It had only taken 40 minutes before the reassuring sound of an actual female human voice – albeit one with an Indian subcontinent twang to it – reverberated in the handset I was holding. During this time, I’d avoided the judgemental gaze of people wandering past my stationary phone-box stance and had grown increasingly furious with each passing nanosecond I had to endure the swirling blasts of icy air from the gap at the base of the box.
‘Hello, may I help you, Sir?’ was uttered once again due to my belated response.
