@stanwood Thank you - the workaround worked for me
@Lakotaubp thanks for all your help

@Stefano @rocket2nfinity @Photojoe4
Hi
Thank you all so much for your replies.
I am going to look for an ASUS Transformer Book T100HA as that will allow me to use it as a tablet and as a laptop.
I will be keeping an eye on the progress with UT as I am hoping that I can replace my android (yuk) phone with one running UT as soon as possible.

Thanks again

Kind Regards
Kaz

Hi @AppLee, @Thatoo, others

I hope you are all well and thank you again for your help and advice.

Just an updated:

This is what I did to get my phone close to what I need. 
The phone is taking updates from the stable channel.

Please note - this works for now but I cannot guarantee how long it will work but at the most, the crontab may need to be set up again with the two tasks.
I will need to monitor my contact and calendar exports in the Documents folder for the modified timestamps now and then.

I set up nextcloud account and installed ubsync on my phone. Marked my Documents folder as a backup dir (among others) in ubsync

I set up 4 scripts (.sh files) with execute permissions in Documents - this will also keep my scripts backed up - they will not have execute permissions if you need to pull them down from nextcloud:

#calendar_export.sh#!/bin/bash
export display=:0.0
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=$(ps -u phablet e | grep -Eo 'dbus-daemon.*address=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-[A-Za-z0-9]{10}' | tail -c35)
syncevolution --export /home/phablet/Documents/utcalendar.ical backend=evolution-calendar database=Personal

#calendar_import.sh
#!/bin/bash
syncevolution --delete-items backend=evolution-calendar --luids '*' export display=:0.0 && export dbus_session_bus_address=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-t5OB5i75dT && syncevolution --import /home/phablet/Documents/utcalendar.ical backend=evolution-calendar database=Personal

#contact_export.sh
#!/bin/bash
export display=:0.0
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=$(ps -u phablet e | grep -Eo 'dbus-daemon.*address=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-[A-Za-z0-9]{10}' | tail -c35)
syncevolution --export /home/phablet/Documents/utcontacts.vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal

#contact_import.sh
#!/bin/bash
syncevolution --delete-items backend=evolution-contacts --luids '*'
export display=:0.0 && export dbus_session_bus_address=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-t5OB5i75dT && syncevolution --import /home/phablet/Documents/utcontacts.vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal

To do the initial import I exported my contacts and calendar from gmail and renamed the files as utcontacts.vcf and utcalendar.ical and placed them in the Documents directory.
syncevolution needs a blank line after every END:VCARD and END:VCALENDAR in the contacts vcf and calendar ical files respectively.

I connected my phone to my laptop and did the following:

On the terminal:
adb shell
Note: After restarting the phone the drive will become read-only again from what I can tell (no promises) - I did not do these are root:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
crontab -e

add the following - you can change the frequency to suit your needs:

30 2 * * * /home/phablet/Documents/contact_export.sh
31 2 * * * /home/phablet/Documents/calendar_export.sh

I am not sure how crontab works as every time you open it the filename is different but my scheduled tasks are present.

I have set up a tutanota email account so the only thing that I will not have on my UT phone is email notifications.

I think I have covered everything.

If you spot any problems or issues please let me know - thank you and good luck.

Kind Regards
Kaz

Hi @AppLee

Thanks - I have marked it as a question and as solved.

Kind Regards
Kaz