Amusing myself with small things
On the other side of the partition that divides up the sea of partitions I work amongst sits a pleasant grey-haired German fellow. I love it when he calls his wife or other family and speaks to them in German. I tried to learn German once as an adult (but taking a class one night a week is a pretty hopeless way to learn a language and so I didn't get very far) so I listen sometimes for recognisable words and phrases. Most of the time I can't understand a word of the conversation, but yesterday I had a breakthrough: I heard him say funf, drei, sieben. That's 537!!
Next to this pleasant German sits another grey-haired chap, R, who's worked here forever and has a great sense of humour, which often sets me laughing on my side of the wall. I like it when R calls his wife too because after 28 years of marriage he still calls her "lovey". Across a corrider sits a grey-haired lady B, who has also worked here forever and she occasionally gets a visit from a friend H, who comes downstairs and hangs off her partition to chat for a while. Every time H comes down to visit B, R mysteriously gets a phone call and has a loud conversation with a fellow called Arthur. When I first moved down here I wondered 'who is Arthur' and I hadn't yet worked out that Arthur always called when H is down here. Anyway, Arthur is apparently H's imaginery husband, and he always has some problem with H that he needs to talk through by the sounds of it (and R is just prank calling himself to have these one-sided conversations). This morning H came down, and sure enough then Arthur supposedly called R who went on with the usual "oh that's terrible Arthur" etc. I couldn't resist so a little later I ducked out into the hall with my mobile phone and called R and, in my best man's voice, pretended to be Arthur. The only problem is that I hadn't really thought about the rest of the conversation, so then I just stood in the corrider and dissolved into fits of laughter and that was the end of it. But it was fun while it lasted.