Tailor King and Credit Cards

Daisy Turnip writes.....

Ever heard about the tailor king who comes to the UK from Hong Kong – my friend (Billy Bob – see below) has named him Mr Ting Tong - you meet him at an airport or some fancy swancy hotel, he then measures you from top to toe, goes away and makes you a hand made suit or shirt?

Husband has always been fascinated by this idea – him being fed up of buying off the shelf suits and shirts that don’t really fit properly. Well, shirts that fit you perfectly round the neck, but looks a little like a portal tent until tucked into your trousers!

I have a shameful confession to make – hubby reads The Telegraph!!! I kind of deal with this problem and believe that we balance ourselves out because I’m a faithful Gruniad reader! Anyway, last week the Telegraph advertised the fact that Mr Ting Tong was coming to a town not too far from us. Hubby got really excited and told me, ‘right, we’re going to this one. I’ve just turned 40, it’s time I treated myself to a hand made, properly fitted suit’. Thinking after 5 minutes, he’d forget all about it, I went, ‘yeah, ok sure’. Oh dear, he remembered!!

Early Sunday morning, we left our good friends home, after a bit of a heavy night and set off to the posh hotel not too far away. We arrived in time for his booked appointment and I, being in a bit of a hung over state, sat in the car, listening to the Archers watching the rain on the windscreen, thinking, ‘why oh why are we here? I need my bed’

It’s at this point I need to tell you about my hubby and his attitude to credit cards – according to him, you don’t need one! If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it! Simple? I on the other hand don’t quite have this idealized view on life – if you need it and want it, go for it. Anyway, hubby’s previous job took him all round Europe and I always worried about him not having a credit card of his own, if he had an emergency, what would he do? Me being such a loving wife, one day handed him a credit card (on my account) and told him, ‘look, humor me, just put it in your wallet – you never know you might need it’. He assured me, he wouldn’t need it. I then forgot about it, until on a very infrequent occasion I decided to check my bank statements etc and noticed a payment going out to a well known credit card company – it was HIS credit card. Hypocrite - £224! It was an emergency he said! ‘Yeah, sure hubby’. It turned out to be a new watch!!! And so, back to the story.

So there I was, sitting listening to the Archers and my mobile rang – it was hubby calling to tell me that Mr Ting Tong didn't take Maestro cards (his normal bank debit card) and requesting if he could I put it on ‘the’ ie my credit card - I took great delight, I mean, pity in saying, 'Sorry, there's only a £500 limit on it and half of it you've already used FOR NON EMERGENCIES!!!'

Twenty five minutes later and nearly 500 quid lighter, hubby turned up with a smile on his face – ‘It’s ordered!!’ He’d paid up front and was told that goods would arrive in 6 - 8 weeks time - if he wasn't happy with the fit, to come back to the next event towards the end of May!!! He believed them and felt perfectly happy handing over that amount of dosh, to only take receipt of a dodgy receipt!!!!

‘How did you pay if they didn’t accept Maestro cards’ I asked, ‘Oh, if was fine, they arranged for me to pay it off of Mr Ting Tong's hotel bill’!!!

You really, couldn't make this stuff up could you?

He really is a total optimist – come back in 8 weeks time, and I’ll give you an update then!