My Dad has a memory that makes a sieve look like the perfect receptacle for storing water. Conversations with him are always an adventure, so when my phone started ringing and the word "Dad" filled the screen I knew that I was in for a treat.
He's going on holiday soon and wanted to know my number, should he need to call me whilst away. I resisted the temptation to point out that he (or if you're nitpicking, his phone) clearly already had my number by dint of the fact that he'd called me.
I asked if he had a pen to write the number down. Cue hurried scrabbling in a drawer to locate such an item and we were away.
Me: "OK, so it's 07793..."(pause to let him write that bit down...)
Dad: "Yes, 09973...."
Me: "No, 07793....."
Dad" Oops sorry....07793.."
Me: "82......."
Dad's partner: (off microphone, stage left, with notepad and pen) "09973...."
Me: (supressing urge to giggle) "No, 07793..."
Dad: "07793."
This three way game of Chinese Whispers for the Bewildered continued until I'd disseminated the whole number. My Dad, ever the stickler for clarity, read the number back to me, transposing the last two digits. "No." I said, and reeled off the entire number once again.
"Yes, that's right." said my Dad, entirely without hint of irony.
On the downside, my life seems to have turned into a Two Ronnies sketch. The upside is that I probably won't get too many phonecalls whilst they're away.
NDC
I love it! You should hear the conversations I have with my parents when they ring me and ask me to book something online for them, compared to them I am a technological whizz :)
ReplyDeleteThis is all soooo familiar. My mum is still deeply suspicious of mobile phones and thinks they are instruments of the devil. She can't get her head round t'interweb either. If I ever call her from my mobile, she immediately assumes that I will be bankrupt after 5 mins or so. Keeps the calls nice and short :)
ReplyDeleteAG - The scary thing is that one day The Boy Wonder will be writing this about me. maybe he already is.
ReplyDeleteCQ - I wish my mum would take that view. The joys of an 'Italian' family!
Oh my kids already say how like their grandma I am these days......forgetting this, repeating that....just have to roll with it....
ReplyDelete