Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Conspiricy Theory

I am old enough to remember a time when our lives were not ruled by mobile phones and occasionally I feel nostalgic for those days when you could go out and not be troubled by messages or phone calls. During my childhood the house phone was connected to the wall and nobody thought of phones in every room, often it was positioned on a table in the hall and it certainly didn't dominate the house. Now I am driven to distraction by the phone, we have two cordless phones but when the it rings the handset is never on the base and I have to sprint from one room to the next looking for it. It is usually in Emily or Laura's bedroom, but by the time I have found it the ringing has stopped and I am left to wonder who was calling.

I think our bathroom is bugged, as soon as I get in there you can guarantee that the phone will ring. I would understand it if I shut myself in there with a magazine, but I don't stay in there any longer than necessary. I know the caller can't see you but I am never going to be comfortable about chatting on the phone while using the smallest room. I have to rush out in a dishevelled state to find and answer the phone and it is almost always Robbie just ringing to say hello. I don't know how he manages to time it so badly so often. Even more annoying is when I have just got into a relaxing hot bath, the phone rings and my moment of luxury is ruined. It is bad enough to drag myself out of the bath and stand there dripping and freezing to death just to answer the phone, but when it is Robbie ringing to tell me something 'exciting' about a train that he saw on his way to work I find it very hard to be civil to him. We probably couldn't manage without our mobiles for long, but just occasionally I long for the way it used to be! Of course I could ignore the phone, but it could be important. My parents may need help or Sam's school may need to get hold of me, I can't ignore it.

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