Overcoming radio and TV silence

I feel very guilty that mum never plays her radio now and won't have the TV volume at more than a whisper. No point in having either of them in the flat if she can't enjoy them.

But it has turned into a source of friction between us, so I don't mention it anymore.

The other day she said she was really interested in the the two late evening programmes about Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's now world-famous butler. We both agreed to watch it in our separate homes and them chat about it the next time we met.

So I asked her 'Did you see the Burrell programmes last night?'.

'No', she said, 'it was too quiet and I couldn't hear it so I went to bed.'

It was too quiet??????

'You mean you wouldn't turn the volume up loud enough to hear it?'

'People would be in bed', she said.

Well, if they were in bed they wouldn't be above or below your lounge with the TV, as their lounges are above and below.

No point in having this discussion. So as I had watched the programmes I had to give her a blow-by-blow account of what went on. Not the same as an equal-sided conversation. And of course, I did most of the talking, which defeats the purpose of visiting her.

'You can get nice headphones to listen to TV and radio, you know,' I said, walking to her laptop and searching on Google.

'Can you?' she said, 'I didn't know that. Let's get some.'

So we did. They are coming this week, and maybe one little problem will be solved.