Friday 11 March 2011

Mobile Woes

The connector on my mobile phone has been playing up.It can take all night to charge and I can't listen to music while I run any more because the regular movement dislodges the headphones. On Saturday, my husband kindly took it to our local store to be fixed, but they were unable to accept the phone from him and so he came home with it. On Monday, I dropped it off myself and was told there was only a 50/50 chance of it being reparable and I came away with a courtesy hand-set. I am not getting on well with this model and texting has become a painful and laborious procedure, accompanied by much cursing. Today, I dropped the phone and it has sustained 'liquid damage'. It is broken. Its little screen lights up but nothing else happens, there is no-one home. I rang the shop to find out what I should do: could I return it, pay for the damage and pick up another one? No - he cannot issue two phones on the same account: giving this one back didn't seem to figure. My only option is to buy their cheapest pay-as-you-go phone, at £17:99. Oh, and pay £50 to replace the broken one! £50! His best advice was to put the wet one in a bowl of rice in the airing cupboard and hope it dried out. The mobile phone repair company I spoke to were going to charge me £20 to inspect the phone and then, if they could sort it out, another £20 to mend it.
So, now I am phone-less and £50 down. I can't put my SIM in my husband's phone, or either of the two extra hand-sets we have because they are 'network locked'. I can't use either of the other SIM cards we have knocking around, presumably because the numbers have not been used for so long.
When did I become a person who had spare SIM cards, two spare hand-sets and feels anxious at the thought of being without a phone?
How do I become a person who trusts in her Father's provision for her every need and doesn't stress about £50, knowing that I have never lacked for anything and won't be in want because I have this unexpected, and unwelcome, expense?

The phone is showing more signs of life after its day in a rice-spa, so, although it is not fully functioning, I have a seedling of hope. But when I found a packet of silica beads which I thought I might put close to the phone, to help the drying-out along, the dog found it. And ate it, just to add to what I have found a very trying day, and I had to call the vets to make sure that she wouldn't shrivel up like a prune, desiccated from the inside out. (She'll be fine!) I think it's time I brewed some camomile tea and, now the heating has come on for the evening, let the airing cupboard work its gentle magic. And perhaps I'll just check my e-mails ...

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