I hope you had a great day yesterday.
There was no email, blog or news reading for me yesterday as I went for corporate training and did not have internet access. The training program would start at 9:00 am but I was already there at 8:30 am. I was the only trainee so far so I enjoyed the quiet space while reading some magazines. Then my phone rang. It was my husband, who was still at home at the moment with my mother.
“You know anything? Did someone die?”
* my moment of peace and quiet was of course shattered. It did not last for even 5 minutes *
I thought my heart stopped beating for a moment. “What!? Who died, what happened!!”
There was a lot of noise in the phone that I could barely make out the words he’s talking. “I think, buzzzz buzzzz some—one diiiieeedd.”, he said then buzzzz, buzzzz…the noises continued.
“Hello? Hello? What happened!? I’ll go home!” I said while clutching the car keys in my sweaty hands.
And he was cut off. I was in a different building so my phone signal was low. I hurriedly went outside and called him. His phone was busy, busy, busy!! You can only imagine the thousand and one things going on in my mind: my mother, screaming of the news then because my husband’s phone was busy, my mom could’ve used it to call international. It was so awful.
Finally I was able to get hold of him and before I could even speak, and what do youk now, he was angry.
“Why aren’t you taking my call? I was trying to call your office number over and over because your cellphone number was busy!!”
“Duh, dude I am so not in my office desk!! And my cellphone number was busy because I was calling YOU! What happened really?”
Amid my hear heart attack situation, he casually said: “Well, all radio stations suddenly played instrumental so I thought, someone must have died.”
If I was not standing on cemented floor, I would have loved to faint.
*****
Here in the UAE, when a ruler dies, all radio stations suspend regular programming to play instrumental music or Islamic prayers for about 3 days. The ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, Sheikh Saqr died yesterday morning.
In 2007, when the greatest UAE ruler Sheikh Zayed died, the radio played instrumental for a whole month. Lucky DJ’s.
Finding Backroads 
Oh man, I’d have killed him…
Reminds me of the time my then teenaged cousin called me from the US at 2 in the morning and said “Robin, sit down, someone died”. By the time he told me that it was Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead I thought I was going to leap through the phone line to strangle him for scaring me like that! I was so relieved it wasn’t a close relative that all I could do was laugh.
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.-= Robin from Israel´s last blog ..RivkA Update =-.
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Haha!
I was waiting for my name to be called as a winner of virgin radio when suddenly they changed the lively music to instrumental. There was an advisory though.
So, it’ll last for 3 days, ha? Coz I’ve been checking the online streaming so I wouldn’t miss my name being announced. LOL!
.-= rose´s last blog ..How I first met Baby Kate =-.
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Th instrumental music is interesting… but totally not cool what your husband did!! lol. HE sounds like my sister, always calling me or my mom and asking “how do I do this? what is the answer to this?” …mom always answers her, but I often find myself asking her if she has ever heard of GOOGLE. 😉
.-= ErikaJean´s last blog ..Baby Gifts =-.
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A very interesting way of letting everyone know that someone has died. Everyone else must have been jamming up the airwaves. I wonder how many similar conversations to yours were going on?
Best Portable Mini Fridge
.-= Seb /cozy pink dog bed´s last blog ..Thermoelectric Fridge =-.
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Wow, sounds like a trying experience! But it makes for a very amusing story later. 😀
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..Pumpkin muffins =-.
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Oh jeez! That would be super freaky! and then really annoying to have him mad at YOU! I can totally relate!
And it would be super annoying not to have your regular radio station for a whole month, wow! Glad it wasn’t someone you “knew” though!
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Oh. My. Goodness. You are RIGHT to have a heart attack moment and want to faint! Seriously, I would have done the same thing O.O
Cell phones-20 part blessing, 80 part CURSE!
.-= Kayla´s last blog ..Win It Wednesday10-27 =-.
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I had to laugh, but phone calls like that are truly annoying!
.-= Charlotte | Life’s a Charm!´s last blog ..Odd- Strange or Almost Scary =-.
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Nice post! Nice experience! Phone calls sometimes are annoying and irritating especially when you have low signal in the place you are. As a whole, you have a great experience but I wish, it would never happen to me. Thanks for sharing your experience and have a great day ahead.
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