2 Nov 2020

I’m having some issues with my new you-beaut telephone. It gets plugged in to be charged each night, and with other phones that has been sufficient battery charge to see me through my usual daily activities on the phone. It’s usually enough power to see me through a couple of thousand photos of the grandson and/or dog, a bit of playing of pointless games, a bit of writing of literary diarrhoea, and other assorted things I do on my phone. Sometimes even phone calls.

But my new phone is pretty much dead by lunch time. It requires another few hours in the early afternoon plugged in, to give it enough energy to last until bed time, and even then it’s touch and go whether it will last.

For a brand new fancy phone, this is quite annoying, and so today I’ve been talking with the relevant support people to see what they can suggest – is this just the way these new phones operate, or is it a dud?

I actually can totally relate, if they’d labelled this as the iPhone 55+. Perfectly ok for people in that age range, for a day of wrangling toddlers, taking photos of toddlers, doing a bit of game playing and writing stuff, making the odd phone call etc. And then BANG on lunch time, you need to shut down on the couch for a few hours.

But it hasn’t been targeted to people my age, and to be totally honest, people my age don’t always babysit every day, so there will be occasions when they will go out with their friends for coffee and/or lunch, and they need to have a phone with some battery power available – for important “where are you?”, and “should I order your coffee now?” conversations!

So it needs to be looked at, and it will. After I’ve had a little sit down on the couch while the best grandson in the world (so far) has his afternoon nap, that is.

Does your own battery drain a bit faster some days? The battery that powers me, runs down a bit more quickly on days when I’m toddler wrangling. It usually survives on a power surge from a flat white coffee or two, but by the end of the day it frankly does look a little flat.

Strangely enough, sitting in a car on a long drive also drains my battery a little. Whether or not I was the driver of the car on the drive, I usually feel like I need a nap afterwards!

Some things can recharge the Heather battery quite well – the aforementioned coffee is a definite, but a walk with the dog outside in the fresh air, preferably near some water, works wonders as well. A talk with a loved one on the phone is pretty good too.

Of course there’s always chocolate, too.

What drains or recharges your battery?