The iPhone, the iPhone, My Kingdom for an iPhone

What’s this, you say? I thought you owned an iPhone, spent far too much time on it, and used it as a tool to draw together many parts of your life in one small, neat packet!

‘Tis True
I still own said iPhone, but when one tries to turn it on, one receives an image like this, which is not healthy, and renders such a touch-screen phone rather useless! Believe me, I’ve not fallen out of love with my iPhone, but missing it rather as I’d be missing an arm – every time someone asks if they can set up a meeting – “I’ll just check… oh sorry, you’ll have to wait til I get home and check my Outlook calendar”…

How did this happen?
I had a lovely weekend, meeting up with friends from the Summer trip to the Loire Valley, and then going on to a wedding in Essex. I had been waxing lyrical to the friend I had collected from the train station about the fact that I now had SatNav (CoPilot, £26) on my phone (but don’t forget that you’ll need to buy a cradle! On reaching Winchester around midnight, I was extracting the phone from the cradle (a little stiff!), and, acting rather like a bar of soap, the phone bounced out of my hands and down the road. It clearly didn’t like this and hasn’t worked since – although it did sync with my laptop, and whilst still containing battery, continued to buzz regularly – indicating that I’ve been receiving phone calls/texts, but not much I can do about those!

Is all lost?
For once, I have non-essential insurance for something – with Barclays Graduate account. Unfortunately their online claim system didn’t work, so I had to phone (and yes, this was my only phone, but I have Skype too!) , and now await a claim form in the post (so strikers, sort it out!), which I send back, claim is assessed, then they decide whether to replace or repair! Expected time 2-3 weeks (so hopefully a friend will lend me a handset – I’m a bit lost without anything, although I accept no data use!)… Sigh!