I'm a worrier.

That's right. I'm a worrier. 

And although I've read quite a few books about how to cope, and I've listened to a lot of advice - I still worry. For instance I'm three hours into a nine hour flight and I'm worried about the batteries in my various devices; even though I left them charging until a microsecond before I left home. And I'm typing this on my tablet; and Willie's voice is alternately rasp- and honey-like in the Sony buds connected to my smart phone. What happens if my batteries die? How will I last the rest of the journey?
 
This is not a new phenomenon; in the early days of cell phones I had a housebrick-sized unit and I had three batteries just in case; this was in about 1988 when in Australia almost no one, but no one, called mobile phone numbers. I watch the little battery indicator with sinking feelings as the charge percentage sinks from 90% to 30%, and this is all while the phone appears to be doing nothing. And when I wake in the morning I am in a fury when I discover that for some inexplicable reason it's only charged to 68% - why? 

As I watch the Australian desert slide below and I wonder whether my phone will have enough battery to keep taking photographs. And how about my emails - what will happen if I can't check them the instant we land? 

Like I said I worry. Battery panic. Device deprivation. Just two of the multitude of new causes for concern in the twenty-first century.