The day my phone drank beer
In this consumerist world, your phone is certainly an extension of you, mine seems to be no different if the events of last Friday are anything to go by.
My father in law is in town and he is a former cricket player, having played in England in the 50's he continued for many years on his return to Kenya. So given that Australia were playing Pakistan in the one dayers CBA series, I thought it would be a good idea to take him to the cricket.
Getting to the cricket
The game started at 12:30 but I was still in the office at 12, I was running late (many who know me will attest that is nothing new), I picked him up and got to the WACA, following a big LED sign that said $10 parking was available at the trinity reserve, when we got there, the guys at the gate told us there was only space for people that had bought parking vouchers online that was available and apologised for not having changed the sign on the causeway roundabout.
I did an about turn and tried my luck at the car parks and all of them looked full, I spotted a lady walking around with car keys in her hand and decided to stay put and stalk her in my car.. Finally she opened her car door and then closed it again, I was about to curse my luck but she walked upto my car and asked if I wanted her ticket, she had to go home and had paid for a whole day tic #smallwin!
Beer Beer Beer Oi Oi Oi
We got in and after 5 mins of watching the game, I had to partake in the Aussie tradition of watching cricket, get 4 plastic glasses filled with what really is alcoholic fizzy coloured water (premium beers at sporting events don't exist in Australia, unless you are in a corporate box) which I will refer to as beer. Wish they would put caps on those cups, a bit like take away coffee cup. Anyway drip drip and got back to our seats and polished those beers off, as time passed met my father-in-laws cricket playing buddy who has moved to Perth from Singapore, so swapped seats for a while so they could have a yarn and I knew one of the blokes that he was with.
We had quite a few more beers and the innings break ensued, caught up with more friends and returned to our seats, and I thought I had better check office emails, felt my pockets and there was no phone, checked my cooler bag and nothing in the side pockets. Looked around retraced steps to the bar and other friends seats but still no phone..
Oops
The buzz from the alcohol faded very quickly and a mild panic started to set in, was not so much worried about the phone, insurance meant I could get a new one! What did worry me was the personal data that a smart phone carries these days. Thought to myself at least with the exchange server in the office i can do a remote wipe and clear out my contacts, email if someone does a send and receive. Walked to reception at the WACA and reported the phone missing and went back to my seat.
Then one of the guys in the seat further away asked what was wrong and my father in law told him we had lost a phone and he had a quick look and said that beer cup in the row in front of us looked a bit odd, he put his hand under the seat and pulled out my phone from a half empty glass of beer! Relief was followed by an oh no as the phone refused to switch on, I thought that perhaps it had run out of battery so opened it up gave it a clean and left it till we got home.
Fast forward to that evening at home, charged the phone and all that would happen was that the led light at the back (flash) would come on, nothing else worked. Left it open under the pergola thinking the morning sun would dry out any liquid and will give it a go later. The next day it would switch on but the screen was dead, I was about to give up when I decided to Google.
Detoxing a drunk phone (phone rehab)
It seems that the cure was to put the phone sans battery into a bowl of uncooked rice and they would suck out the moisture, you can do that with any electronic device that has been in water/liquid. I did not get a chance to try it as late on Saturday night it switched on but with reverse colours. On Sunday it was temperamental to say the least would come on, would work beautifully and then the screen would go blank, it made a few random calls as well!
Monday it was fine again!
So there you have it my phone, an extension of me, went on a bender at the cricket, got smashed and was hung over over the rest of the weekend and then back to normal on Monday, albeit still a wee bit fragile..
