phone book

In a clean up operation carried out over the weekend I found a box which held a mountain of memories. Letters from former sweetie sukaris, my ticket for Safari Sevens 1 (well half the ticket stub), a back stage pass from the “Acquire the Fire” gospel concert held on the eve of the new millennium, an entry stub from the 1996 Calcutta Cup Match, an original LFC CoE official supporter’s membership club certificate, a Ford-Asili membership card (which served as my fake id for the disco before I got my kitambulisho) signed by Matiba and a many more things which would just incriminate me further if I mentioned them here.

The most interesting, to me anyway, was a phone bill from around 6 years ago. It is reassuring that some of the people who were important to me (including the obvious such as family and extended family) then are still important to me today, many of the names from the old bill would feature on my phone bill today. What was thought provoking was the number of people whom I felt were important to me then but have drifted away since.

This inspired me to dig up some old floppy disks which held copies (hand typed in notepad) of my mobile phone contact list, which I updated approximately every 6 months (back in the day I was organised like that). The first thing that jumped at me is the size. My phone book peaked in 1999/2000. I would have easily filled up all 500 spaces available on SIM and phone and then some. That is kidogo scary as in 2000 I didn’t even know some of the people who have become very important tight buddies today. Who were all those people and what did I talk to them about? Since 2002 the size went down rather quickly which is not surprising as I took the decision to keep the number of people in my phone book down. Forget being one of those networking gurus with everyone and their pet goat’s number organising bashes with a diverse quoro. Si if you know what you like stick to that? And, honestly, if you really need someone’s number you tend to find you can get it with a little bit of searching or asking around.

Checking my phone right now it tells me I have 78 numbers stored which is a massive drop when you consider that includes family, includes two numbers for various people at work (vital), and most of the other names have at least 2 numbers stored to each name and some even have three. From 500+ names to under 50 names and the sky has yet to fall on my head and I have never been stranded anywhere thus far. (O.K I cheat a little bit as there are some numbers that I store on my computer but not on my phone and upload into my phone when I think I’ll need them.) There was a time when I would delete a whole lot of numbers completely, even from the computer. If the person called or sent a txt then I would save the number again. At least then you know that the friendship is two way (and believe me with 500+ numbers many of those “friendships” must have been one way.)

What surprises me is that even in the last year things have changed dramatically. At least two people who were tight buddies no longer feature in my phone book. As in since August last year, waa! On the other side however you meet new people and get a long like house on fire and you understand what that writer meant when they talked about, “new old friends”.

I better make a memo to check again in August 2006. What changes will have came by then I wonder? By the way, if you are over 25 then you have most likely all ready met the person you are going to marry if you are going to get married. Which means ebu go through your mobile phone book, the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with is in there!