Oh the utter frustration!

We girls have all been there, we have all had our pride suffer and felt the utter frustration as we stand helpless and spitting mad in the face of our feminine 'inadequacies'.

Technologically savvy we might be, scared of nothing with a processor, happy in our geekery and only too pleased to be submerged in a world of gadgetry but still, every now and again life throws us a curved ball in it's attempt to put us firmly back in our feminine place and give you guys a moment of amusement!

So what has prompted this incident of spitting mad frustration?

Yesterday was an annual 'new gadget' day, they are by definition some of the best days, a new toy to be tampered and fiddled with, gadget freak heaven.....the once a year treat of the 'free' cell phone upgrade. Very unusually the carriers actually achieved the goal set them and delivered said new toy on the correct day and without incident, credit where credit is due, despite previous delivery disasters from this company to gemmak's-ville, this time and without even a complete address my shiny new phone landed on the doorstep at the appointed hour and with a smile! That was a good a start as any, things were looking hopeful.

I had already had PG offer as he left for work to 'set it up' for me on his return , in that condescending 'macho' fashion we are all used to that suggests activating GPRS and configuring an email client might just be a little too complicated for us! Pffttt, no chance, I'll do it thankyouverymuch, I am quite capable and even if I weren't I wouldn't admit it.

So the phone arrives, I excitedly unpack it and investigate and for once, rather than run what little power it has already, to nothing, I set it to charge for a few hours with more patience than is the norm and set about my afternoon.

With charging time finally complete and my new found state of patience wearing thin I gather batteries, memory cards and sim card, I make sure all the information on the old phone is where it ought to be and settle down to the favourite pastime of playing with a new gadget.

Well that was the theory, for it was at this point it all went horribly and humiliatingly wrong. We have all stood at the side of the road with a flat tyre, wheel brace in hand looking pathetically at the wheel and despite knowing what to do unable to actually muster enough brute force to undo the wheel nuts, there is some excuse for that, men tighten them too hard, but there is little excuse for the embarrassing incident I was about to suffer......yup, you guessed it, I was completely unable to get the back cover off the bloody phone!! Arghhhh.

This is not rocket science, all Nokia phones are similar, this is just a 'push and slid' action, well I pushed and I slid and I shoved and I swore and no amount of perseverance would shift it. I was forced even to check the instructions ( I don't 'do' instructions as a rule) for this menial action and yes, my action was the correct one but another half hour of pushing and sliding and huffing and puffing and still I remained thwarted!

I left it a while, tried to compose myself from my state of annoyance and then tried again...nope, the damn thing just would not shift and I just knew without doubt at this point I was headed for the utter humiliation of having to ask PG when he returned home for help. Bad enough when it's a wheel nut, a 50kg load one can hardly shift despite heaving one's whole body weight behind it but removing a phone cover?? the anticipation of the hilarity and male gloating with which that one was going to be met was almost unbearable!

He finally arrived home somewhere past 11pm with a knowing smile on his face and a few choice phrases of amusement, picked the phone up......and popped the cover off at the first attempt!!!!! Bugger!!!!

If there was any justice in the world he might at least have been presented with a tiny moments difficulty......I will likely now have to face the further frustration and humiliation of having this little tale recounted to all and sundry for years to come.

It's gonna take a long time to live this one down!