Escheresque

I have chosen this effect because I'd like to do this as a very hard jigsaw, and because it reflects how I feel after spending the best part of the day helping a friend buy and start using a smartphone.

Those who read my sister TML's blip will know of her trials with her MIL. This was not quite as bad, but almost. We met at 10.30. Went for coffee to discuss phone needs.


F said, no contract! Just texts.
I said, what about minutes?
What are minutes? he said.
I explained.

Then F said he was in need of a Rennie's. Five minutes later he said he thought he was having a heart attack. I checked out his symptoms, which didn't add up to heart attack material, and we walked rather slowly towards Tesco's.

I was looking for a copy of Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It had sold out in all the charity shops, because of its TV serialisation. I ended up reserving one in the library, and we got to Tesco's a mere two and a half hours after first meeting! 

When it came to buying the phone, F discovered that he did not, after all, have the credit card he was going to use to buy it! He could not contemplate using another. I sent him home to get it, and went to the instore Costa's, where halfterm children were screaming. I read my book about war criminals.

Later, F succeeded buying the phone, we got a case, and the young assistant even managed to port F's contacts from his dinosaur-era phone to the new one. We left and contemplated our lunch options. It was after half past two.

In Cafe Rouge, where this shot was taken, we sat side by side and mainly faffed around with phones. I showed F how to use the camera, and to text. He wasn't taken with the virtual keyboard, and moaned. He said he'd have to buy new trousers because his  new phone wouldn't fit in his pockets....

Eventually we went to Nero's, where there is WiFi, in order  to try and set up email. F could not set up a Cloud account without verifying it by email. He hasn't yet got email on his phone. Chicken and egg!

I left to catch my bus. It was five thirty pm. We had missed all the sunshine. I texted F, but he did not reply. Eventually he sent me a long text, saying he'd been back to Tesco's to sort out the email. He also said he thought he was going down with a cold, rather than having a heart attack.

I feel in need of some Bach flower remedies. Impatiens, and Beech for intolerance. It seems that, although I play little part in my elderly mother's life, I have picked up the baton of WEA social organiser, and mobile phone adviser to the over 70s!  Today I was asked to take part in a community sing song event, but fortunately for the other participants, I will be running a card stall elsewhere.

Back at home now: Father Ted, Springwatch, and another large glass of Sauvignon. Bliss.

Oh, and the sun is still shining, in this very room.