Posted by Like most people these days my mobile phone is everything to me, especially when travelling overseas. It maintains connections to home, to socials, accesses bank, gets me around foreign cities with maps and Uber and is my primary navigation tool for the CDT.
I headed to the airport, obtained my boarding passes and checked my pack in, passed through security and headed to gate to wait for my flight. On the way to the gate like most people I thought I’d make use of the facilities visiting the toilet one last time before taking off. Having done my business and with an hour to kill I headed to my departure gate and found the nearest charging port. Rummaging through my carry on bag for phone and charger a sheer moment of panic set in. My phone was no where to be found on my person or in my carry on bag. Holy shit! I just had it and now its gone. I obviously left it in the toilet about 10 minutes ago. Shit, shit, shit.
I’m not an anxious person but was freaking out. My heart was racing and I started to sweet, profusely. I need my phone! A first world problem right? I’ve since learned there is a modern medical term for this type of mobile phone separation anxiety, nomophobia.
Retracing my steps I flew towards the same toilet. Surely it could still be in there. It’s only been 10 minutes.
Of course the stall was occupied and I had to wait. And I waited and I waited and I waited looking like a sweaty weirdo loitering in the mens room. About 15 minutes in all I waited for the person in there to finish their business. I thought about politely knocking (read banging) on the door and asking if there was a phone in there. Finally the door opened and I asked the fella if there was a phone on the bench in there. No he hadn’t seen it. Damn it.
Ok, what to do now. Remain calm. Think clearly. Surely someone has done the right thing, found it and handed it somewhere. But who to contact to find out? I started with the cleaning crews. There was no crew working near the mens but I spied a crew working near the women’s room. Explaining my situation one of the attendants made a call to the mens cleaning crew but they were away from that particular toilet and said they hadn’t had any phone handed in.
The lady then had the piece of mind to make a call to my number while I headed in to the stalls to check if it wasn’t left in a different one. I couldn’t hear anything but on exiting again I could see she was talking to someone on her phone. She passed her phone to me and another women on the other end told me my phone had been handed into at gate 3 and could be collected there. Phew!!!!! Crisis averted! Reunited it was back to the departure gate to charge my phone and start the long journey to Lordsburg, New Mexico.
I need a new tattoo on my forearm with a checklist for wallet, phone and keys.
Mick Beckers 