There is a whole ceremonial around the telephone at my parents’, that I take a certain pleasure to witness. The time is chosen carefully, and generally well in advance. Their side of the conversation is often prepared, sometimes even rehearsed. A list of topics may be written, too. Spare paper and pencil are made available, of course. Reference material, related documents, files, copies, depending on the nature of the call, are brought in.
Before there was a cordless phone in their home, my parents would take the telephone to the living room table, as close to my mother’s papers and documents as its cord would allow, and she would place it carefully next to her notes.
Since the arrival of the cordless phone, the ceremonial of the telepone takes place in the living room for business matters, or in the kitchen for personal matters.
In any case, my mum and dad sit next to each other. In any case, the loudspeaker is on. More often than not, my mum does the talking ;) It’s funny how loud she speaks when she’s on the phone. She denies speaking louder, of course ;)
I’m not such a phone person myself. I seldom place phone calls, sometimes fail to return them (bad me). People are kind enough with me to not bear grudges.
I’ve had my current cellphone for two years and a half and here are the duration counts:
Received calls' duration: 47:57:54
Dialled calls' duration: 50:06:24
It’s a little late now and I’m a tad tired (and I suck at maths, granted), but I think that amounts to about 3 minutes per day. Heh, not that bad, after all.
koalie’s contemplations in markup 