Without going into too much gory detail, my phone number has a double digit in it. Also, Australian phone numbers are sometimes divided up into XXXX YYY ZZZ (American ones are immensely more predictable, always coming out in the familiar (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ format. Australian ones also manage XXXX YYYY or, occasionally, (XX) YYYY ZZZZ, or, really, any format they feel like.)
In any event, this unfortunate double digit throws me off tremendously. Normally I simply state my phone number the normal (i.e., American) way and all's well and good, except the cat's out of the bag regarding my nationality, but, really, what with the accent and all, it was the second I opened my mouth anyway. But, at times, I like to maintain the shred of an illusion for reasons best known to myself. Which was why, tonight, I left a message on an acquaintance's answering machine that stated my phone number as XXXX ZZZ YYY instead of XXXX YYY ZZZ. Two years I have had this number, and I actually think I know it pretty well, but try to say "double 5" instead of "five five" and suddenly I've completely botched it up.
Sigh. Guess the explanatory text message kind of killed the illusion.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
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Intrastate landline: XXXX-YYYY
Interstate landline: (XX)-YYYY-ZZZZ
Mobile: Commonly XXXX-YYY-ZZZ but also XX-YYYY-ZZZZ
On business cards, the interstate version will be given for all landline numbers apart from 13 (caller pays cost of a local call, business pays extra if caller isn't local), 1800 (free to the caller) and 19 (caller pays an arm and a leg) numbers.
Normally, 13 numbers will be either 13-XX-YY or 1300-XXX-YYY and 1800 numbers will be 1800-XXX-YYY.
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