Quest for the Indestructible Mobile Phone Case

The first mobile phone I ever saw was during high-school. I was traveling to school on the bus when we rounded a corner. There I saw a man standing by the side of the road with a telephone in his hand. The telephone was connected by a curly-cord to a large box, about the size of a briefcase, which was resting by his feet. That was about 10 on the wow-factor in the late '80s.

Back in 1990-something a friend sent me on an errand and gave me his mobile phone to take with me, just in case I needed to contact him while I was gone. His phone was one of those brick phones. The thing weighed a tonne and was uncomfortable to hold. But I felt a million bucks walking down the street, flashing this phone around as if to say, "Look at me!"

Alas, the brick phone has gone the way of the typewriter and the 51/4 inch floppy disk.

I think I got my first mobile phone in 1998. It was a Philips Diga.



It was also heavy, but more stylish than the brick. And since then I have had the pleasure of carrying around mobiles that came in all shapes and sizes. I've had the traditional-style phone, I've had the clamshell-style phone, I've had a long phone and I've had a short phone. I even once had a fat phone.

At first I would happily carry my phone in my hand. It made me feel cool and important. But as phones became ubiquitous, carrying the phone around just became burdensome. So I got a cover and belt-clip for the phone and I felt even more important - walking around with the phone strapped to my side, like a holstered pistol. But because the phone case I was using was also the cover for the phone, I had to remove the entire apparatus from my belt to answer it when it rang. I once lost a potential customer while shopping for printer ink in Officeworks because I couldn't get the blasted thing off my belt in time to answer it.

Since then I have been in search for the perfect mobile phone case. You see, that experience in Officeworks was the beginning of my mobile-phone-case jinx.

Let me explain.

There are some things with which people are just plain unlucky, no matter how hard they try. For some inexplicable reason I have had constant problems with my mobile-phone-cases. They always seem to break, or fall off, or tear, or rip. Once my mobile phone case fell off as I was leaving a taxi in central Jerusalem. Thank G-d the person who found the phone made every effort to locate me. Finally my phone and I were reunited in a dimly lit back street of Mea Shearim.

I have had all sorts of mobile-phone-cases: ones that fit horizontally, ones that fit vertically, ones where the belt slides through the loop, ones with belt clips, ones made from leather and also synthetic ones.

I recently bought for myself a new mobile phone case. I thought that it would last at least a few months. After all, it has "Nokia" written on it. Well, two weeks later and the stitching is coming apart. Ergh.

What could be the reason? Is it a conspiracy by the mobile-phone-case manufacturers? Did I offend some mobile-phone-case salesman once so that he put a curse on me?

I've given up. The phone will have to go in the pocket from now on. I just thank my lucky stars I'm not still carrying around that brick, otherwise I would look completely ridiculous.