Today I traded up to the latest 2020 model, with all the bells and whistles for quality photography and good sound reproduction. But this transaction was dealt with despite a nagging regret to leave behind a faithful comrade on my journeys around the world for the past 3 or 4 years.
My aging but still glamourous Sony Xperia was the model I’ve relied upon through so many changes of time zones, which has stalwartly resisted being dropped onto hard ceramic tile floors and even brief moments of abandonment in foreign airport restrooms. It was always there for me, whether in bed at 3 AM, along the canals in Saint Petersburg, Russia, or on a BART train in California.
But in the last week I’ve had to go in for repeated repairs to the touch recognition buttons for user ID, volume regulation, and finally, the on/off button. Something was just wanting to let go, I guess.
Aïssatou, the charming salesperson, has helped me through this difficult transition. For hours she has been working backstage at the local SFR store to transfer my data, which is, admittedly, an onerous and unthankful task.
The big phone makeover taking so long, we decided at noon to leave Aïssatou with both telephones, and to have lunch outdoors near St. Eustache, enjoying the warm September sunlight. To be phoneless was actually a blessed feeling of freedom, that’s the only word I can think of; to not have it soliciting me for Messenger updates, opinions on dead singers, or the required political shocker of the day. Like most people, I also decide for long stretches to not turn on the device – it’s a wise practice for us all at times. But to know that the phone was not even there in my pocket was an enriched feeling of new-found liberty. And I can report, I enjoyed every bite of my lunch.
Two tables over was seated a celebrity, very well-known and loved in France. When Jacques called my attention to her, she was placing a large white veil over her head and face, to shield the sun. My first, instantaneous, impression was a flashback to the footage of the great Sarah Bernhardt in her last filmed images with Sacha Guitry, released in 1916 (video below*). Sarah also had some big veil thing going on I believe. In this instance, Catherine Ringer, the star of the 1980s rock group Les Rita Mitsouko, might also just have been shielding from public view her identity.
I figured she must be 10 years older than me, then suddenly calculated, realizing with horror what age I will be in ten years, and conveniently changed the subject. I should live so long! Later, at home, I searched Wikipedia and found Ringer is actually only 62, which is her perfect right, after all. But when most celebs are dependent upon facelifts, Botox, and expert make-up, our Catherine ventured out today, clearly without any of that! She was absolutely beautiful, but in a “mature” way. Food for thought.
Go figure this: the cost of a top-line smartphone nowadays equals around two visits for Botox. And neither lasts forever. As always, life is all about decisions!