My dad is officially an old man. His exact age, however, is unknown. As was the case with many people who came to HK from the mainland in the 60s, he lied about his age to make himself seemed younger (more employable). Conservative estimate would put him somewhere between 70 and 75.

I am having a hard time accepting the fact that he is old. My image of him remains at the time when I was in school and he was middle aged. But man, is he getting old.

His mobile phone is under my account name as he was too useless to get his own. Yesterday, over the phone, I was trying to get him to use his mobile to dial *777 and follow the instructions to set the password for on-line customer service for his account. Seems simple enough to me but it took him half a day and he still couldn't get it done. This is frustrating. Even though I am the account owner I can't do this without his phone.

Just now, he called:

The phone company called and said a bunch of stuff.

What did they say?

I don't know, my ears can't hear anything. Can you call them and ask them what they said to me?

Was it a real person or a recorded message?

I don't know if it was a person or a message. My ears are useless, I couldn't hear what they were saying. Probably about some special offer or something. I don't make long distance calls anymore, I use very little.

Were the words "special offer" mentioned? What was that about long distance calls?

I don't know, I couldn't hear very well. I don't make long distance calls anymore. No roaming or stuff like that.

So, what do you want me to do? You want me to call them and say, hello, someone called my dad's phone and said a bunch of stuff but my dad couldn't hear it so can you tell me what it was so I can tell my dad?

Yes, you call them and ask them what they said to me.

How come you can't hear what they said to you? You could hear me NOW, right?

Yes...hahahh... (the old bugger). I can hear you but my ears are not very good.

Does this sound insane to you or is it just me.

Hello? What did you say?

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