I though it was quiet – no emails, messages or notification pings for a while. Went to get my sports kit out of the washing machine and guess what fell out ?

Yep my iPhone had just been through a 40c wash cycle – it was dead.

Went off to O2 shop to see if they could help – even just have sympathy. They gave me a very basic emergency phone that probably would survive a wash cycle but had no contacts, took forever to write a three line text and a screen the size of a postage stamp. But I could receive work calls and save numbers to call back as necessary – this is a horror of being self-employed and relying so much on technology and smartphones.

Whilst I admitted the machine disaster they said I had to go to an Apple store as they couldn’t issue iPhone 4’s without sims, and I wasn’t yet prepared to take out a new contract with 6 month still to go.

I booked an appointment for the next day at the Genius Bar in Bristol. Was kept waiting for 20+minutes but needed to walk out with a working iPhone. Immediately the Genius girl  spotted that two exterior water marks had turned pink, so proceeded to take the back off – water poured out onto their lovely glass worktop and the remaining water indicated were as red as my face. I still did not admit to the washing machine incident, just mumbled something about running with my phone and being heavy sweater.

Was my phone insured ? – no, my heart sank again, then she said water damage not covered by insurance anyway – was that to make me feel better or stupid ?

Anyway those lovely Apple people have a product replacement program and as this was my first product swap I could have a like for like replacement, meant to be £119 but got it for £50 as they kept me waiting for my appointment and season goodwill etc.- one very happy customer who walked into the shop expecting  to be paying £500+ for my own stupidity to get back connected with my world felt elated but a twinge of guilt so bought a water proof case !

So check your pockets, check your phone location before you put a load of washing in.