Saturday, September 16, 2006

You can tell that I teach Communication


Earlier in the week, I decided to invite my Aunt Jean for a meal at the weekend. She’s a widow in her eighties, though she has quite an active social life, and we quite often have her at the house for family get-togethers. Since she’s quite deaf and also goes out a lot, I usually email her instead of phoning.

So this is what I did. My email said:

Hello,

Feel we haven’t seen you much for ages. Would you be free to come to tea on Sat or Sun, or indeed lunch on Sun if that were more convenient?

Lots of love, Isabelle



A few days passed and I was a bit surprised not to hear back. Slightly concerned, I decided to phone my aunt, but just before I did so, checked my email.

To my puzzlement, there was an email from some cousins of my father, which said:



Wouldn't that be nice, however we don't have a rocket ship at the moment.

We will be off to Linda's wee cottage for some work in her yard and then I suppose she will give us some dinner before we head back to Spring
Thanks for the invite, maybe another time.

Love to all, Jewel and Alex



Yup, that’s right. I had typed Je (for Jean) into my “To” box, and the computer had helpfully filled in Jewel’s email address. And I hadn’t noticed.

Since Jewel and Alex, who are also in their 80s, live in Spring, Texas, and we live in Edinburgh in Scotland, they must have thought that I had gone completely mad. But didn’t they answer politely?

5 comments:

  1. Hi there, I have just discovered your blog via rooruu's Patterning the World. I have loved your blogs! I will put you on my favourites to come again!

    I have an 85 year old beloved Aunt, who rings me from NZ every Sat afternoon, & she has a far better memory than I do, she also has very well organised marbles! I love her dearly, & she has more or les taken the place of my Mum, since she passed away.

    I am very new to this myself, & have to confess to pathetically checking out my site to see who has visited. I have found the more comments you leave on other blogs, the more response you get back. I am enjoying it all immensely, & find I get a lot of much needed laughs.
    Keep on blogging!

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  2. Lovely :o)

    Such a sweet response too. I have to be so careful with that auto pilot thingy in the "to" box... but then I have to be careful with the auto correct in Word, there have been so many occasions when it has turned my scientific words into something completely different :o/

    B.

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  3. Thanks for the laugh -- I just cracked up at my desk! At least you didn't type anything nasty about Jewell and then sent it to her -- that's the sort of thing that would happen to me...

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  4. So easy to do but a bit of a laugh just the same.

    Have a great week:)

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  5. So funny! At least it was a respectable email you sent, instead of one that I might accidentally fire off to the wrong addressee. It could have been much worse!

    Spring, TX, huh? I've actually been there. Small world!

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