Ring! Ring!

6:45 p.m. Ooh, telephone!
"Hello..."
"Oh, hello, darling, guess what?" My mother. Obviously I had to get a cigarette.
"Oh, hello, darling, guess what?" She said again. Sometimes I wonder how long she would carry on like this, in manner of parrot. It is one thing to say "Hello? Hello?" if there is a silence on the other end, but "Oh, hello, darling, guess what? Oh, hello, darling, guess what?" is surely not normal...