The season of goodwill is upon us! The shops online and in the High Streets are buzzing with Christmas fare. There are 3 for 2 and 50% off, etc, enticing us to spend our hard-earned cash. But I have become more savvy over the years. I now make a list and stick to it with self-inflicted discipline to keep myself from going overboard. I learned my lesson the hard way years ago, and now I am one step ahead of the crafty retailers’ advertising. Seriously, write a list. I do mine around the beginning of August (yes, as early as that). And, bit by bit, I find out what the grandkids have their little hearts set on, except George, who is 7 and will chop and change from one week to the next and start putting money aside when I price things up. The older grandkids all want money, so that is easy, and I begin to put money away for them from the beginning of the year; believe me, you don't notice it so much. Around October, I look at my Christmas decoration...
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This is my Mobile Nightmare!
Is it just me, or do mobile phone settings exist solely to make us question our intelligence? I swear, I must be the only person on the planet who can set up a website and tweak domain name servers, just… yet still be utterly defeated by a smartphone.
So here’s the scene: I got myself a new contact phone, apparently smarter than me. It had two SIM card slots. Intrigued, I thought, “Hmm, I could pop in a pay-as-you-go SIM, just in case I ever need it. Maybe even use it for a small business idea I’ve been pondering. Brilliant, right?”
Off I trotted to my local supermarket (name withheld to protect the innocent), and a kind gentleman inserted the SIM for me. I went home, feeling all responsible and prepared. Then came the moment: “Let’s find this new number and write it down.” Easy, you’d think. Ha not on your life!
I dove into settings like some one on steroids, flipping between screens, inspecting both SIMs like I was defusing a bomb. My regular number was there — but the second SIM simply said: ‘Number Unknown’. Just to rub salt in the wounds the guy at the store hadn’t given me the SIM packaging either, so no clue there.
Day two, I went back to the supermarket. A young lad did some serious tapping and swiping before eventually calling a mysterious number (possibly the SIM top-up line). Suddenly, a robotic voice delivered the number like some kind of divine revelation. Success! Or so I thought.
Fast forward a few days… ping! A text: “You have £1.67 remaining.” Wait, what?! I hadn’t made a single call, sent a text, or even blinked at the phone too hard. Where had my £20 gone?!
Back I went (again). This time, the first guy looked at me like I’d just asked him to translate ancient Egyptian. Poor soul — I felt his pain. Fortunately, a wonderful lady took over, tapped around for ten minutes, and cracked the case: my phone was secretly using mobile data… from the pay-as-you-go SIM.
She kindly refunded the balance and added some extra credit for my troubles. I went home, and immediately removed that SIM out like it was cursed. It now lives in a drawer labeled “Use Only in Emergency or Extreme Boredom.”
And that is how I learned that while I may be a digital semi-genius on a computer (just), give me a smartphone with two SIMs and my brain promptly shuts down like a Windows 95 update.
So tell me — is it just me? Or is there a whole army of us out here who can navigate the web… but not our own phones?
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