D came back yesterday afternoon and H called in the evening to speak to her and "wish her goodnight".

So when the phone rang this evening, I was wondering how come H was ringing again to speak to D - he usually rings once every two days. I picked up as D was still eating.

H asks me the international dialing code for other country (his own country of citizenship - shows how much he keeps in touch with folk there! ) I tell him. He tells me he tried it and it doesn't work. There is a silence. I cannot take responsibility for him not getting through to a number.

He then tells me he has only the number, he has lost the email contact because his computer is "broken", which I find a curious use of words. I said, broken? What do you mean? He says, DEAD. Oh dear.

He says he is coming to town tomorrow to buy a new laptop, as he needs it for work. He is tired of money going down the drain. I would be too. I ask him if it isn't still under guanratee, and he says it is past a year old. (Remember he left his last one in a cheap hostel totally unattended for a day last year in January, and it got stolen, along with his expensive Barbour jacket etc?)

He says, it is out of guarantee. He seems certain it is unrepairable, broken. I have a feeling there is more to it than what he is saying, but that is not my concern.

Throughout the convo I could feel myself slipping back into "secretarial" mode with him, being his PA basically, and having to resist it. There are plenty of other folk he could have called to find out the dialing code from!

I felt sorry for him, but I also remembered that when my computer was as dead as a door nail just after the bomb, and I was in a terrible state and ran up a huge telephone bill in order to stay in touch with my sister (weep on her shoulder) in the other country, H was nowhere to be seen, except cavorting with OW1.

I don't like this at all, but I am having to learn to harden my heart. No doubt this will also get linked to how he can't pay me etc. I don't wish him ill, but I do want to stay out of his drama nowadays, but he appears to want to suck me in at times. He sounded very down this evening.

I got my copy of "Why does he do that?" in the post today, and have started reading it.

What do people think?

Livnlearn

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates