5 Days 14 Hours xx Seconds
No my blog has not been sponsored by Jack Bauer and the 24 TV Production Team. It’s the time I’ve gone without speaking to anyone (excluding our son). I’m not sure if I should be proud or a tad worried. Maybe both.
So almost a week without a phone call, chance meeting or random conversation. Even on two long runs – didn’t bump into a single person. Its one of the prices you pay for living in a small village.
It’s an odd feeling. Have I been secretly ostracised. Has my liking for Nickelback finally caught up with me…….
I had assumed my streak would have ended today as today was the food shopping trip. However I managed to get round the aisles without uttering a word. I did smile a few times at random folk. Surely a conversation will be struck with the assistant on the cash till. But no. All the tills were full so I opted for the self service lane. No scanning problems encountered so the streak continued.
Tomorrow I have to go to the work unit but that is in a largely deserted industrial estate and I will be the only person in our building. So the streak may continue into Thursday. Hang on a minute Thursday is Valentines Day. Wow am I going to be seriously cranky by the 14th…
Anyway we have started a little wager, who will break my streak. I’ve gone for a random cold caller with my first words being “will you just bugger off”. Son is going for the postman or randomly a lost Donald Trump.
I will keep you posted…..
I use to phone the talking clock 🙂
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If I get really desperate I will have a conversation with Alexa. Yes the good old talking clock, I Remember that
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I have a talking clock, the vox clock 2 that my sister got me as a Christmas gift from radio shack in 1985. It still works and I use it daily to wake me up in time to get the little ones up for school. When it finally dies, I suppose I’ll compose an album about it, you never know. I’m guessing there’s another post that talks about the origins of the streak of silence?
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I remember and friend having one of those talking alarms. He loved it but I think his girlfriend accidentally dropped it out of the bedroom window one day (probably twice).
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Sorry to hear your isolation. When I worked in the high street bank, I was aware that several of the elderly people who came to my till lived alone and probably didn’t see anyone from one day to the next. Hubby and I strike up conversations with everyone, especially walking the dog, though some days we see no-one on our walks, so I guess it’s a matter of timing.
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It is. I’m lucky, not completely isolated.
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Praying your isolation ends soon
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Thank you. I am sure that random marketing call is due…
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Oy. Maybe instead of smiling say “hi how are you?” That would be too weird for me.
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Yes it’s something you don’t really see that often in the shops. Can’t remember the last time that happened
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It is hard to get many folks to respond. Almost Everyone has a wall around themselves.
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It’s the modern way now. I love going on a Swiss Bus in the town we visit. Every time some one gets one they walk down the bus saying hello to everyone.
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Beautiful bridge.. I wish I could build such beautiful bridges between me and people in life..!
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Beautifully said.
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🤗
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Thank you
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Did you listen?
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I do. It’s kinda relaxing.
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Oh dear! I know the feeling. Used to be like that for me so I can relate. I would say “Hi” to you and have a cinversation, hubby would too. Wish we lived nearer, we coukd at least say “Hi’ then,mm
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Would be very nice. xx
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Haha! A lost Donald Trump!
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He would have to be seriously lost to make his way to our village….
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Yup!
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🙏
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If he shows up there, I will pay you to keep him!
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As long as you accept a prisoner exchange of our cabinet and Boris…..
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Hmmmm … I’m not so sure … Boris is a buffoon, but still … I’ll take it under advisement.
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If I throw in Nigel Farrah, will that swing the deal…..
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On no … OH NO you don’t!!! We have our share of idiots over here … you can keep ol’ Nigel! I hear, though, that Trump greatly admires him, so perhaps you could put the two of them together on a deserted island somewhere?
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Then they can build a big wall together.
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And wall themselves in and the world will be a better place without either of them! Yes! It works! You can add Boris to that mix too, if you like.
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It is the cheapest way of getting ourselves out of the mess these so called leaders have dug us into.
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How silent could it be? Good afternoon to you there!
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Indeed. Good Afternoon to you as well.
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Totally get this, it’s a strange feeling isn’t it? After a few days like that, when you do finally have a conversation, it’s as though you have to wake yourself up somehow….x
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Thanks. Yes I suspect when the time comes I won’t know what to say…
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I hope you find the words :O) x
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Thankyou
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If it comes to it you could always acquire a serious but non-life threatening disease, then you get to talk to the doctor(s), the chemist, the clinic receptionist, other patients with whom you may have at least one thing in common… so many bonuses! 🙂
Or you and your son could take a bus/train somewhere and not have the correct change…?
Perhaps a less drastic but longer lasting conversation could be had by calling your current gas/electricity provider and say you are going to change providers and wish to cancel your account?? 🙂
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Or I could for Trump to get lost in Yorkshire
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And, you want Trump in your country, why?
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Playing golf stops him doing stuff, we have a few courses….
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Good point.
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That’s unusual for me
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Stop it…OY.
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Ok.
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😆
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Would any conversation with Trump be longer than 3 words (including swear words)?? 😉
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Did you see my golf ball – that’s 5….
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Err… Six?
