Ssoo I turn 34 in a few days and Kings has decided to get me an iPhone 4 for my birthday (original, isn’t he?)
But seriously, either iPhones or Blackberrys have been the Mummy Phones Of Choice among mums I happen to chat with… Their toddlers have either mastered a mean swipe or have scarily nimble thumbs for keypad navigation when they look at cellphone pics… I’m a loyal Nokia user who loves my E71 but I have been bemoaning the camera phone which keeps missing rockstar’s antics…
We tried an N82 – the pictures were superb but everything else about the phone fell apart (maybe because it’s an old phone we got off eBay)…
We hop over to Wan Chai and look for a PCCW store…
“There’s a 2-month waiting list”
Kings nearly tears his hair out
(Yes he’s very impatient, sometimes to my amusement, because he hails from Kampung Baru Rasah, Seremban. You don’t exactly do the Speedwalk there…)
“If you offered HKD 9,000 to any store in Mong Kok or Wan Chai I bet you could walk away with one in a minute,” the guy behind the counter helpfully offers with a grin. It seems to be a look of understanding, rather than one of disapproval or befuddlement (the more common response in other parts of the world?), at Kings’ discomfort.
“Oh, so what, we’re frying now?”
“You know me, I’m impatient.”
I’m disapproving. I get lotsa good stuff on the cheap because I am perfectly fine waiting. It drives me nuts to pay the same amount for erm, that much fewer goods and services just because I don’t want to go the waiting list route.
Kings drags me metaphorically kicking and screaming over to the Wan Chai computer Center, but not before throwing a final question over his shoulder to the Nice PCCW People:
“What’s the fry price?”
“HKD 4,000 – 8,000”
(depending on whether you’re looking at an 8GB, 16GB or 32GB phone)
Hello, Random Corgi We Pass In The Middle Of Wan Chai. I took 2 pictures of you, and in those seconds where I also scan your surroundings, I still didn’t see anyone who might be your owner. But you look perfectly happy sitting there untethered and unconcerned. So does everyone speedwalking around you.
Hello, Wan Chai Computer Center just around the corner.
Through a maize of little shops under the low ceiling we go, pausing to pick up a Wifi modem for a friend.
“HKD 450.”
“Are you kdding, it was HKD 380 yesterday.”
The guy appears to consult a list.
“Oh right, that should be HKD 380.”
We leave with the modem, navigating deeper into the maize.
“He made up the HKD 450.”
“Oh. So how did you know it should’ve been HKD 380?”
“I made that up too.”
We reach the store Kings has been buying all his and his friends’ laptops and things from.
“HKD 6,200” (for the 16GB phone)
Kings frowns.
“That’s how much I’m making from your sale. It’s not that much,” Kings’ guy opens a browser window and shows him the current online price.
“It’s not really a 2 month waiting list… More like 5-6 weeks?”he says helpfully. He’d rather Kings comes back for bigger tickets. I look at him more closely – he’s wearing a big “diamond” stud in his left ear and doesn’t look much older than his early 20s.
Kings still won’t leave.
So I drag him away. Metaphorically kicking and screaming, of course.
We get the PCCW waiting list one (HKD 3,000- something, Kings says, for 32GB with a 2-yr plan – I suspect he understated the price a little) some time in October…
“You’ll be having brunch at _____ on ______? We’ll send someone with the new phone contract for you to sign then.” Wow. PCCW couriers their phone contracts to you at brunch?
I’ll be spending the waiting time looking up iPhone skins…
