Unexpected phone calls

I got back from the gym yesterday, and had deliberately left my phone at home, charging. When I checked it I noticed I had a missed call. The number displayed was central London, which ruled out anyone I knew. San is still in Leicester, and it wasn't her number. I wondered if it might be Fi, but I don't think she knows my number. I don't return calls if I don't recognise the number, but if I am curious enough I will withhold my number and call them from a landline, to see who answers.

I did this once in Leicester, someone had been calling me and I didn't know who they were, but they seemed persistent. I was paranoid and bordering on agorophobia following my assault, and didn't like it. So I called them, just to see. Some guy I didn't know answered, and I told him, sorry, wrong number. I thought it was as simple as that.
"How do you know?" he asked me.
"What?"
"How do you know you've got the wrong number?" he insisted "You haven't asked for anyone yet."

I thought this was a pretty stupid approach.
"Ok then, are you the hospital?" I asked him
"What?"
"Are you the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary hospital?"
"...no"
"Well then, I do have the wrong number."

Strangely, it shook me up. I didn't like that he seemed aggressive, or that he'd been calling me, and least of all I was no closer to understanding who he was. Fortunately for me, he never called again.

So yesterday, I stood with phone in hand, copying the number from one phone to the other, preparing to call this number, when my phone rang. It caught me off guard and I accidentally answered it. At first I thought I had mistakenly just cut them off, and was going to try and establish who had just called when I heard a voice saying "hello? hello?"

It turned out to be a PR company I applied for an internship with. They asked if I was still interested, very much interested I said. Where do you live, they asked. I told them. That's very far away, they said. Not really, I replied, most people here commute into London every day. I know, they said, but I pay £100 a week and that is all that I will pay. I understand this, I replied, I expect that to pay for my travel. Yes, they said, it might just pay for your travel. Are you free now, they asked.

I've begun to realise that when they ask me this I should tell them "no", whoever they are. Because what follows is usually a telephone interview, and I like to be prepared for it. So now I tell them I am literally just on my way out the door, and arrange a time for them to call me back so I can be ready for them. Get the ball back in my possession.

"No, sorry, I'm just about to go out", I told the woman
She laughed. "I didn't mean right this very minute" she told me "I mean, are you free to start immediately? Can you start Monday?"
"I can't, I need to give two week's notice in my current job" I said
"That's no good to me" she said "I need someone who can start right away. Very well, I will call some others and if nobody is any good I will come back to you."

And that was it. Unfortunately, this is the trouble -- I can probably find a wealth of PR firms more local to me than central London, and save a fortune if they'll take me on. But they are unlikely to be big enough places to have internships, unlike ones in London. I need to call the agencies I sent letters to last week, chase them up, make sure they got the letters. But I think I might be kidding myself.