*Map of mobile coverage in Greenland, from Telepost
Mobile coverage in Greenland is rather limited. And where it does exist, it’s sometimes a bit hit and miss. Even in Nuuk – the capital – text messages can sometimes arrive a few days late, or not at all. And it’s best not to rely on international text messages. My husband has given up entirely on the basis that if there is no guarantee that his messages, or replies, will be received, then there is no point sending them.
Recently my brother was at the receiving end of the consequences of one such text message gone AWOL.
He and I have been playing online scrabble. Annoyingly, as with most things, he beats me spectacularly. Horribly. Embarassingly. The most I can hope for is the weak comfort of a moral high ground that he is probably cheating a bit with online wordfinders, as I can’t believe he really has the vocabulary he presents me with. In one of our games he floored me with an 87-point word. Unbeknownst to me, shortly before delivering this hideous blow, he had also texted me along the following lines…
“Sad day, Jack (the dog) died. All the kids are really sad, and me. We spent the day crying on the couch and eating pizza.”
This was my response.
“You’re annoying me.”
I discovered this about a week later when we spoke on the phone. Fortunately he had the foresight to realise that I probably wasn’t referring to his news about the dead dog and his grieving family.
