As Mrs Beeton would have put it "First catch your remote control..."

Elusive little beasts - and they always seem to be painted black so they can hide better. The trouble is that increasingly the actual machine your supposed to be controlling - the TV etc - doesn't have the manual controls to make it do the things you want to do. Lose your control and you are stymied. And the so-called universal controls they sell you only have a very limited range of tricks, so you have to go on the net to track down the actual model you need, and pay through the nose for it.

The good thing is that for people who aren't able to "to walk the few steps to the A/C (or whatever and turn it on", which probably means most of us sooner or later, remote controls can be a lifestyle-saver. And sometimes a lifesaver.

What I want is to have remotes with built in mobile phones, so that you can dial them and make them give away their hiding place by ringing.