My very dear friends N and A have been married for over half a century and like all such long lasting marriages, have their idiosyncrasies. One particular trait is whenever A talks to me on the phone, I can hear N puttering around in the background and either talking to their dogs or to A to divert his attention from the phone call to add some tidbit for me. Perhaps this happens when others are on the phone too!
Their only child, a daughter, let us call her Princess, lives overseas but visits them often enough to see that some solution has to be found for such behaviour. Sensing that lack of occupation could possibly be the reason for such increased interruptions, she came up with a brilliant solution.
During a recent weeklong visit to the Princess, N was gifted with a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Two days ago, when I received a call from A, there was unusual silence in the background and I asked what N was doing. Prompt came the reply that she was intensely focussed on solving a 1000 piece jig saw puzzle and on probing I found that the puzzle was a gift from the Princess.
I promptly got the drift and laughed out loud and congratulated A for the brilliant solution that the Princess had found and wanted him to convey the same to N with my compliments. I also asked him to send me a photograph of her at the desk and he did but, the photo on top is a stock photo from google images and not of N. In the original N looks far more focussed!
The last I heard, N is still at it. It has now been four days!