PHONES AND SOCKS

I think my gym bag might be magic.

After racking my brain for ages, I can’t come to a single other explanation for how one of the socks I packed late last night changed colour by the time I got it out of the magic bag this morning! I’m currently sporting oddies - one with a green heel and toe, the other with bright blue! I’ve been feeling asymmetrical... all morning!

It’s not particularly useful, having a magic bag that can change the colour of your socks - even less so, when it only works on one at a time. It might have been better if it had turned out to be a bit more Mary Poppinsy, with room for more than just the usual gym stuff, or maybe a pair of spectacles that helps you see colours properly when you’re packing your things.

I could do without the lack of symmetry though. Sure, my feet are safely laced into my trainers and nobody can tell. But I can, and it’s hard to forget the secret imbalance of my feet! Plus I’m on a special mission this morning, trying to find a phone case for a Huawei Mate 20. The last thing I want to be is unbalanced.

Say what you like about the shiny cats at Apple HQ, at least the accessories for their stuff are easy to find! Rows and rows of coloured iPhone cases fill the racks in the phone-stores of the town.

“Your best bet’s on Amazon,” said one tattooed assistant, scratching his hipster beard in front of the small selection of Samsung Galaxy cases underneath the iPhone shelf. Alas, my nephew’s birthday is tomorrow, and I was already late with the idea.

“Cheers,” said I, a little despondently.

So it is then that I’m back in the metropolis of our town centre, wishing it had been a longer gap since the last time. I have found what I need - the Huawei Mate 20 phone cases, but I don’t know whether my nephew has the Lite or the Pro, and a helpful man in a t-shirt showed me the difference with a dismissive chuckle. I don’t much like this world sometimes.

So, I’ve texted everyone I can think of who might know which it is (Lite or Pro) and I’m now in a freezing Caffè Nero with a large tea, waiting for one of them to reply.

Phones should be standard sizes, with universal chargers - that’s my view. But that’s probably why I don’t work for Apple.

Come to think of it, socks ought to be standardised too! At least mine should, maybe even could be - all black, plain, cotton, boring, predictable, safe. Though there’s no predicting what the magic gym bag might do next time. Is there?