During an afternoon on our recent holiday I fancied sitting in the shade with a book at Puckpool beach.  There’s plenty of shade there and none at our own beach, so Sam decided to put his kayak in the car and paddle about while I was reading.  He put his phone and glasses in a carrier bag with his swimming stuff and a towel, and put the bag in the back of the car.  The hatchback door wouldn’t shut properly because the kayak was too long, but he secured it with a bungee strap.

Off we set, with the tip of the kayak rubbing against my right ear.  As we pulled out of the holiday site and onto the main road, Sam could see in his rearview mirror that something had dropped out of the back of the car.  He found a layby and turned the car around, but by the time we had returned to the park’s entrance, there was nothing to be seen.  He had a good look around the back of the car and realised that his phone was missing.  After checking at Reception that nobody had handed it in, we could only assume that that some ‘nice’ person had picked it up and driven off with it.

I sent a message to our sons on my phone to contact me if they needed to speak to their dad.  Leon messaged back about the iPhone’s ‘Find My Phone’ ability, but Sam had not had this switched on.  Our afternoon was ruined, as Sam then had to go back to the van and contact his phone company on the laptop with instructions to block all calls.  He wasn’t too upset though, as he said he’d been putting off an upgrade, but now would need to do this out of necessity.

We had something planned for the following day, and so it was a couple of days’ later that we were able to go into Newport and seek out the EE mobile phone shop.  After umpteen years with a mobile phone, I noticed that Sam was getting decidedly twitchy without one.  Every time my phone pinged with a message, I had to virtually push his head out of the way so I could read it.  The relief on his face when he bought an all-singing and dancing phone was unmistakable.  It was no use trying to speak or suggesting going anywhere else for the rest of that day, as he spent it gazing lovingly at his new phone while getting to know it better.

This caused me to wonder… who can go even one day without looking at their mobile phone?  How many times a day do you check it?  If I’m at work there’s no service so it sits at the bottom of my rucksack all day, but if I’m at home it’s there charging on my desk so I can see if anybody has contacted me.   Does anybody actually switch their phone off when they’re asked to, or just put it on silent?  Can you activate the ‘off’ switch?

Here’s a challenge for all who want to take part.  Let’s make Saturday 22nd September an ‘I’m going to switch my phone off day’.  I’m going to TURN IT OFF, and if you want to do so as well, I’d love to know how you get on!  Can you do it?  I know that you can!  Write a blog about your experience and ping back to this one, so that I can find it.  Cheers and don’t cheat!  Luv Stevie x

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