I just dialed my home phone number and was rather surprised to hear a local health authority's answerphone. I dialed twice to make sure and then called NTL to see what could be wrong. Apparently a whole block of Cambridge numbers are doing this. Poor NTL - they're so messed up at the moment.

I also called my local surgery this morning to reschedule my travel check. Again they suggested I call on Thursday as they only do same day appointments now. I double-checked with the nurse to find out if this was actually a government ruling or some local thing and she assured me that the government requires this. Apparently it's a part of the GP contract that was just agreed.

Any wagers as to how long this will carry on?