How’s the sleep going??? 😉
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Still waiting to hibernate
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That is serious isolation. I use a Mac complete with Siri, which I never use. One day I must have clicked on it by mistake. Up he popped. “Oh, do go away”, I whispered quietly. Quick as a flash came the reply: “That’s very rude”.
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That would scare the pants of me.
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🙂
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Well you know I think sometimes talking is overrated. 🙃
Anyway there’s all kinds of talking going on here, just in written/typed words instead if vocal ones. 😘
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Indeed
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Oh wow, yes I can relate to this. I have gone days as well. I think Declan does as well – yesterday I listened to him ask Ok Google what her favorite color was and when her birthday was. Maybe the conversation comes today (and good luck with it! 🙂 )
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That’s so sweet and thank you. Similarly our son will happily go into isolation mode. And similarly he has weird conversations with his iPad talk, have to say the IPad provides more of an intellectual challenge than his dad..
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Sometimes, out of the blue Alexa talks to me and says “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” I usually reply “I wasn’t talking to you!” Eavesdropping of all things! So now, when I remember, I switch her off until needed again.
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Our Alexa is permanently turned off, to many times the TV set her off….
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Whatever happened to voice recognition!
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Indeed. It certainly can’t cope with the Yorkshire accent.
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Good job I don’t have one then! Okay, a very slight one! Are you Yorkshire too?
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Yes. It’s a sort of 90% Yorkie and 10% Tyneside. Not great really…
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My son was at university in Newcastle, I often had difficulty understanding the accent.
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Is it strange that I don’t think I’ve ever gone a 5 day streak without speaking to someone? I mean, I’ve had 5 day streaks when I haven’t WANTED to speak to anyone but it’s never actually happened. This is gonna sit with me today…hmm…
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No sounds entirely normal. I have certainly gone years not really wanting to speak to anyone. Hopefully it’s going to sit well with you.
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You speak to us though so I guess that’s something… No words are spoken but words are exchanged… I hope that makes you feel somewhat else isolated… 💕
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It does thank you. xx
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You need to get out. And be yourself without your son now and then.
Just like Mom’s and Dad’s need to remember they are not just parents, they are also husband and wife and need to do things AS husband and wife.
It will recharge you. Good luck!
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Thank you
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Thank you very much.
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I would rather stick a fork in my eye than use the self service checkout, for two reasons. Firstly, I am not being paid by the supermarket to do this work.
Secondly, if I were to do this work I am potentially putting someone out of a job who may be in great need of the money it provides.
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Point taken.
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You can call me on Skype on Valentine’s Day, if you want to! I really mean it. 🙂
Blessings to you — and enjoy those long runs. (I’m a runner as well.)
Debbie
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Thank you so much. xx
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I think I wrote my Elfchen for you today!! 🤣 I bet you can go to Friday if you try. It’s good to purge sometimes even if it is people and talking
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I did see the linkage. Still going strong…..
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Hopefully not a lost Donald Trump! On the other hand, it would be a very interest post…
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Still waiting for him to call.
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😊
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🙏
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You can call & chat with another blogger. I’ve done that. I’ll call ya’ & say “Heyyyyyyyy!” 😁
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Thanks
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I hope for your sake it wasn’t a lost Donald Trump lol! This is why we have online friends 🙂 Saying that though, I hope you’ve had some random encounter by now.
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Visited a local shop but managed to trap my fingers in the door so my first conversation was rather curtailed…..
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Do you count a long string of expletives then?!
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Depends on how loudly you shout them….
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Oh yes. This happened so damn often before the kids were in school. Unless I left the house, I would speak with no adult for day, after day, after day. The lack of words, it weighs down hard.
Though I will say that going out into the humdrum world sans kids, and being able to be quiet *by choice* instead of having to answer a million questions and listen to multiple threads of conversations and fights and such–a chosen period of silence is a luxury. 🙂
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It is. I often need that silence just to let my mind settle down. It makes you feel human again not a punch bag.
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Exactly. x
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🙏🙏🙏
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love it ! the mixture of sadness and humour and the reckless what ifs of chance encounters
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I am so so pleased. It was I ironic that my first words out of silence started off something like ‘your welcome, ouch f#-£-#.’ – I trapped my hand when I opened a shop door for someone.
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Enjoy the solitude while it lasts 🙂
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Yes while it lasts.
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How about taking up something gentle like Pilates? We are in a mixed group that meets at the local rugby club and its good fun – not too demanding but makes you know you’ve done something good for the body. And you do meet people… and the nearby supermarket has a coffee shop where some from the group go afterwards… just a thought.
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That’s a good idea. Will look out for a class.
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Give it a few weeks and then you’ll really feel the benefit – and miss it if you skip a week.
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Will check bit further nothing round here.
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Enjoy!
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I’m surprised you don’t bump into people to talk to in a small village as it’s the first thing I noticed when moving from town how if you walk to the local shops everyone says “good morning,” and in the shop you often bump into people you know. In some respects it’s easier not having a child to worry about as a single man you can pop to the pub for a bit of company.
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Sadly our village has no pub or shop. I am the only runner, so apart from the occasional dog walker you don’t see many folks .
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That’s a shame.
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