It seems to be the week for them.
But what a difference a couple of days make - this one had me giggling.
The call was from a sweet little lady in the village called Ivy, sister of Maldwyn the daffodil planter. She is getting on a bit, and a Welsh speaker, which very occasionally gives rise to communication problems.
Around here nobody, but nobody starts a telephone call with "Hello, this is XXXX speaking". Everyone just launches straight into the conversation. As it always seems a little rude to tell someone I have no idea who they are, I was racking my brains trying to place the slightly familiar voice. So I wasn't paying full attention to what she was talking about, which appeared to be something about the end of the month and someone called Richard. Which meant absolutely nothing to me whatsoever.
It eventually percolated through to my brain that it was Ivy speaking, and that she was talking about R's anniversary. Only his name isn't Richard, he was alive and well all through July, and Ivy didn't seem to be able to say the "D" word either!
Once those minor details had been cleared up, we had a very pleasant chat.
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Have been away for a bit so I'm just catching up on your posts now. I thought I was the only one living in a place where noone introduces themselves on the phone! This annoys me no end and I thought it was just another "ignorant Cariboo guy" thing. People get angry when I don't know who they are but I have no patience anymore and just ask sharply "May I ask who's calling?" I just can't help it.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a good trip.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny that you have the same problem where you are. We also found that when we first moved here, people would come up and say hello. We would then introduce ourselves and wait in vain for the other person to do the same. We would have to actively request them to give their names! Similarly there are very few signs with house or farm names on them. I don't think it is anything to do with being rude or secret, It is just that local people have lived here forever, so they know that a certain place is called Belan Ddu or Waen-y-fign, so why do we need a sign? The position of my house means that I am forever having some poor delivery driver knocking on my door for directions after driving round in circles for half an hour.