No phone, no life?

If you read my last blog or you know me personally, you’d be very aware of how much of a dick I have been, and had my mobile phone stolen while on holiday!

I am someone who is a self-confessed phone addict. The phone is always in my hand, in some shape or form. If I put it down somewhere and forget, then I have a sense of panic. When we are away or in a no-signal zone, the huge relief I get when we suddenly are, just so I can see what hasn’t changed in the world since I was last on.

So how would I deal with not having a phone with me for the rest of the holiday? Surprisingly, a lot better than I expected!

More than a phone

Let’s be honest, mobile phones are now more than glorified walkie-talkies. They are mini-computers designed to help you live an easier life.

I use my phone, like many others, to listen to music, play games, social media and keep track of my life. Oh, and to communication. Mainly by text, but there is the occasional phone call, albeit that is normally to a company.

So when you go on holiday, a mobile phone is the perfect tool. Gone are the days when you’d need:

• a walkman (& tapes), discman (& cds) or an iPod – I have done all three of these in my life
• a camera, and in the good old days film rolls. – at the end of the holiday, you’d have 8 rolls that once they’ve gome back from the developers the majority are blurred, over-exposed or some random thing like a foot
• a handheld game console – I do miss my Gameboy
• a mobile phone that just allows calls and texts – the days where you speed clicked the numbers to write a text, and the only period where it was acceptable to write in text language
• a book (or two) to read around the pool – some people still like to take a books on holiday. I know!

So for my holiday, I brought my phone, and my trusty old Kindle Tablet with a library of books, with the intent to read something while lazing around the pool, but knowing that ain’t gonna happen!

I also did contemplate bringing my laptop with me but felt it was pointless as I couldn’t download programmes from the streaming platforms to the laptop. So, with this in mind, I have decided that I will invest in a new iPad to replace the Kindle.

And then it was stolen

When there is a large group of you on holiday, it’s very usual to have a mobile available, so you can keep in contact. So having it stolen on your 4th night on holiday, is probably not the wisest thing to let happen.

However, for some drunken reason, I wasn’t bothered. Which was very uncharacteristic of me.

Even the next day, I was unphased that I had ‘lost’ my phone. I was actually more worried about telling the husby and being shouted at.

So I had to spend the rest of the holiday with no phone, camera, music player and game console. How was I losing that?

To be honest, if I was on holiday on my own, I’d be 100% fucked! Thankfully, the husby and mates were there to assist me when required.

No camera

I know many of you are disappointed that I didn’t get time to add a photo to Insta of my hotdog legs around the pool. I know, and I apologise for this.

When we go on holiday, we want to take snapshots of the memories you are making. Whether that be a photo or a video. And I had been until my phone was taken, but thankfully non of my photos had been lost as I had them all back up into the cloud.

There was a small concern that my photo-a-day project would be affected. Thankfully, the husby came to the rescue to allow me to take photos with his phone and set up my Insta account onto his, to post them.

Although, I did miss having the ability to just take my phone out and take the photos that I wanted.

Silence is not golden

Losing my phone meant I also lost my music library. I was internal screaming that I would possibly need to strike up a conversation instead of zoning out to a bit of Kylie.

It also meant that I wasn’t able to put into action my 3-song-turn sunbathing. So the risk of not burning in equal parts was high.

Although, while bored and playing with the only tech at hand, my watch, I was pleasantly surprised that I had some music stored on there. Who the feck knew?

Normality was resolved slightly, as I had Kylie’s newest album, as well as some older ones literally at hand. So I was happy.

Influencer no more

There was a time where I was a social media whore. I would be posting here, there and everywhere. So losing my phone, I would have been munching on my beach towel rocking back and forth. However, recently I haven’t really used it much, so I was alright.

I stopped using Facebook due to the incessant fighting and negativity. I hardly posted on Twitter for similar reasons. And since separating my ‘Today is all about’ photos into their original account, I’ve reduced the number of posts I add to my main account.

So not having my phone meant that I spared people from any holiday pics that I would have posted.

I was able to set up the project account on the husby’s phone, but for security reasons that was it. So the project photos could continue.

And via the Kindle, I was able to gain access to Faceache and see what was going on. Although, I didn’t post anything. I’m mainly a lurker on that platform now.

Silence is not golden

This was probably the hardest for me, as I was out of the loop (unless told) with friends on holiday.

As I was no longer in the WhatsApp groups, I wasn’t in the know on what the plans were. I had to rely on other people to keep me in the loop.

While, admittedly, I am not one to instigate communications much, I do try and keep in contact as much as I can. And when you are in a social environment (such as a holiday) communication is key really.

Kindle to the rescue?

My trusty old kindle was a godsend, but it was also a hindrance at the same time.

It gave me the ability to see some of what was happening in the world, but it was limited. It took a day before I found out about the Liverpool bomb, and that was only because the group was talking about it around the pool.

You see, my Kindle is so old, even Amazon no longer support it. The app store was replaced with a new one (not supported), a lot of sites don’t support the Silk browser. So I was just stuck with what I already had on the tablet.

This meant I was re-introduced to Candy Crush Saga, so at least not everything was lost.

Did I read any of the books on there? Did I fuck!

At home

With no phone and sim card, I was at a loss. But my dear friend David agreed to lend me his old iPhone while I got the replacement.

Thankfully, as I backed up my content I didn’t lose anything and it was automatically available. Although when it came to the phone settings and apps, this is where I had trouble.

As I had not done an update for so long (over a year), it became a little bit of a nightmare. The last update was on my old computer that speed is slower than a snail and requires updates galore. After a few hours, everything to the last update was now on the phone.

All I needed now was my replacement SIM. Without that, became the biggest ballache of all.

Two-step verification

As we live in an online world, it can be very difficult to have different passwords for everything that we have. So we generally use the same password for everything. This in return means, that if that password gets out, then you are screwed.

So a lot of websites offer two-step verification. An example would be, the website would text you a code that you would need to input before you could gain access.

Can you see what the issue is?

Social media platforms are starting to add this. So that meant that I was blocked from using them until I got a replacement sim card. For example, my main Insta account has the two-step verification set up, while I haven’t set it up yet on the ‘Today is all about’ account, so could luckily still post there.

Additionally, I couldn’t gain access to any of my finance apps. This isn’t great when you need to try and keep track on holiday, but in the same respect, I fully understand.

However, while I was still waiting for my new SIM card which was taking longer than expected, I had to return to work, and this is where the two-step verification became a major issue.

Because I didn’t have my phone number, I was locked out of all the internal communication systems. So wasn’t really a good start after coming back from my holiday. Thankfully, after a few text messages, we were able to find a temporary solution to get access.

On reflection

Phones are more than just talking things. They’ve become an integral tool to how we live in a tech world.

They’re your communication tool, your entertainment console, a life organiser and a security key. Amongst other things.

Yes, it is possible to live without it, but as I’ve learnt it makes things a little harder, and may also need to forgo a few things and drastically change the way you live in a tech society.

I was lucky because while I didn’t have a phone, I was able to carry on relatively normal in my tech life with little disruption with the existing tools that I had with me, and the support from the husby and friends.

If I didn’t have that, then it would have been a lot harder. So let’s not try and ‘lose’ the phone again shall we?