Hello? Anyone out there?


Communication during lockdown has been essential. Despite furlough, every week the team meet on zoom to catch up and check in on each other. It is good for us to keep updated and make sure everyone is keeping fit and well.

Of course communication is important with the wider Museum public too. Nick has been methodically uploading daily social media posts from Regimental Dunkirk history to Mystery Monday objects. No mean feat but essential to let folk know we are still here and (virtually) open for business.

For all of us, communicating with loved ones and friends has been the main way of, and providing much needed, contact during lockdown . So imagine my angst when I dropped my mobile phone into a sink of water when (stupidly) resting it on the side of the sink whilst washing my hands! I was soon to discover that my phone isn't waterproof and doesn't float (not sure why an image of medieval witch trials came to mind at this point). I tried every option to keep it alive and well but to no avail, and it soon withered and died. It was a mobile phone no more.

Picture the scene - an initial 30 minute shock followed by a long sentence of expletives which translated into 'Oh my goodness, what the heck am I going to do now?' followed by a frantic messaging on my laptop to let people know my dilemma. Cue the kettle and a much-needed coffee. Deep breath and immediate planning in my head about how this was going to impact life over the next few days. Contacting my mum, the WhatsApp group for the Ranger group, ad-hoc messaging with the team and helping Nick out when needed, communication from my dear daughter's bedroom to check whether we have any chocolate in the house, a text from my neighbour across the road to see if we have any spare eggs. And all those photos...aaagh! Great move Jules! Why did you have your phone in the bathroom whilst washing your hands anyway? 
After a few hours, as the slight panic and impact of my deed receded, I started to quite enjoy the silence and the idea that I wasn't contactable. I was no longer a slave to that wee piece of technology, I was hiding away from the world, no-one knew where I was . Maybe I could even manage without it? Maybe I should disappear into the ether and my identity would be lost forever - who was that Jules woman again? (I know, I have an very over-active imagination). The temptation, the excitement, the challenge!

But, of course, in this day and age the need for keeping in contact is inevitable and we have all come to rely on various methods of communication. Every week I speak to a couple of veterans on the telephone, I check-in with my friends on a Saturday evening, I video call my friend in Switzerland and reply to my child upstairs that there is no chocolate in the house.

After dithering and debating for a week, I succumbed and am now the owner of a new mobile phone. Thanks to Nick, I have apps and more apps to contact people and stay in touch. Now all I have to do is learn how to use it to keep up with that communication. Maybe folk will hear from me in the next few weeks once I have mastered this new technology!

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