I WAS out for a stroll the other day when I remembered something important I should have mentioned before I left home. But when I tried to ring home on my mobile, guess what? The blasted thing wouldn't give me a connection, that's all! How irritating is that!

It seems that millions of us are suffering from a new affliction called "nomophobia" - the fear of being out of touch of mobile phone contact. And that's very sad.

It isn't that long ago when the nicest thing about going on holiday was getting away from phones. Not any more.

Since the days when Corporal Jones kept yelling "Don't panic!" at Dad's Army's Captain Mainwaring, life seems to have got more stressful. And, ironically, much of the blame lies with the progress aimed at making our lives easier.

For example, there's the crashing of your computer that always occurs just when you've done something time-consuming.

Or there's that panicky feeling when your car engine starts thumping and you know you've as much chance of fixing it as eating chips with Nigella on Saturn.

And then there's that awful angst when you buy some electronic gadgetry and fail to make it work. So you pick up your mobile in despair to gingerly ring a call centre helpline in India where you fear the techno-whizzkid will think you are one step up the evolutionary scale from a plank.

But you can't even do that. Because your blinking mobile doesn't work.