Anyone For A Milk-Shake?

I expressed my concerns earlier this week about the mystery of our missing milkman and the suspicions that our new milkman is arousing in my mind. I appreciate all the comments from other bloggers – no small matter on my mind this has been! You are all so lovely to have given me feedback with my dubious dairy dilemma.

• The Mystery Of The Missing Milk-man
• The New Milk-man Is Raising Suspicions

Well…after receiving yet another overdue payment letter this week, I rang the milk company again on Friday, as last week we used her my landlady’s credit card to make a payment, which we thought had cleared the account.

I ended up speaking to a very chatty adviser and learnt the following:

• the account is clear so we can ignore the overdue payment letter
• she has no idea what happened to our old milk-man
• we currently do not have a regular milk-man
• milk-man “temps” are standing in and there may be several different milk-men covering the round
• the adviser had never heard of a milk-caddy with a dial!
• not all milk-men understand the milk caddy system – they may not realize they should look at the dial to see how many pints of milk the house-hold needs
• they prefer for customers to ring in the milk company with their requests rather than having direct communication with the milk-man
• they prefer customers to set up a direct debit for payments (I explained that is not what my landlady prefers)
• she was shocked when I told her our old milk-man used to deliver the milk around 10 or 11am. She told me milk should be delivered before 7am!
• a milk-man somewhere in the country did actually die quite suddenly this year only she has no idea where in the country that was, but it was due to illness and nothing suspicious
• milk-man work horrible hours
• they are looking to recruit new milk-men
• it’s a really hard job being a milk-man
• it’s even harder if you are a milk-man temp and you are having to deliver milk to customers on a round that you are not familiar with

I made her cry telling her how fond everyone was of our old milk-man and how lovely it was to see his cheery face and have a chat with him. We both agreed that it is lovely to see a local milk-man who is friendly and a part of the community.

We both spoke rather nostalgically of the “olden days” when neighbours chatted over the fence and everyone knew the milk-man and the post-man and the coal-man (hold on a minute I am much too young to remember the coal-man – but she remembered him).

I admitted to her that I am afraid that it could have been our lovely milk-man that may have died due to illness. I explained that would rather explain his mysterious disappearance. She said that all she knows is that it was very sudden and unexpected, but she has no idea where his milk-round was.

Perhaps I have been a bit over-imaginative in my detective work. I am starting to conclude that my theory about a new milk-man with “issues”, who was at war with my landlady over her complaints, is highly improbable – because it turns out we might be having a different milk-man every week! And of course my far-fetched fears about the disappearance of the old milk-man being due to some nefarious act on behalf of the new milk-man is also seeming even more absurd.

I am still faced with at least one of the milk-man “temps” being slightly dodgy, but I think I have to recognize that my suspicions were inordinately large. All I can accuse him of at the moment is not understanding how a milk-caddy works (which apparently is not unusual!), having an unkempt appearance, nearly running me over in his milk-float when he came around the corner too quickly, and lurking down cobble stoned alleys with shady looking photos.

However, I think we can all rest in peace that whatever his misdemeanours may be, they are not on the scale I presumptuously concluded they were.

We can all return to enjoying milk again (well some of us can enjoy the dairy-free alternatives). Is anyone for a milk-shake?