We fully acknowledge this fact. However, we have nothing but admiration for inventors.

So here’s a thought for those clever types. We’ve been told (although we have no idea how the process works) that it is possible to track a lost mobile phone. 

Now someone should put thought into working out a way to track down a lost TV remote.

For we had the misfortune to misplace our remote the other day. It was a difficult time and one we would rather not repeat anytime soon.

Channel surfing is one of the few joys this correspondent has left in life. In fact, we’ve just come off a two week sabbatical where we did little else. That was until we lost the remote.

At first we were mildly frustrated at the loss of the remote. This soon turned to irritation and then pandemonium. At one point we considered calling the SES.

We scanned our litter strewn lounge room but there was no trace of the missing channel changer. Forced into action we actually climbed off the couch and began a forensic search. We started to think like they do on those TV detective shows.

“Retrace your steps,’’ we muttered.

“Crawled out of bed. Flopped on the lounge.’’

However, despite this Sherlock Holmes-like investigation there was no sign of our misplaced remote. We even wondered out loud if it had been stolen.

The situation was starting to get desperate. This correspondent was crumbling under pressure for there was probably something worth watching on the myriad of channels that make up PayTV. We were pretty sure there was another replay of the NRL grand final on the Rugby League Channel and we’ve only seen that about 15 times.

We even sunk to our knees and searched under the lounge. This proved to be profitable. We didn’t find the remote but we did pick up 85 cents in loose change that had gathered there over the years. We even pondered the possibility of manually turning on the telly, just like we did in the 1970s, but instead that firmed out resolve to find the remote.

“If only we could press a button that would activate an alarm on the remote,’’ we wailed.

“That would be something worthwhile someone should invent.’’

But that’s for the future. We still had to deal with the current crisis of a missing remote. Eventually we scaled down the search. We were devastated and decided to head to the hotel to lament our misfortune. We donned a jacket. The remote was in the pocket. We have no idea how it got there, but we decided to keep going to the hotel to celebrate.

That 85 cents in loose change was well spent.