I had a weird commute back home a couple of days ago. After work I had choir rehearsal, at the end of that we had auditions for new singers and afterwards the "jury" went to the local pub to compare notes. So it was quite late when, after 3 beers or so, I finally went to the loo to change to my riding clothes. The ride home was dark, tired and uneventful.

When I finally got home (about 2am) I noticed my cell phone was missing. After a frantic search I concluded I had left it in the toilet. Now I don't have any other phone, and the pub was pretty much closed anyway by then, so I decided there was nothing I could do at that moment. I figured I'd just hope for the best and check with the pub the next day.

Before going to bed I realised two things: I had to get up early next morning (6ish) and I had no functioning alarm clock to get up with (I've used the phone for that for several years)! I have a tuner in my stereo that can be programmed to power on at any given time, but my stereo set is downstairs, bedroom upstairs. With the way I felt I was sure I was not going to wake up unless I cranked the volume up high enough to wake up the neighbourghs as well.

After some more mental head-banging I gave up, took a pillow and a blanket and went to sleep on the couch by the stereo. I had some three hours of sleep and woke up when the radio switched on. I was so tired and disoriented, I had to walk around my living room to locate the source of that noise and to switch it off. I then proceeded to spend my entire morning in a couple of meetings (very barely awake). It wasn't until after lunch when I was finally able to go search the phone.

I walked in the pub, the waitress regocnized me, and smiling radiantly gave me my cell phone before I could ask anything. I felt so relieved I could have kissed her right there and then, but that might have scared her (I probably did not look too hot after all this) so I just thanked her profoundly and left.

It is a fun episode to remember, but during the early morning meetings I remember thinking "I'm getting too old for this kind of sh*t!". Either that, or then I'm becoming too dependent on the mobile. Hmm...

--J