Don't Call Me Even If You Have My Number

......... unless you have good news for me.

This was what happened:

Phone rings, I rushed to wash my dirty hands and then rushed to answer the phone call ....

Me: HELLO??? BUSY LAHHH
Guy: ....mumbles.....mumbles....
Me: WHAT? Cannot hear you.
Guy: My father passed away last night.
Me: ........... *speechless* paused for five seconds to mentally slap & kick myself

Me: Oh, sorry to hear that.
Guy: I'm on the way back to Melaka.
Me: ............. *still kicking myself*

Normally friends know that I'll only answer their call if they let me know in advance that they are calling.

Example, we are chatting on MSN:

Friend: I wanna call you now.
Me: OK, gimme 5 minutes. I need to shut off the PC.

This is the kinda planned calls I like.

IF the above telephone call was planned, it would have gone this way:

Me: Hello, (name).
Guy: My father passed away last night.
Me: I'm so sorry to hear that. Please accept my deepest condolence.
Guy: I'm on the way back to Melaka.
Me: Drive safely, all right?

and I won't be feeling so rotten for my brusque tone.

For the past two months, all the private phone calls I ever got were either from friends asking me for help or telling me that someone has passed away.

Two friends lost their fathers
A friend lost his grandmother
A friend lost himself <-- my poor attempt at humour *sigh* :-/