Kelly's World

After the initial rush of getting the iPhone ready for a week with Mat, the challenge started at 9pm last night – only an hour after the original deadline. The reason for that is while I’m missing the iPhone for a week I want Mat to get the full experience, from receiving a nice clean phone to filling it with wonderful (and sometimes unnecessary) apps. Hopefully by the time next Monday night rolls around he will have seen for himself why I adore my phone so much and will want one for himself.

After I had handed over the phone I started playing with the replacement nokia. While I thought it was a brilliant phone when I had first gotten it (one of the first phones to have inbuilt GPS with maps and turn-by-turn navigation) it just couldn’t compare now. There was no twittering from this phone, no wifi, and no way of easily locating apps to download and install. Of the “apps” that were designed for the phone, 99% of them are games, and dodgy ones at that. I could tell already this phone was purely going to be “just a phone” over the next week.

I decided to get off the computer (which meant no chatting to friends anymore – didn’t have my iphone to use beejive) and read a book. The night passed fairly quickly then, and eventually Mat and I went to bed. Normally in bed I would lay there for a bit and read google reader until I felt tired, would put the iPhone down and fall asleep. This particular night, I laid in bed and twiddled my thumbs until slumber came.

This morning I woke up and didn’t really have time to think about it (although it did feel a bit funny getting the nokia and putting it into my bag instead of the iPhone). It wasn’t until I had dropped Mat off at work and was driving to my own workplace I had thought about picking up some groceries to use for dinner tonight. Which then made me think that I should check my bank balance first. Unless I was interested in using a painful automatic phone system, then checking my account would be impossible. For the second time in less than 24 hours I missed my phone. I decided I would pick up the groceries at the end of the day after I’d had a chance to check the account using the work computer. Inconvenienced moment number 1.

Later in the day I had the radio playing in the background at work when I heard a fantastic song come on. I’d never heard it before and was interested to find out who it was. Without my phone I couldn’t use shazam, and typically the radio dj didn’t say who it was at the conclusion of the song. Inconvenienced moment number 2.

The only time that I truly had a problem about missing my phone today was at the gym. I use an application called c25k (iTunes link) which is designed to train a couch potato to run 5km in only 9 weeks. It’s absolutely fantastic. You start your ipod music on the iphone, then turn on the app. You can listen to your music (with full functions including skipping songs, pausing etc) and will get voice prompts from the c25k on when it’s time to walk or run, warm up or cool down, and when you’ve reached half way. Using this app means that you don’t have to focus on the clock – you can focus on your breathing or technique, or something else altogether. Tonight at the gym I was only equipped with my old ipod classic which meant I had to pay attention to the clock and make sure I was walking/running at the right times. It felt like it almost made it a bit harder, because I was looking at how much time I had left. Towards the end of the workout I found I could use that to my advantage though and started counting down the time remaining rather than thinking “oh god now I have all this time to go”. Still, I definitely felt the loss of the iPhone, and that app in particular. Inconvenienced moment numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the number of times I changed pace during my running training).

I’ve now been without my iPhone for 25 hours and I’m travelling pretty well. I’m not a raving lunatic demanding to get it back (yet), though I daresay that’s because I’ve been able to access the *main* functions all day via a computer – twitter & chatting to friends online. At this stage I expect I will find the rest of the week fairly easy like today (unless a certain sister keeps calling stirring me up about what she’s doing on her phone!!) but the real challenge will be the weekend. That’s when the iPhone comes into it’s prime – when I’m out and about and have lots of time to kill.

Until then, I think I’ll manage. Just.

**Favourite moments from today**

Picking up the nokia to call a friend with Mat saying “where are you taking my phone” only to realise it’s technically mine at the moment. Then looking sheepish for it.

Waiting for a friend to arrive home, and Mat whipping out the iPhone to call them before putting it away while looking at me with a VERY smug look on his face (not sure if that was to stir me about the iPhone or the fact that he was proud he’d worked out how to use it all by himself).

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