We spent the last weekend holed up with lovely friends in the remotest of remote cottages in wet, west Wales. This was it:
Sure enough it was purdy, we were close to some of the UK’s best beaches, the children roamed free and we toasted marshmallows on a log fire. In short,it was idyllic.
But there was a small, minor, insignificant issue: I.HAD.NO.PHONE.SIGNAL.
Now, this shouldn’t have been a problem. Despite the dark and moody mile long track to approach and heavily wooded surrounding area looking like the set of a 70s horror movie, we were quite safe. Yes the BT line was out of order but that was nothing to worry unduly about and once I’d calmed by nerves that the bogeyman wasn’t gonna come knocking I felt calm, liberated, mentally freed. I cooked and cleaned with abandon, I swept floors, I made bread, I did all those things that are normally drudgery and I enjoyed doing them.
But as the 48 hours clicked by I felt an increasing panic, I started looking for excuses as to why I needed a phone signal…. what if the OH had a terrible accident whilst out on his mountain bike with his friend? As it was, it was the friend who had the accident and they coped perfectly well thankyou. I was reassured that other people had a phone signal…why you and not meeeee?…..and, staring longingly at my poor, impotent iphone, I was forced to assimilate to life without t’internet, twitter and texting.
The time whisked by, filled with chat and red wine and children playing and it was lovely, a break from the norm and a complete de-stress. But, oh my fingers were fidgety, and as we left the o2 signal void I was so tempted to tweet whilst sitting in traffic on the journey home that I had to move my phone out of reach.
So now I’m back I’m appraising, should I recognise that I have a problem and seek professional help? Or do I embrace the fact that this is the modern world, that our brains are evolving and that, au contraire I don’t have a problem at all… I’m just a modern kinda chick?
It’s okay, it’s good for you – studies have proved it! Look: a study from 2006.
I think the sense of community in our Twittery, Facebooky world makes up in a way for the lack of family support we would have had a few generations back. When I’m doing dinnertime and the children are being vile, I can send a quick message to Twitter and know that when I next look there will be a handful of replies from people who are in the same boat. And that makes me feel I’m not alone and then I can deal with the horrors of bedtime. I think that’s a good thing, not a problem, don’t you?
I have the same ‘problem’…..I think it is sweeping the world. ;0/ I can’t bear to be without a signal now. xx
I think social network withdrawal is a common, if very modern, phenomenon. You are not alone!
Reminds me of the experience of staying in a cottage on the North Norfolk coast. No moby coverage, no landline in the house, just a public phonebox outside the church. You begin to feel like you’re in an Agatha Christie play…
We’re going back to the same place in August. Should start weaning myself off social networking now, I suppose.
Great post, P x
It’s a kind of “cold turkey” isn’t it? Your normal live is surrounded by social networking and gadgetry so it’s not an unusual feeling to feel cut off from the world when you have no signal. I experienced similar when we went to Turkey last year. I purposefully switched off my phone and left it in the safe, safe in the knowledge it was there for emergencies but I just needed to know that I could “cope” without it for the week.
I don’t know what we did before mobile phones. It’s like what did we do before computers. Like another lifetime isn’t it! Your weekend sounds just lovely though.
CJ xx
Hurray! Alzheimers is my No1 fear so it’s good to know I’m doing something that could prevent it!
That’s a good point, how many of us have daily contact with our families anymore? It’s an increasingly rare situation…and you don’t have to tidy up before virtual friends come to visit!
x
Much as I was being tongue-in-cheek, I do really hate it and I can’t blame all that fear on the ‘what if something happened’ argument! That’s the scary thing about evolution… you can’t go back!
xx
Thanks Mr. It’s one of those ‘don’t realise how much it means until it’s gone’ moments…and count your lucky stars that you didn’t grow up on the North Norfolk coast….maybe that’s where all my problems stem from!
Px
You are woman of steel- obviously! That takes quite some determination. Maybe I should try one day off a week as an experiment…something tells me I might get an awful lot more achieved!
Px
It was lovely thanks CJ- a perfect bit of respite from everything. Seems really funny now to think back to pre-email and t’internet days…what on earth did we do?!
Px
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