What next?

The trouble was, after a while, Leonard realised he was missing Leonora.

He was moping around the house, gazing at the screen waiting for new caches to be published, but none were appearing in front of his very eyes.

Leonora always changed her mind and got back in touch with him. Even when she was adamant that she never ever wanted any more to do with him.

But this time she hadn't.

"What shall I do Tata?" he asked.

Tata glared at him. There was no fire for her to lie in front of, she was still not allowed to go on the new sofas so she was sulking on her basket behind the sofa.

She didn't really care about Leonard's problems with Leonora. Tata had spent months and months conniving and contriving with Leonard to lure Leonora back and he still managed to stuff it up. She was not getting involved any more. Unless someone allowed her on the sofa of course.

Leonard needed a new distraction. Suddenly a brilliant idea came to him.

He NEEDED an iPhone. That was it. A nice new shiny 3G iPhone. He was pleased with the iTouch that Mrs Leonard had bought for his birthday, but the iPhone was becoming an Essential Gadget To Have.

All the gadgets he needed in one. GPS, a phone, a camera, and automatic updating with the geocaching website while he was on the move. Just in case those new caches cropped up. He sighed in anticipated pleasure. Of course, he would still carry a proper GPS too, but he wouldn't need the new camera, the expensive mobile, or the iTouch.

He happily spent a few hours reading up on them and sourcing some good prices. The thing was though, he didn't want a rip-off contract. And when he started his research, he discovered that the price for the internet made the contract even more expensive in the second year.

Nothing was going right at the moment. He decided reluctantly to look for other options. He gazed at the Samsung and the HTC iPhone imitators. They didn't look like an iPhone though.

And Leonora would be so annoyed if he got an iPhone. She never shut up about how superior her flippin' Apple computers were, but she didn't seem to want to pay out for an iPhone. It would be good to steal a march on her there.

But Leonard had another dilemma. How to convince Mrs Leonard that he NEEDED an iPhone when the iTouch wasn't even 12 months old? And there was nothing wrong with the expensive mobile that she had bought for him either. Although it was four years old. And a couple of functions didn't work after he took the battery out without resetting it. But otherwise it was pretty good, considering it had been bounced, dropped, stood on, and generally abused. He would worry about that later. What he needed to do first, was to find a good deal, and then it would be virtually fait accompli.

Leonard was persistent when he NEEDED gadgets. He started looking at options for unlocking iPhones so that he didn't have to pay the ridiculous contract prices. He was fairly confident about doing this as he had managed to jailbreak his iTouch. It shouldn't be a problem unlocking the iPhone and using his current cheap mobile deal.

Eventually he thought he found the solution. He decided to think about it before he broke the news to Mrs Leonard so that he could present a clear and unarguable case about the necessity for an iPhone. In the meantime though, he would write to Leonora and ask her if she was ok. Perhaps he would mention the iPhone too in a nice sort of way, asking for her advice. Maybe not though.

He looked at the iTouch and the mobile. Yes, their days were definitely numbered. They would soon be finding their way into the (large) box of treasured presents and neglected fad gadgets. Still, they would not be lonely in there.