My Name is Graham and I'm a Phonoholic.

Saturday was a fairly seminal day for me. 

At 0400hrs (on the dot) I woke and uttered the words "Hey Siri, what time is it?" The response from the phone at the bedside was "4am".  So I know that at that moment my beloved iPhone 14 Pro Max companion was alive and well. Alive, anyway.

At 0700 I got up, collected my phone from its charging cradle and went to the bathroom to ablute. Oddly my phone screen was blank. I automatically turned it on wondering why it had gone off. It wouldn't turn on. After a few minutes came the realisation that it was absolutely dead. It had been on the charger all night so had to be fully charged. Nonetheless I put it on a cable charge in the kitchen just in case. After a while it was still dead. 

In 14 years or thereby that I've had iPhones I've never had a fault of this magnitude so was stumped.

Still in my goonie I made coffee and looked up the Apple helpline. Using the landline (an exceptionally rare occurrence - I use my mobile for everything) I phoned Apple Support. Within seconds the phone was answered by Andrew who, after checking my credentials and phone details, enquired how he could help me. I told him my nice new phone had died. Andrew then went through the usual things to check that it was attached to a cable charger (iPhones are all capable of wireless charging). We then went through the usual start up and re-boot procedures all to no effect whatsoever. To which Andrew immediately responded by arranged for another one to be sent to me.

And it was not yet light outside.

Interestingly Andrew was in Tiree. So many work from home that didn't really surprise me. I was, I thought, chatting to someone 100 miles due south as the seagull flies, EXCEPT that he added. "Australia".  Oddly I hadn't discerned an Ozzie accent. 

So I was absolutely over the moon with Apple's service.

I then set about living with the realisation that with a Sunday and Bank holiday ahead I was going to be 3 days without a phone. Okay, I have a spare iPhone I keep in the car for emergencies such as leaving My Phone at home accidentally. However that is the very least of the uses for my Phone.

It is the way I communicate daily and sometimes hourly with my friends in this country, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden etc. using Telegram, WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage and so on. It's where we play Wordle and Scrabble. It's where I read and often write my emails.  

It is also where I can read using the Kindle app.

It operates my printers and scanner.

And, of course, it's my camera. No longer do I cart my big DSLR around with me everywhere.

I know that there are many of you are not phonoholics not least YP who would rather die with a broken leg and hypothermia somewhere on one of his beloved mountains than carry a cellphone. 

If I were a club joiner (I'm not) I would go to Mobiles Anonymous. My Name is Graham and I'm a Phonoholic.

Happy New Year

It has only just struck me that today is the 31 December. In just over 12 hours for me it will be 2023. However, in half an hour in New Zealand it will be 2023. So for all my Family and friends in New Zealand and the timezones between there and here I wish for you a very

Thursday Evening

The first sentence I saw when I woke and picked up my phone was "Your friendly reminder! You've still got some time remaining."  That was encouraging!

I had woken up. It was pitch black. I was looking upwards. On the ceiling (although at that moment I didn't actually know it was the ceiling) was a projection of the screen of my phone with the time on it: 16:56.

If I was in bed and had just woken up at 16:56 there was something seriously wrong. Assuming I was in bed I asked Alexa to switch on the bedside light. As the light went on in an adjacent room (I live in a bungalow) I realised that I was sitting in a recliner chair in the lounge/living room. I have not been well and after lunch decided to have a rest. There I had been sitting or reclining and, according to my Fitbit app, I had been absolutely solidly asleep for the previous 2h 20 mins. In fact I'd been in the chair for the best part of the afternoon.

"Your friendly reminder! You've still got some time remaining." which cheered me up no end was in fact an email letting me know that I could still get a delivery for Christmas from "Boots" a pharmacy which probably makes more money on perfume at well over £100 a bottle. That was a huge shock to me when I recently went in to buy a friend some perfume for Christmas.

A Day in The Life of A Single Man

I'm not married and haven't been for 30 years.

So I get a tiny bit peed off when married people say to me "It's all right for you you've only got yourself to look after so you have plenty of time." 

WHAT!*!*

When I got married my wife said "I do the cooking and the ironing and you do the housework and maintenance." It wasn't negotiable but it worked. I had a bit more of a problem with "...and I don't do nights with the children. I have them all day." Fortunately I didn't need much sleep. It all worked very well.

So when I got out of bed one Sunday in November at 0645 and abluted after I'd taken my Alendronic Acid tablet. (It's taken once a week with a full glass of water and you have to remain upright for at least 30 minutes and not eat or drink anything else.) I decided to challenge the assumption.

Around 7.30 I fed the birds.

I stripped my bed and put the first load of washing on.

Coffee.

I finished a letter to my brother. We don't exchange emails and he doesn't talk on the telephone....at all to anyone.

Yesterday's Wordle was updated with the New Zealand/UK group that I play with. 

Breakfast of a banana, muesli and Grapenuts was consumed.

First load of washing into the dryer and second load of washing in the machine. 

I wrote a Blog post.

Started on the second and third Christmas cakes (the fruit having been soaked in brandy and Marsala for a week). They were in the oven before 11am.

Cleaned the kitchen and put everything away.

Coffee. Cancelled my Netflix subscription as I hadn't watched it for 2 years and the bank card had just expired. 

Had lunch (homemade soup and homemade bread) and did a crossword..

Made bread. Well, I put all the ingredients into the breadmaker.

Third lot of washing and second lot of drying.

Turned the mattress and made my bed .

Sorted my pills for the next two months. Not my favourite job but at lease it's over and done with for another 8 weeks.

Fed and wrapped the cakes.

Ironed the bedding and shirts (I still wear formal shirts and a tie when I leave the house).

Made a curry for dinner. 

During all this I had coffees, answered WhatsApp chats, chatted to my New Zealand Family etc etc.

Okay. I'll stop there because I think you've probably stopped reading anyway and are wondering why I am posting this. 

The reason is the comment an acquaintance made recently that I started with. 

I am 'single'. There is only one of me to look after in the house. BUT there is only one person to do all the chores. There's no difference between cooking for one or two (or four), cleaning a house for one. or two (or four) etc etc. 

So to suggest that I have less work is than a household with 2 or 3 or 4 to share all the tasks is plainly absurd. And, as you will now have gathered, it irks me.

I wrote this a little while ago and decided against publishing it until yesterday when someone else completely unrelated to the last person made the same comment.