“Frikkie”, I said, “just as well you’re not a gambler and we threw our TV over the balcony after nine and a half years because we realized it was impacting our sex life. That’s 1 hour 20min 35 sec of screen time now…and the grass needs cutting and I need some undivided attention. I’ve asked three times and you haven’t answered what you’d like on your gourmet sandwich I’m making for lunch. Are you going to keep submitting to the click of the Google algorithm version of what you should be thinking and feeling? Or are you going to give that beautiful heart and soul of yours a say, and more specifically talk to me for a bit?”

“Yiree bok!” he says to me. Frikkie says I have a thousand words to his one. So that was 2 words from him and 108 words from me. Who’s prone to exaggeration here?

My words were not even cold, Frikkie was cooking dinner, and he pipes up: “Prunie, that’s one hour 5 min and 22 seconds on whatsapp, family chat, sewing club chat, all that group dinges”

I hung my head, but managed a small comeback: “But it’s connecting to loved ones far away Frikkie, its real connection.”

“Sonja is 3 minutes down the road Prunie”

“Ja, ok, but everyone else…”

“**and what have the Romans done for us**?” Frikkie sighed, shaking his head and mumbling just above a whisper…

Acknowledgement: ** Frikkie loves to quote lines from the film Life of Brian by Monty Python, to express himself

©prunella lighthouse, 2022