Pages

Saturday 18 April 2015

Abandoning The Landline



When we moved from St Heliers to our miniscule bijou residence on the city fringe, nearly three years ago, we had an in depth discussion regarding the landline;  to be more precise, the necessity of it.   I pointed out that anyone who wanted to contact me now did so via email or text or, on the very odd occasion, by a mobile call.   I could not remember the last time someone rang me on the landline, I lied.  I could of course remember but those that still did were either cold callers offering insurance and heat pumps or acquaintances who laboured under the misapprehension that they were friends.
The husband fiercely disagreed and said that as he did not own a cell phone and had yet to learn how to send emails on the Tablet I had given him two birthdays ago, the landline was for him an absolute necessity.  It was duly installed of course because on matters like this he usually gets his way.
As I predicted, however,  it rarely singles me out for attention but two or three times weekly those organizing games of golf or beery assignations to discuss the state of the nation’s finances ring for him.  This is all very well of course but irritatingly he does rather expect me to attend to these calls, sift through them and alert him as to who exactly is calling before he deigns to take the receiver in hand.  In other words I have of late become a kind of secretary or PA.
So a week or two ago I rebelled and told him I was no longer prepared to continue in this role. He was offended, as is his wont but the odd thing is that he has now become very choosy as to whether or not he actually answers the insistent call of the landline that he needed so very much.   When I queried why he said, `Uh…it might not actually be for me you know!’
He is not as yet though, prepared to abandoned the landline altogether.

No comments:

Post a Comment