The misadventures of an idiot's phone

Did I leave my phone on the roof of the car before driving away? Yes.

Did I hear it slide off the roof mid-turn, and think "Hmm, where's my phone? Oh shhhhh....."? Yes.

Did I have to run around in the middle of a busy roundabout in the dark, collecting the various pieces of the phone after it hit the road and split open? Yes.

Am I an idiot? Yes.

Luckily, for fools like me, the solution isn't too problematic when it comes to touchscreen phones. The glass touchscreen is quite robust, even after being shattered by such traumatic and violent treatment, and protects the delicate LCD screen underneath very effectively. Ebay is littered with sellers peddling replacement touchscreens, or "digitizers", for a few pounds. Anyone with an eBay account, some very small screwdrivers, and the patience of an anal-retentive, can turn the above formerly-beautiful device into this...

And, after an hour or so (mostly spent checking that every single speck of dust has been removed from the screens before reassembly), this....

Thus, my pride remains almost intact, and I no longer need to revert to  the crappy 5 year old Nokia that was once relegated to the bottom drawer.

So, the moral of the story is this... try not to be an idiot in the first place, and save yourself hassle and cash. But if you are taken in by the dark side, all is not lost. Before considering whether to pay a £50 insurance excess, and whether to live without your beloved phone for weeks while it goes away for repair, have a little browse of the auctions. Thanks to the popularity of touchscreen phones amongst clumsy kids (and 30-somethings), replacement touchscreens are in such large demand (and thus, supply) that they can be bought for as little as £7, particularly if you own a rather popular Apple product. The screens can also be bought together with the teeny screwdrivers required to get the device apart. It's a lot easier than it looks.