Earlier this year I met up with an old friend I had not seen, pretty much from the day we finished high school. As we chatted she reached over and snagged my phone “ha’, she said “some things don’t change!”

My phone is a Motorola Razr that I had covered in stickers and fake rhinestones. I was puzzled so she went on to ask me if I had forgotten my much decorated school books. To tell the truth I had no idea what she was talking about.

A few days later I had a flashback to a tatty two ring binder extensively scribbled over in biro. You know the kind of thing that kids do, with, I’m sad to say - lots less style. Still I now knew what my friend was alluding to. I’d like to think that I’ve come a way’s since then, but I’m not so sure.

This weekend I stripped my phone back to the bare pink titanium. My, it looked naked. The layer of protective stickers was decidedly tired. Couldn’t have that - so, what to do? I discussed the idea of getting the phone body laser etched, but Thatch only laughed. Nothing for it then but to rummage through my sticker stash (doesn’t everybody have a sticker stash?).

I had a sheet of unused silver scrolls. The idea, in defiance of my previous sffort, was to create an understated, elegant border.

What I got instead was overkill, pure and simple. Ah, talk about bleeding edge. I resisted doing the back for about 24 hours before it too succumbed to a silver surfeit.

The white blurred patch on the top left of my phone is my phone number taped there as a memory aid. Every little bit helps.

Just a side issue before I fade from the screen, I think Motorola have always had the most stylish phones. My phones have always been hand me downs.

I once had a black StarTac from my Brother In Law until it stopped working - I loved it. It was and still is my ideal phone. When the Razr came on the market with the exception of all the extras like a camera etc, I thought it a worthy successor.

I waited for a couple of years until the price came down enough to justify my buying one when I still had a mostly working Nokia that someone had discarded for the latest model.

Logging off now before they find me, Jools