To think she's in the UK

[Courtney555]

Anyone who has a bit of tech knowledge greatly appreciated here....

My friend is abroad. Been there since Weds due back tomorrow morning. I've called her mobile a couple of times, got the international dial tone, as per normal.

Today, called at lunch. International tone still. She's told me again she's flying back in the morning. I called her just now to double check flight time and it's ringing with a standard UK ringtone like the phone is in the UK?

Does this mean she's in the UK now? She's a really good long term friend with no reason at all to fib. There's literally no reason why she'd tell me she was back tomorrow morning instead of tonight (it's like 14hrs difference) so can this happen by accident? Google is not helping.

I know she's on EE. Could the phone have picked up a UK network out there (Cyprus) and that's why the dial tone has changed this evening.

I hope this is a common occurrence with phones, I'm just a bit "hmmmmm" because since it's rung like it's in the UK she hasn't read my WhatsApps or returned the call.

Please tell me you've had experience of this to put my mind at ease. I know it's really none of my business at the end of the day, but I'd like to know if she could still be legitimately out there and it's just the phone playing silly buggers.

Thank you in advance...

I have spotted where you've gone wrong OP! And that not spelling out every single detail for the hard of thinking in your first post

I know, I know

I live in the sticks, too, and aeons from the nearest airport, but I use public transport to get as close to home as I can, even if someone then picks me up for the last leg, rather than expect a friend to do a five-, or seven-hour round trip to pick me up. Or I pay for a taxi.

PollyFeather But why would any normal friend care so much what their friend was doing in the mean time.

They’d just think, I’m picking her up on Sunday if her parents can’t, as agreed. Not investigate on google and MN what it means if her phone has a U.K. ringtone to pin point her movements on Saturday in case she had dared to go somewhere else.

JosephineDeBeauharnais, exactly what I thought after reading a few of the OPs responses...

@FourQuarters she has done the same for me before though. It was a closer airport, marginally. Sundays are a nightmare for public transport though. Probably the same where you are.

Imagine owning a tablet that autocorrects Timmy Mallet all wrong. FML.

Anyway, enough of my whacky world. What did you see at her house? Was it paperwork related? Or woo-like?

What did you see at her house OP? Was it something that would have fitted in with the sneaking home early theory?

Any chance her mobile has been stolen?

Yes, it could all be linked in your subconscious.

But why would any normal friend care so much what their friend was doing in the mean time.

Sigh....

Because it's a seriously long round trip and I'm child free tonight. If a UK ringtone meant 100% she was in the UK, my response would be "I'll collect you tonight instead, as it's tricky finding someone to have DS for 5hrs+ tomorrow and you're physically back now"

But. It's been since shown several times that the UK ringtone can randomly occur, abroad or not. So she's not here. I can pretty much bank on the fact she's still over there and nodded off.

If she is ignoring you and dancing round her suitcase with some hirsute gigolo in a club in London then she’s a right little madam!

Don’t pick her up OP!

Wait a few days to ring her and when she picks up shout “GENITAL HERPES!” then slam the phone down.

Gold courtney for keeping your cool...

If you can keep your head about you....

What did you see at her house OP? Was it something that would have fitted in with the sneaking home early theory?

Nope. There's definitely no one there. Or at least not from the 10 second glance when I drove past earlier on the way back from the shops. When I say I've been "watching" her place, I mean in the loosest sense. I've driven past a couple of times when I've been heading that way just to make sure the place isn't on fire etc and to pull the wheelie bins back in.

So what did you see when you’ve been having a quick glance?

Fuck all of anyone's business

@RainingFrogsAndHats

Enough to set you into a panic and think she’d sneaked home 😂

@littlehappyhippo You’re wrong about the cost of the text thing - if she were abroad it would still cost you the same to text it.

I’ve checked flight times from Larnaca and Paphos tomorrow and it seems the first flight arrival to any London airport is expected about 4pm, which is a bit odd if your friend said lunchtime OP.

I have spotted where you've gone wrong OP! And that not spelling out every single detail for the hard of thinking in your first post

And their inability to read the subsequent

She sounds a bit cheeky actually,
Watch the house
Get her shopping
Pick her up from the airport.

Don’t dangle a carrot!

What did you see at her house???!!!

@over50andfab

That's what I see too. Nothing obvious at lunchtime. That added to the UK ringtone, and the radio silence since 6pm... It seems to be a lot of coincidence in one go. But she's just so not the type to do this deliberately, so I'm going with what would be the most likely scenario, being that she's nodded off, the ringtone it turns out means nothing, and perhaps she's got the flight times wrong, or maybe not allowed for time zone differences.

I think I'm quite a decent friend but the idea that anyone would just get up in the morning and quite happily undertake a 7 hour random trip to collect some holidaying pal does seem rather unlikely esp if you have to sort childcare. Why the hell can't she get the train to Newcastle or wherever it is y'all live and you could swing by and pick her up in time for tea

Maybe you saw the new owners in the house? And the holiday was a smokescreen, allowing her to get far away before you noticed?