Mobile phone-less

When you bustle your way onto the train, squished in, unable to see your hands and definitely not your feet you get a sense of calm knowing you can soon escape it all when you get out your mobile listen to some music and get engrossed in the happenings of the world since you last logged into Facebook.

Then the horrible shock, the unbelievable moment when realise 'it's not in there'. Not believing what you are starting to realise you open your handbag up further, ensure it is fully unzipped, shake it around imagining that you might hear it move around. You tip it up to see if the little bit of sunlight coming through the vestibule window can help you look deeper into your handbag. Where is my mobile I’m sure I dumped it in my bag before I left home.

Many items have been lost and found in the handbag before. My mother had a tile from the bathroom she renovated back in 1979; she also had a swatch of material from our couch and an assortment of paint colour options to match the renovation in her bedroom in 1992. Mary Poppins has also given us hope that if we look hard enough and dive our arm in deep enough, we can pull out anything from our bags. Right now, all I want is my mobile. Why? Because it keeps me sane, it ensures I don’t miss out on a minute of what is happening in my world, my friend’s world and the world of others. Without it how will I know if someone has texted me, called me, beat me at a game of friends’ scrabble - something could be happening that I have no clue about. Where is my phone?

I start wondering when I last recall seeing it, using it. Where could it be? Did I lose it? I desperately hope not, that could mean weeks before I get up and running with a new phone. How will I get everyone’s numbers back. Where is my phone? Was it stolen? Please no....I don’t want someone else holding my phone and what pictures are on it anyway! My mind races over what is stored in my phone and what may now never be replaced.

It is not just having the phone for games, Facebook, and emails that I care about. I'll now get lost without the map’s application. I won't get anywhere on time as I now have no clock; I'll have to guess and use old sun and moon techniques and I will not have my calculator to help me find a bargain or split the bill… Oh this is going to be tough.

In the moment of despair, I start to think, maybe I'll not replace it. I'll be a new age person who is phone free and makes plans and sticks to them. I'll write letters by hand, wait till I get to work to check Facebook, call people when not dining out or in a pub. Yes, it will be the new and improved me. I'm getting excited about telling everyone. Something I could have done easily if I had my mobile phone!

I shake my bag again before I have to really commit to the new me. Nope it is definitely not in there.

I head to work and slowly come to terms with my loss.

I get into work and see my phone charger and earphones at my desk. How sad, I'll have to throw these out now. I realise, I'm not ready to be without it. Looking at my colleagues’ desks with mobiles placed out makes my desk look empty, lonely, mobile phone-less.

Just as I switch on my computer my desk phone rings..."hello Hun, what? Where? Thank God, see you later".

Woohoo it's not lost or stolen it is at home; happy, charging and waiting for my return. Now I only need to survive the day before my safety net is back in my bag!