My new Swedish cell phone

... was very expensive, and is totally useless as far as I'm concerned. It's a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and I picked it for its keyboard. We were in a hurry. Peter had to get back to the office. He was leaving for Latvia a couple of days later, and that would have left us phoneless. When the young guy at the shop asked me what I wanted on my new phone, well, I wanted the basics - I wanted to call people and do texting and have a real keyboard as opposed to the touch kind.

Here's my issue (and yes, I've downloaded and read the instructions IN ENGLISH to no avail):

- I want to be able to call up my contact numbers when texting. You know, write the message, then find the contact number in the 'address book' and away she goes. Only she doesn't go because it won't recall the number.

- The numbers aren't even stored in the address book - just the names. If I have to memorize all the numbers, what's the point of having the address book function on the phone?

It does a lot of tricks this phone. Syncs to Google and Facebook among other things. I don't care. I just want to be able to text or phone without having to key in the number each time.

Aren't these things supposed to make your life simpler, not more complicated? The ad goes on and on about managing your life with the phone in one hand and a coffee in the other. I'd have spilled the coffee trying to figure out the phone.

Maybe it's because I'm using a prepaid phonecard instead of the monthly contract. Maybe there are restrictions nobody bothered to tell me about (I'm encountering a fair amount of that here - don't ask, don't tell). I didn't think I was technologically inept.

Stay tuned...