Nanny Wen is famous in our small circle for her absent-mindedness.

She always forgets her handphone, wallet and keys, among other things. She leaves them at home, she leaves them at my place, she leaves them in the car.

She traps herself at home by leaving her keys elsewhere and waiting until everyone has gone out before deciding to go out herself, by which time she can’t because the gate’s locked and no one’s home to unlock it for her.

She’s at my place one day and rummaging frantically in her big-ass tote bag.

“QY!” she yells, “I can’t find my phone!! Help! Did you see my phone??”

I’m at my computer doing stuff and I tell her, like I’ve told her a zillion times before, that I don’t know where her phone is.

“Can you call me?” she says.

In our short two-year friendship, I’ve called her more times to help her locate her phone than to actually talk to her.

So I quick dial her line and her phone rings. Her phone, which is sitting just 10 centimetres away from where she’s rummaging her bag, rings.

“Oops!” she says, “My phone is here all along. Hahahaha.”

Just what do you do with a dingbat friend like that?