I lost my iPaq

I think I’m suffering enough already.
Last evening, I went to the ladies’ toilet near the main lift lobby in my office. As always, I removed my iPaq case which is clipped to the top of my trousers, and placed it on the toilet paper rack. This is so that my phone doesn’t accidentally fall into the toilet bowl.
Since I bought the phone, I’ve constantly reminded myself (while in the loo) to hook the case back onto my trousers. Last evening, I forgot. I know I was engrossed in thought, but that’s no excuse to leave something so valuable behind.
I went back to my desk, worked for another hour, saw an email from my boss about a meeting date, reached for my iPaq to key the data in … and realised the case wasn’t at my hip.
I dashed back into the toilet but the iPaq was gone. (That was the last place I brought it to. I had brought it to a meeting before that, but walked out of the meeting using my phone, and popped by another colleague’s cubicle before going back to my own. I remember I was still carrying it.)
I notified all my colleagues and called Security. Nobody had turned the iPaq in. We called my number but it was ‘not available’. I thought it was engaged and someone was using it … alternatively the person had chucked my SIM card and was already using her own, with my iPaq.
[ Ironically when I Googled for ‘hp ipaq 6828’, planning to attach a photo of my phone in my email to colleagues, guess which site came up first? My own! *slap in the face* I never even took a photograph of it myself. ]
This morning I spoke to our cleaning attendant and she hadn’t seen a thing. She does the morning shift. I called the supervisor but she had not received any reports from her staff. I waited until the afternoon shift and asked the second attendant. She too had not seen anything. I trust the two old ladies – they’re such dears and we’re always nice to each other.
Besides, when my colleague misplaced her phone last week, it was found and returned to her.
However, that was a normal phone, not an iPaq.
Here’s an experiment: If you see a shop selling a second-hand HP iPaq 6828 without box and charger, let me know. Mine had a 1GB miniSD card and a screen protector, with the black HP case.
The battery should have died out by now.
My mother asked, “Didn’t you have valuable software inside it?”
I replied, “Yes, it has my PocketBible software. I think whoever’s taken my phone, needs it!”
I will also miss my iPaq for its wireless internet connection and newsfeed reader (shareware I installed).
I still needed a phone. As punishment, I went to Mustafa Centre and bought a simple Nokia 6030 which doesn’t even have Bluetooth. I now wonder if I should have forked out another hundred bucks for the Motorola Slvr but don’t tempt me now … this is to tide me by until the next iPaq model comes out.
Next time, I’ll tattoo my name on it and sew the pouch into my skin.