My brother was a lot older than me. Ten years older in fact. It meant that he achieved everything in life approximately ten years before I did! Apart from the annoyance of being reminded about that, it was my only consolation to make sure that when I did reach the achievements that he had reached albeit years earlier, I achieved a better result, like remembering about insuring your mobile phone.

What brought this to mind was a phrase that he seemed to use all the time that really annoyed me. Whenever anything broke or failed, he would say “It’s built-in obsolescence”. It was only when I got older that I realized exactly what he meant. Moreover, he used to suggest that items often failed just outside of their warranties! Now whilst I am all for accepting that companies would love for this to be the case, I was sure that it was not true.

However, one sunny spring morning earlier this year, I was to be found in our parent’s lounge, attending our mother’s birthday get together. I was having a problem with my mobile phone. The screen seemed to be frozen and I could not budge it.

“Turn it off, then on again” my brother interjected. Well he is always right, so I did, only to find that it now would not switch on at all! I was already annoyed about it when I saw him about to say something.

“Don’t even dare to mention built-in obsolescence!” I blurted. He looked surprised.

“I was actually going to ask if you had remembered about insuring your mobile phone in the event of it packing up” he replied sheepishly. I was still sure that he originally wanted to espouse his usual theory.

How uplifting it was to be able to state for all the family to bear witness that I had, indeed, remembered that when the warranty expired after the initial three months of my contract, I had remembered.

I had actually put a note on my calendar “insuring your mobile phone – required after today”!

For once I had the upper hand on my beloved brother!