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Legal statement: For the avoidance of doubt, I referred to SWMBO as 'my present wife' purely in order to distinguish her from any predecessors in title (of which there was merely one, with whom my relationship ceased before either the aforementioned girlfriend or SWMBO came along ). I did not intend to imply that 'my present wife' was likely to lose that exalted status in the imminent future - although I do not pretend that our relationship is necessarily ever-lasting, especially as, inter alia, our views on and liking for high heels are, sadly, far apart. Commercial statement: I was aware of Freddy's shoe size, but his potential interest in surplus footwear has been noted. He will be kept informed accordingly.

One of my few qualifiers for a 'regular' girlfriend in my past would be their interest in a heel, or their enthusiasm to please me by wearing one. I have never made any secret of my interest, nor my interest in the wearer of stockings. In fact I would even suggest to my female companion of the moment, that wearing these two, almost guaranteed my undivided attention whenever they wanted it. Up until around 10 years ago, it was a very successful arrangement. Your post reminded me of a girlfriend too, but from some 35-40 years ago. Not a wholly pretty girl, but slim and moderately attractive nonetheless. I was young, and had my head cemented inside my arse at the time, I'm now ashamed to confess .... She was keen to please, and she did a pretty good job. At the time, I hadn't realised how good - but isn't this so often the case? She smoked the occasional cigarette, and at the time it excluded her from being marriage material, as I was virulently anti-smoking back then. (Due to 20 years suffering my parents love of smoking.) Ironically, I married what people often refer to as a social smoker, (though now in her 14th year of abstinence). The girl I have in mind, once surprised me by meeting me wearing a pair of Covergirl 6" heels - in black patent. The evening ended in the way you might expect ... Why I didn't ask her to marry me that night, I can't explain, except to reiterate where my head was buried at the time. The last I heard. she was in a marriage she didn't much like. And consequently smoked a little more than she used to. I do sometimes wonder what might have been? Though given my penchant for a roving eye back then, (I refer again to my head location), I'm sure things would not have lasted anyway. On balance, I probably settled with the right person at the right time in my life. Doesn't stop me reminiscing about my (hard to now comprehend) somewhat wilder past. I'd say we are both lucky to have had the experiences we had, when we had them. Long may we enjoy those memories.

A 'standard letter' tells us everything. Why is there a 'standard letter'? While I might not be considered an 'expert' in customer service, I've spent at least 10 years (and possibly longer) dealing directly with people who have either spent money with me, or with the people employing me. I have experienced one or two impossible to resolve situations, but mostly making a customer happy hasn't led to anyone having to sell their soul either. Losing a bad reputation, is a lot harder than keeping a good one, so I would say it's best to resolve than ignore. A 'standard letter' suggests, BA prefers "ignore". Even if it were a lie (and it shouldn't be) the response should have been; "We have investigated your comments and have decided the employee described would benefit from further training, and this has been arranged for them. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention, we are grateful for the feedback. When next in a BA facility, please use the enclosed voucher to enjoy lunch or a drink/snack by way of a thank you, on us. We aim to ensure you enjoy being a BA customer. Best regards ..... " With ticket prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of pounds, a £15/£20 voucher, and an individually composed letter would have resolved at least two things (though it should resolve three.) Their good name stays good. A customer who experienced poor service, has had their problem addressed. (Though I realise you can't undo a bad experience.) The third issue of course is the errant steward, who is possibly costing BA more in lost sales, than he is getting paid? And it's not like good air stewards are hard to find either. For my part, 'good service' in recent years mostly centred around faulty goods (as manufactured) being received by my customers. As time went on, I developed better techniques for testing equipment before it was shipped. No-one else in the industry tested equipment at all, so I got to be a little ahead of the game. I also shipped very quickly. Even now, my auction site feedback is littered with "fast" and "well packed" comments. In a previous existence where there was a more 'service' aspect, I managed to change the spec of supplied equipment from £300 down to £30, and (through loaning electronic test equipment) managed to completely remove the Achilles heel of a software driven bit of telecoms kit. So reliable was the finished product, I was recently asked to resolve an issue with a company almost 14 years after I had first installed it, with no interim maintenance involved. Perhaps I should mention my involvement with the system ended some 8/9 years ago. Some of the reason I left it, was continually getting into an arguments about call-out fees to remedy customer FUBAR's. One memorable one, was while at the customers retail site on Boxing Day.... This after being assured I would get paid whatever the outcome of my visit. (Their electrical supply - which had not been protected by spike prevention devices - had cooked the system transformer, so it wasn't fixable on the day.) I was taken for a walk around BA HQ circa 1999, while it was empty. (A friend ran the maintenance team.) Lovely place .... They probably think that while the money is coming in, why worry about customer satisfaction?