Day 1 – Tuesday
My husband had ordered me to keep my phone on me in case of emergency, which was just as well. He came to pick me up and the car battery died, I had to phone him to find out where he was. However, I then switched the phone back off and didn’t touch it.
Very odd not ringing my mum to discuss the day’s events, particularly as this week I have been working on my family tree and I needed some gaps filling in and wanted to report what I’d found. didn’t get a chance to ring them from the landline later as was at my in-laws house for a meal and we didn’t get back until bed time.
Day 2 - Wednesday
Tonight was date night, the plan being we would go to see Harry Potter and then out for dinner. However the traffic situation conspired against us and we missed the showing. Instead we spent a lovely evening with dinner at Le Bistrot Paris and cocktails at Hakamou. On the way back to the car, I decided to have an ice cream from a vending machine, which was so cold I left part of my cheek stuck to the lolly. Once we got home, I then took advantage of the landline to speak to my dad about the family tree project.
There was only a few bad points about not having my phone on today, one was that my driving instructor had to Facebook me to rearrange my lesson and two, was when I was waiting for Paul to pick me up I couldn’t just give my parents a ring. I sometimes phone them out of security if I’m not feeling too safe and just want that bit of comfort.
Day 3 – Thursday
I forgot about the roadworks! I needed to pick up a few last minute essentials for our upcoming holiday, so after picking up some new shoes and walking trousers (both on sale – bonus!!!) I made to catch the bus home. Normally, Paul would ring me on the way home to find out where I was on the journey and if we could meet up so I could be with him in the car on the way – however, no such luck with the Phoneless week.
Currently they are resurfacing the main road through our village and I am having to walk an extra 20 mins each way to get to the nearest bus stop, so instead of meeting up with husband for a nice drive home, I had a lovely walk uphill ahead of me.
I was already knackered from A-Level Results Day and promptly arrived home, got changed into my pyjamas and crawled under the blanket on the sofa – he can cook for once!
Day 4 – Friday
Husband off on stag weekend in Newcastle today. Missing him, especially the text messages to break up his journey. Hobbled home after new shoes wore holes in my heels – definitely need to buy some heel grippers tomorrow. Had to wait until Paul rang me for an evening chat, boo! Spoke to the parents on the landline and debriefed them on my family tree findings, with a few extra nuts to be added!
Day 5 – Saturday
Wandered into Hinckley today, to-do list included visting the library, buying some heel grippers and visiting the carpet store. Mum rang me when I got home to tell me about the 1940s Festival she’d been to and got scared to death by fox fur (eeurgh!) so didn't really miss the phone today as I find it rude to go up to the tills whilst you're on the phone, you also lose that interaction with the staff.
Day 6 – Sunday
Was woken up at 8.30am by a caller who didn’t leave a message – very frustrating. Went to check the voicemails and found one from my bus stop friend offering me a lift to the bus stop in the morning, Wednesday morning that is – whoops! Found out later the phone call was from my MIL who was in hospital with FIL and trying to get hold of husband. On the plus side, at least he wasn’t on a phoneless week.
Day 7 - Monday
Having the phone off made things difficult again as husband was with his parents trying to sort out when his dad would be transferred to Hammersmith Hospital. I got home from work not knowing whether he was in London or Burton. Normally he would text me with updates so I'd know where he was and what was going on.
So what did I learn?
Erm, in hindsight this was probably not the best week to have turned the phone off in terms of little emergencies and the like, but then once upon a time, we had to cope with them without the use of mobiles. Things were definitely made easier using Facebook and email.
Would I do it again? To a certain extent I do it each time we go abroad as I'm too cheap to pay calls and texts (this is the Yorkshire side in me!) but as an experiment during "normal" times, probably not. I didn't realise how much I used the phone until it was gone. I can't think how anyone who gets their email/millions of texts/frequent phonecalls would cope with the loss.
Now that's just one more thing off the list, done!
