Revenge

Last week I heard a friend recount how she had managed to wash a couple of her cell/mobile phones left in various garments. I thought at the time and again at the weekend how it could ever be possible for anyone to do such a thing.

Last night I had prepared some clothes for washing and put them in the machine ready to set it in operation this morning when the sun was up and producing sufficient electricity. This was the case just before I set off for the morning dog walk.

Then another quick cup of coffee, get on the walking gear, find doggy poo bags, load Flash in the car and finally get mobile. Misplaced again.... search the usual place it gets misplaced all without result, so call myself using the landline. Mailbox jumps straight in!

And then the sudden very bad feeling............

And it was confirmed once I had stopped and pumped out the washing machine. I simply couldn't believe it. Naturally no sign of life. I left it to one side and did the walk.

Back home tried a few ideas including some time in the oven using the air circulation with little or no heat and the thing sprung into life - well it started to vibrate. No screen or anything else. It was clear it was not going to start soon and any attempt at home repair was not on the cards as it's one of those new types where you have no access to the innards and can't even change the battery oneself. A professional repair was going to take time and lots of money.

Went online and tried to find out what was on the market in the middle range - no Samsungs, Apples etc in my price range. Happened to see a review of one from ZTE which said it had an excellent camera. Only last night on the news, I heard Trump had been giving ZTE a hard time but was now lifting sanctions. I had no idea what it was about but thought anything Trump hates can only be good.

So I ordered the phone online at about 3:30 pm and with 0% finance for 12 months. Within two hours got the message the bank had agreed to finance and I can pick up the phone in Memmingen.

So shot over there, put my signature on 30 forms and came home with the new phone. I did try to get it started while in the car park so that I could get a photo from Memmingen but nowadays without WiFi connected and at least two hours patience to go through the setup, the phone won't do anything.

However, in the course of the evening, the set up went well and 99% of my previous apps and data were all back on the phone. Thank goodness I had been using daily Google back up on the old phone. The only data that one app didn't reload was the meter readings on our sewage treatment plant that I officially need for environmental checks. I had transferred these to my PC in late March and only the April numbers are gone.

I have in the meantime found out that ZTE has been hit quite badly by Trump's measures. I will monitor the situation and as I have quite a long "Return if not satisfied" guarantee, may have to exchange it if the software support/updates don't happen.

The phone seems to work well and the camera looks interesting but when I took this photo I didn't experiment. It was late evening.