Tele.Phoney

Well. Gone are them days of the house phone, where we had to spring out to answer the phone (sometimes needing to take 2-3 steps down the stairs at a time if we were upstairs), or remember phone numbers by heart, or sometimes even, identify voices as Uncle or Aunty So-and-So. No more sitting by the piano on some hard rosewood chair with no ventilation. No more parents watching telly at a volume that meant anything in a whisper cannot be heard (yet if we had that telly at saidsame volume mum would have yelled for us to shut the damned thing off).

Hah. We used to hang out at a friend's place, mostly to play games, only to leave when we hear a phone call around 7pm. There's no need to answer that call - we'll just breeze out of the house while the friend tells mum we've left and are on our way back. And mum will call the club (or get us or sis to do so), asked to be connected to the game room (where the men play chap kut aka Gin Rummy using tiles instead of cards) and bug dad home for dinner.

If at anytime we can't be reached, then we can't be reached. Bliss of ignorance.

Nowadays the only phone numbers we remember by heart are the immediate family members' numbers. Alternatively we remember them by their speed dail button. And we identify people by assigned ringtones - so we know the urgency (answer ASAP/blacklisted don't touch). And if the house phone ever rings, we know it's never for us.

The wonders of the mobile phone, eh?

Didn't help us today when we had a call from an unidentified number. We didn't expect it to be regarding work (whatmore it being a mobile number), and whoever who called hung up before we could answer.

Normal line of thought would go, "If it's important, whoever it was would call back." Right?

But we were curious. We called back to find out who our mystery caller was.

Mystery Caller: [Janvier], hi! It's a surprise to hear from you!

Die. Now not only do we not know who it was (except that it was female), we seem to have lost the initiative as well. She knows us, we have absolutely no idea who she is. And we were to shy to admit and ask. First things first.

Janvier: Hey! Say, you just called us just now, got a missed call from you.
Mystery Caller: No, I didn't. Maybe accidentally called you because my handphone is inside my handbag.
Janvier: Ohhh, like that yah.

Cheh. Keyguard lock, if you please!

Mystery Caller: So where are you now? Last I heard you were working in Tun Perak?

Now we're getting somewhere. Pharmacist. Guardian possibly. Not kept in touch since beginning this year when we changed our phone, so number may be in Nok7710. The conversation tango went on finding out how each other are, promising the exchange of emails and catching up some time later.

And when we hung up we still haven't identified the caller but we suspect a certain colleague. Lad wondered how we managed to get through the conversation sounding as if we knew who we were talking to. We've learned a bit on how to, since with a poor memory and a tendency to run into people whom we think familiar but just can't place we need to be able to get by with the bare generalities (is there such a word?).

Now, the Nok7710's charging up so we can check the Address Book so we can confirm our suspicions. Thank goodness we keep full details of contacts where possible.