Moof
Friend of mine takes emergency calls for the National Grid... the "you smell gas, call this number" thing. He comes back from a night shift with the giggles.

There was apparently a man who called at 3am explaining he smelt gas.

In a field. A cow field. By a black cow.

Unfortunately, *every* call needs to be investigated and "closed off", so off the engineer is dispatched to this field, only to call back on arrival with:

"there's more than one cow - and none of them are black!"

So our energy costs were put towards paying an engineer to chase cows in a field at 3am. I can only hope he had a good laugh when he finished the job.
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 15:47, 4 replies)

priceless!
I think it's an excellent way to spend your time - chasing cows in a field at 3am trying to find the black one. I hope the man had a torch and it wasn't just he couldn't see the black one due to lack of light. (Although that makes me chortle as well).

I love bureaucracy that ensures even a smell of gas beside a cow must be investigated.

Clickies.
(Dog Bum Cute, wiggly, has scary anal glands, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 16:05, closed)

I believe you.
Itchy, itchy beard.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Sat 5 Sep 2009, 16:57, closed)

hmmn
I'm sure methane is orderless.

And how can someone mistake cow farts for the gas which comes out of the cooker?
(Shippy likes linebreaks and doesn't care what you think, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 18:05, closed)

methane is odourless, yes,
They put something in household gas to make it smell for safety reasons, iirc - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanethiol . That way if there's a leak you'll notice, and hopefully not spark up that lighter and WOOF.

And the man was a nutter. If you've been reading this qotw so far you'd realise a lot of them spend their time calling call centres.

:-)
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 19:14, closed)