Goodbye JASJAM…yes it’s all due to age

Distracted, hurried, pre-occupied.

That’s all it takes to leave your cell phone on the roof of the car as you pack the child into the back seat, then forget where you left the phone. Anyway, a beautiful day at Sydney’s Centennial Park ended with my wife wondering what that thump and clank sound was as we drove across Alison Road. I knew immediately what it was. I check my pockets and my worst fears are confirmed. My lifeline was lost. Not being able to do a u-turn, we circled a few blocks and parked close to where we thought the phone had fallen. I walked back across the road, dodging the traffic headed for the park, others headed for the SuperCentre, others finding themselves in the wrong lane for entry to Fox Studios.

A break in the traffic lets me spot some mangled broken piece of technology scattered across the bitumen like debris from a space station after re-entry. I scurried across the road, picked-up the major bits (pictured) and saw a small glimmer of hope…in the form of the sim card looking in near perfect condition. I drove home with anticipation, wanting to eagerly check whether the sim card would work in my ‘stand-by phone’ (doesn’t everybody have a stand-by phone?), and YES! It worked! Now the challenge is to see if I can synchronise my NOKIA stand-by phone with the backed-up data on my PC from my now destroyed Windows Mobile driven HTC JASJAM. This, I know, will take some doing. And my level of patience will be tested only for as long as I can save my pennies for a newer WinMobile type phone.

Is there a lesson here? Yep. Always back-up your data, even if it is just a phone. And Yep, I certainly did that. Is there another lesson? Yep. Never be too distracted, too hurried, too pre-occupied to overlook details that are obvious. Having a car roof to put items on is luxury for me. This is the first time I’ve had a car with a roof low enough to reach (my vehicles before now have always been larger 4WD). So although I have saved on fuel, on repayments, and from being abused by pedestrians for having a 4WD in the city, I’m now about a grand in the hole, all due to a stupid phone.

Email me, it’s cheaper.