I am chatting with Rafaello on the computer. Rafaello is representing Shell Energy and I am questioning the hike in my monthly direct debit energy bill. I don’t know if Rafaello is his/her real name. Maybe it is Reg or Darren or Megan. Rafaello spells well. In a moment of weakness I decided to use the word ‘query’ (their type of word) instead of the word ‘question’ and spelt it ‘querie’ for some reason (as I say, it is not one of my words; why should I know how to spell it?). Rafaello also used the word but correctly spelt. So he can spell. Though I suppose it is one of the top three or four words when you are fielding questions on line. What disappointed me in Rafaello’s responses to me, other than his triumph over me in spelling, was the fact that, before I had even stated the issue that was troubling me, he said that he could understand and relate to my feelings about the concern I was bringing up. This, of course, will be a stock phrase that they select from their copy-and-paste data base. Rafaello, or Reg, or Darren, or Megan just clicks it out as a matter of course, not knowing how irritating it is for me to have my so-called feelings intuited. I would like to ask Rafaello, or Reg, or Darren, or Megan or Shell Energy what feelings they think they have on me. I don’t like anyone thinking they know what’s going on in my head; other people’s woolly empathy gets my goat and gives rise to other feelings which Rafaello can probably not sense from where he is in Hartlepool or Delhi.  We left it on a good note, Rafaello and me. Turns out they were wrong to hike my monthly payment; I am actually in good credit; they are just trying it on to get more money in their coffers for interest purposes but I am too wily for them. I went back to my egg on toast preparatives and Rafaello to his endless queue of queries (am I spelling the plural right at least?) and his overflowing chalice of empathy.

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