Dear Nesta,
How you, m’dear? I hope, healf-wise, yuh awright, ’cause as long as dah department gine fine, yuh able to deal wid wuhevuh else get t’row at yuh!
I down hey, fightin’ de good fight, but I cyahn tell yuh it is wid “all muh might”, ’cause I would be lyin’. Dese never-endin’ monfly bills does mek muh head spin! I en know how I don’ topple over, faif. But God is a good God an’ ‘E promise not to lef’ we out, so I keep pressin’ on!
Pressin’ on, is one t’ing, but gettin’ stress out at nearly evuh turn is anethuh. As we all know, in dis “electronic age”, evuht’ing far mo’ advance dan it us-ed to be – an’ advancin’ even furthuh evuh day – mekkin’ life a lot mo’ easy fuh all! I agree it is so in nearly all cases, but in one partic’lar case – my daily use o’ dah instrument yuh call de telephone – it is a diff’rent matter.
Now Philomena an’ me been frien’s fuh donkey years, an’ fuh me to tell yuh I don’ know she telephone number would mean I ’pon de road to Alzheimers! So, I en need to tell yuh how vexin’ it is dese pas’ monfs, when I dial she number to hear, “The number you have dialled is not in service, please check your directory or call the operator”! Call de operator, fuh wuh?
She all de way out in Sin Lucia an’ cyahn be much help, ’cause she jes’ readin’ from a computer an’ gine gi’e de same number you a’ready know, so wuh help dah is? All yuh could do is wait, try de same number agen – de one dat not in service, min’ yuh! – an’ hope evuht’ing back to normal!
But dah en all, evuh blessed day, durin’ almos’ evuh call, while ’pon de phone, yuh jes’ hear a click an’ de line gone dead! Agen, all yuh could do is play de waitin’ game ’til it decide to come back! You could well imagine whey my stress level went de ethuh day when it happen durin’ a impo’tant overseas call I was waitin’ ’pon!
My nighber Voice Mail service en neffin but a joke! Evuh day, it is bare hide an’ seek she playin’ – she seekin’ she messages an’ duh gettin’ hide somewhey, ’cause she en fin’ing dem! Friens’ always complainin’ she don’ call back when duh lef messages, but de troof is dat she en gettin’ dem! Reportin’ de fault en help matters! Duh try to fix it, but up to now, t’ings still de same way!
As I tell yuh befo’, I ’preciate we livin’ in de electronic age an’ we got to get wid de programme, but c’dear, you cyahn begin to know how frustratin’ it is, when yuh phone a office an’ need to speak wid somebody urgent, firs’ to hear yuh got to press mo’ numbers dan John read ‘bout, befo’ yuh could get on to de office o’ de body yuh want. An’ when yuh finally reach de right extension, nine times outta ten, de body yuh want not available!
But to top it all off was de day I had to phone home urgent, only to get dah ridiculous message ’bout my phone not in service an’ I should call de operator! Would you believe I had to dial my own number four times befo’ I could get t’rough!
I en got to tell yuh how my pressure went sky-high dah day! I had to get some tablets from de doctor – de firs’ time in my life – to bring it back down!
Now yuh could onderstan’ why I gettin’ stress-out?
Tek care o’ yuhself
Yuh frien’ Babsie