I did not plan to move, but suddenly I found myself there – stranded on planet No Phone.

The day was always going to be hectic but we hadn’t allowed for the sudden pause in the middle of it. That was what caught us off guard. We were in the innocent process of changing venues when a little Italian restaurant crossed our path. It had photographs of Sofia Loren and Totò, and a menu that said all the right things. So in we crept to share a swift, delicious bruschetta and pere con speck e gorgonzola. Then we left, picking up a takeaway coffee from next door, and some chocolate from a shop on a street corner a little further on.

We began to miss the mobile at the end of the long drive that followed. The omens did not feel good. We searched everywhere. We called it. We pleaded with it. Blood pressures soared. Then sank. Then turned to desperate calm as we tried a few memory games to try and track the phone. Finally we agreed we’d lost it, and started to call the places we’d been. The results were not encouraging. Not everybody answered, and those that did had no clue where the mobile might be. With no tracking switched on, our hopes sank. Then as the dark crept around us we rang it one more time … and it answered.

Discovered on stepping-stone number three. All safe. Hadn’t missed us, and said it was happy to be collected tomorrow. Phew.

A little more time to relax, and watch planet Phone go scrolling by.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023