An app. From friend Bert: ‘ The day started with head in toilet bowl. No, gain draank in the game. Think k der dammit crouched in again. Ofspeak reschedule? ‘
For people who don’t speak Groningen, what he writes is: ‘The day started with the head in the toilet bowl. No, there is no alcohol involved. I think I’ll get back in there soon. Move appointment?’
The funny thing is that Bert immediately wants to make it clear that he is not drunk (Gronings: doing ) has been. Like that’s the first thing I think. With many acquaintances yes, with him not. He’s more likely, like many parents of young children, to be sick with something that’s haunting the school again.
We postpone the appointment for a week, I wish him well and conclude with: ‘It goes round.’ Which is also correct. Everything is going around. Then that one is sick, then that one, a colleague sounds like he has a cold and, if I’m right, has inflamed eyes and ‘a fever is a fever’, I hear the boss say to someone who then leaves and stays away.
But after my ‘it goes round’ my friend Bert writes: ‘Still in a meeting. Hope I don’t puke all over the table.’
How surprising. I thought he went straight back to bed, so I: ‘What do you mean meeting? To bed! Sick is sick.’
After which it remains silent for its part and I see that while apping the icon of Whatsapp in the menu bar and on the screen of the laptop is suddenly gray. I can’t get it green anymore. Also separately . Separate.