

But you really know that you're getting old when shop attendants and hotel receptionists start calling you Madam instead of Miss. I guess I can't have it both ways.

I'm just hoping I can find a nice man to marry with a plain old surname so that one day I won't be misspelt.

What's the point of double letters anyway? To have two sets in your surname as well as two vowels (well one's a 'y') that could be any other vowel, and I'm just asking for it...

There are about 14,000 different ways to spell my surname, but once I've told a company how I spell it...

And I'm not going to buy their sodding double glazing, loan or cable TV anyway. They get to call me what they like and I get to call them what I like. We got a deal!