I'm still a novice at it but already love WhatsApp: it's free and you can speak to anyone anywhere in the world. Just now I "WhatsApp"-ed a former colleague in New Guinea with whom I shared the same office and company accommodation in Rabaul in 1970. Time seemed to have stood still and it felt like we were again talking to each other as if it were still half a century ago.
Sometimes it's easier just to text and reply at one's leisure, which is just as effortless, except when I am "WhatsApp"-ing - to coin a new gerund - someone in Germany - in German, of course! - and I'm trying to stay one step ahead of autocorrect which tries to change every German word into something English, such as when I type "mit", which is German for "with", and autocorrect capitalises it to turn it into an acronym for "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", or when I use the German possessive adjective "deine" and autocorrect turns it into the river that flows through Paris. It reminds me of some woman who were discussing their children. Turning to their German friend, they asked, "Have you any children?" "Nein", she said. "Wow, nine! That's a lot!" they replied.
I don't know who thought up autocorrect but I can detect a strong Australian influence every time I type in the possessive "its" which autocorrect immediately turns into the contraction "it's", and Heaven forbid should I feel "ill" which autocorrect changes to "I'll". I'll what? And while it has been my wont all my life to get up early in the morning, autocorrect still won't believe me by always inserting an apostrophe.
It's half past three and afternoon-tea-time at "Riverbend", which makes it seven-thirty and breakfast-time in Germany, and I'm getting ready to do battle with autocorrect. "Los gehts!" - or, in autocorrect, "Los gets!"
