Dear LPG,

I sincerely hope that this never happens to you, but it occurs to me that if it ever does, my story and its added nuggets of instruction will surface from the depths of your mind quickly enough to have a positive effect.

Here is the story…

I firstly have to thank God that it was about eight in the morning, the time that I charge my mobile smart phone, although I think it would not have happened if that was not on charge in the first place.

I was busy doing what people do in the morning when my son phoned.  I live with my sister who answered the phone and brought it to the bathroom.  My son told me that he had tried to ring my mobile phone but, having got no reply, rang the cordless one that we have at home.  He was on the way to work and in a talking mood and I tried my best to use ‘hands free’ but I suspect that the loud sounds of the train he was on caused him to complain that he could not hear me properly.  I just know that I am not the only parent who is reluctant to tell a beloved child that you are too busy to talk no matter how old your baby is (mine is 45 years old) but I let him talk anyway.  I really needed to continue with what I was doing, so put the phone on the shelf above the sink and lowered my head to give it a wash, but my forehead caught the part that was overhanging, and the phone went for a swim. 

Well, as you can imagine, I fished it out and then found the mobile so that I could call him back to say what had happened. I am so glad that my sister and I are the only people at home, because when I picture her watching me running along the hall in my state of undress, the sight is one that I would not want anyone else to see!  My son does work as a computer hardware technician and, when I called him back, he told me that time was of the essence and then instructed me to take the batteries out, dry it off as best I can and then bury the phone in a bowl of rice ASAP. So, I followed his instructions and I got a large bag of the stuff and put the phone in it.

He told me not to move it for at least two days and, although I have my reservations, there is an extension in the house, so we were not too worried about the wet one.   I really thought he was joking because you have to admit it is a strange thing to do, but it worked well to an extent.  Once I replaced the rechargeable batteries, even though he also told me that, in his experience, there was only a 25% chance of success, it survived.

Since my, (I mean my cordless phone’s) dampening experience, I have found quite a lot of information about rescuing mobile phones which have been drowned at the hands of their owners, which makes me feel better about my stupidity.

I also found a lot of videos with instructions on the subject and I hope that watching a few of them will prepare your subconscious in case you ever make an equally subconscious dunking mistake which requires a quick, very conscious response…

DL, Penge.

DL found us all the information we will need on the subject…

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…and offers these as the real lessons of the day…

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