No, of course they didn't turn up, although they put a lot of effort into it.
I didn't get over to Gordon & Patricia's house until 1400, by when there'd been a lot of activity. It started this morning when the chap delivering their new garden furniture reversed under the phone cables leading to the house - or rather, tried to reverse under them. He actually reversed into and then over them, the over part coming shortly after he'd torn them from their mountings on the pole next to the house.
Amazingly - really amazingly - there was apparently a passing France Telecom person who managed to string the whole lot back together and get the analogue line working again, although there's no sign of life from the ISDN lines.
So we sit about until 1700 with Daisy giving the garden several good goings-over looking for ham (she found some in the end - in the packet labelled 'Jambon de montagne' bought specially for her by Patricia, Daisy's new Best Friend For Life) when I give the nice lady a call. The nice lady who, last week, promised, promised, promised the lines would be fixed up today, who said don't expect the chaps to be round on the dot of 1400 because they'll be working in the exchange first. The nice lady who says, today, "They haven't turned up? How strange…" She obviously hasn't worked at France Telecom for long. But she does get the chief engineer on the other line who promises her and me that his boys will be round tomorrow. Without fail. No, really, 1400 on the dotted.
(I want to say something very, very sarcastic at this point, but my sarcasm gland's just gone into spasm at the very idea of coming up with some new vitriol about France Telecom, so I won't).