Bloody hell!
Its been the third time in two years!
Its the stupid army pants pockets I tell you they're too shallow.
Anyway the manner of the loss was quite strange.
It wasnt like those other times when it fell out unnoticed onto a taxi seat and I didnt find out until I'd gotten out of the cab by which time it was too late.
On the other hand, when this one fell out, I noticed it, but failed to catch it in time.
And it went straight down the bottomless pit of an Armoured Fighting Vehicle engine compartment.
Just like that! The damn thing disappeared below the behemoth engine.
It was massively maluating because at that time I was squatting over the engine hatch explaining the engine air filters to a recently-commisioned officer cadet. And when I moved, the bloody handphone slipped out of my pocket, and down into the engine hatch. So damn embarassing!
Of course I tried reaching down to pick it up. No use. The bloody engine compartment is so deep and the engine so damn big even my skinny spindly arms could'nt touch the bottom, let alone get near the phone.
So I tried accessing it throught the drainhole at the vehicle bottom, but when I reached in all I felt was a big steel partition-wall. And a lot of grease.
So I was left with an arm coated with thick black grease and a bunch of sniggering officers.
I tried calling my phone, to try and sense where exactly in the black hole it was.
There came a faint buzzing sound from deep within those metal bowels. Too deep for hope of recovery.
The chief instructor said that the only way to retrieve it would be to take out the entire engine. But that wouldnt be happening anytime soon because the vehicles wouldnt be needing any maintainence for a long time.
Nuts!
At least my phone was on vibration mode, not some gay spastic ringtone.
If Id called it then, the whole workshop wouldve been filled with this gay spastic ringtone emanating from the engine depths of a 23 ton Armoured Vehicle.
That wouldve been damn funny, if the phone wasnt mine.
Crap!
Now I gotta rebuild my phonebook.
