The last month or so an epidemic of RSI seems to have been running from Jill to Lisbeth to Adrian, and I have had an odd version of it. My problem was that I always got better when I could sit down at the computer, and worse when I was away from it: the longer absence, the worse my right arm felt.

Yesterday on the plane I finally figured out why. I was holding the cell-phone in my hand, turning it off, when I felt a cramp through the right arm and hand, the thumb just where I am sore, the elbow just at that angle, the muscles in the upper arm as I pushed the buttons. I don't get my tendonitis from the computer, I get it from the cell-phone. That's why I get it when I pack my lap-top and go off to talk to people rather than write to them. The cell-phone has become a way to stay in touch with the family, my daughter is just a small text-message away, and a way to coordinate the day with the people I am visiting. While I think I am just talking to them, I am really pushing tiny little buttons hundreds of times, in order to find them and meet face to face.

Mystery solved. I'll pay those extra kroner for calling rather than messaging. And I went out and got myself a small headphone (hands free set) as well, so I don't have to lift the cellphone up to the ear, holding it at that strained angle which makes stretching at the elbow a painful exercize.