Phone charging faff

The comedian Ashley Blaker suggest that parenting basically is just frantic management of phone chargers. I could imagine that there is a kernel of truth in that. We are so dependent on our mobile phones these days! And without charge, they are useless.

I wanted to charge my phone, which has a rather notoriously short battery life, and it just wouldn't play ball. The cable just didn't make contact with the phone. I tried some other cables, but that didn't work either. Now what? Would this be a cable problem or a phone problem? If it would be a cable problem it would be easily solved. If it would be the phone problem, I would need a new phone. I'm sure a charging port can be repaired, but this phone showed signs of coming towards the end of its life anyway. I've only had it for less than a year! Maybe next time I should buy a more recent model in the hope it lasts longer. But anyway. There I was.

I decided to dig out two auxiliary items: my old phone, and my powerbank. And the good news was that the old phone did let itself be charged with one of my cables. The slightly less good news was that its use was limited. I couldn’t blog or email, as I hadn’t logged in on that phone for months, and it wanted two step verification. It also wouldn’t load my WhatsApp chats. It did have a functioning Welsh dictionary and a working weather app. That was something. 

I also realised I could use the old phone for navigation. No SIM card needed for that! Except that it then needs a mobile hotspot. And that would be the old phone. Which still drains its battery. And I had to get to Minera first, and Nick later. I can’t yet drive to either on memory; let alone to the one via the other. I just about managed without having to resort to my old-fashioned road atlas! 

I then realised I could charge my phone from my powerbank. Normally, I charge the phone by plugging a classic USB into the powerbank, and I charge the powerbank by sticking a USB C cable in and plugging the other side via USB into the mains. But it turns out you can use the USB C port for both energy going in and out. I suppose everybody else already knew this. And I had a new USB C cable that did manage to make the connection to my phone charging port. So I was sort of sorted! 

It wasn’t a long-term solution, but it did the job. Until I lost track of where my powerbank was. That complicated things again.

Luckily, the corner shop just sells charging cables. Of course I had forgot to buy one the first time I went in anyway, after the old cable gave up. But then I just went in on my way to work. And the even found the powerbank again. So I was sorted again. But what a faff! Although learned a few useful things about powerbanks and mobile hotspots in the process…

All the paraphernalia! On the left the new charging cable; in the middle the old phone with an old cable that managed to charge it, and on the right the powerbank with the USB C cable…