5 Laptops and 3 iPads

My blogging’s been a bit sparser than usual, one reason (there is another big reason but that has to keep for like another month more – the amount of big things going on in my life I can’t blog immediately about just keeps growing and driving me nuts when I think about it) is because Kings has taken my old gold Sony laptop. This is his way of giving me my early Christmas present.

Kings loves buying electronics. A trip to Wan Chai Computer Center for him is deadly. But maybe less deadly than for some of his friends, who have enlisted his help thus:

Kings to store owner in WCCC: How much is this (laptop accessory)?
Store owner: HKD —
Kings: That can’t be right, you better check your price list again cos I saw it last week at (other store) and it was HKD — (25% cheaper, I think he said)
Store owner: <seemingly consulting price list> Oh yeah that’s right. It says HKD (King’s price)

After they buy it and leave:

King’s friend: How did you know it was HKD —? (Because he doesn’t think Kings was in town to shop last week)

Kings: I didn’t, I was faking it.
King’s friend: What?? But the guy consulted a price list!

Kings: He was faking it too.

Apparently, my husband thinks this is an acceptable reason for a tech shopping habit. So friends, just as I love bringing all and sundry to Prada Warehouse (and the rest of the bunch), Kings loves bringing people tech shopping. He thinks it’s sport. He also thinks soccer is really dangerous and people die from playing it (true story).

We have (in inventory – and I am not counting what we’ve given away) 3 iPads and 5 laptops. (I would be disclosing this just so the hub lays off my shopping habit except he already doesn’t say anything anyway. I don’t have that many vices other than fashion magazines.) Why?

iPad #1: Kings decides to see what all the fuss is about.

Oh yeah and Rockstar used to type on it too - this is last year when he was in a Catalogue All My Mr Men phase (which sadly didn't last as long as I would've liked)

Laptop #1: Can’t remember how he brought it home, like a stray puppy. Was soon downloading my many pictures and videos into it. He gets annoyed it’s too slow. Hence

Laptop #2: The lightest souped-up gold Sony I’ve ever seen. He soon gets annoyed it’s too flimsy (Kings has very thick fingers that bang on keyboards btw – Me Man. Must Bang On Keyboard. <Neanderthal grunt><Swings club over screen>.)

Laptop #3: This is the cheap Asus I agreed to let him buy me because our home communal laptop was too heavy to lug about with Rockstar in tow. I’m usually in a cafe somewhere while Rockstar’s in school, waiting for him to get off. However when Kings wants to buy a 4th laptop that will be decidedly un-flimsy, I agree to adopt Gold Sony Laptop though I hate the darkish gold color and promptly order a Van Gogh Gelaskin online (What? They’re like, USD 25 – even my Kosmo barrister has decided he wants one) to cover most of it up.

Gold Sony sporting Van Gogh

Actually I could’ve lived with the Asus awhile longer (though it did start to pack it in after about a year – Rockstar also plays Cbeebies games on it regularly, always on touchpad – which in retrospect makes me think he must’ve had a harder time getting used to his school computers because he mentioned before they’re all using a mouse…)

Laptop #4: I shall borrow the phrase of a dear mummy friend who’s gone back to Washington D.C because I miss her much – The Deathstar Laptop. <reverent pause> Fine, that’s what my friend calls her husband’s laptop. Kings’ is the Pierce Brosnan Laptop. Because for some reason that is his favorite Bond. And its dark, suave and sleek. Unlike my favorite Bond, Daniel Craig. Humph. Or my mum’s, Sean Connery. She would like me to put that in. Mum doesn’t like DC either. What’s wrong with these people?

iPad #2: At some point Kings came home, like a conquering hero, bearing a basic model iPad for Rockstar. One Saturday over brunch he’d come home from biz trip, read that one of the international schools had bought umpteen iPads for student use, and gone right out and got one. He was not pleased when I stared at it in dismay, listened to Kings’ proud explanation of where he got the idea, and then asked, “What developmental level were the iPads for?”

(I love technology for kids – this is the world they will grow up in and btw there are apparently international schools known for making it compulsory for parents to purchase iMacs from a fairly young age – but I also think younger kids still need to use their fingers/ hands a bit more than only touch-and-swish and Rockstar’s been on touchpads and typing since pretty young. Hence the Lego and jigsaws. At another international school a mummy told me her son came home with a note from the teacher saying he needed to work on scissor skills and btw, I never have. Checked Rockstar’s scissor skills, I mean. Forgot, while debating him ever day over every little thing I, he, or the dog did or did not say.)

Note to other mummies out there: If your always-at-work husband feels bad about being away and comes home feeling proud that he’s picked up on schools using iPads and gotten your child one, Just. Go. With it. It could’ve been a giant tub of Ben n Jerry’s (true story) or Mc Donald’s super sized meal (true story) or a puppy (really hope this isn’t a true story).

iPad #3: Kings got that for me. Fresh from my earlier mistake with iPad #2, I was appreciative – and I put a lot of thought into what color I wanted for the cover.

Actually Kings wanted to get it because Gold Sony turned out to be really delicate, and after awhile some of the keys and the touch pad would pack it in and the screen had a large green smudge in the middle of it so you had to scroll text around when you read/ typed stuff. I think he felt bad cos in the first place I adopted Gold Sony so he could get Mr Brosnan. But the only thing that really annoyed me was the gold color and if it died while I was typing (which well, only happened a couple times.) This however would drive my husband bonkers. It’s like those studies on the Languages of Love right, how people express and identify love can be very different – my hub’s way of expressing his love is to fix all my tech stuff. I have to understand that, otherwise I would be What The Hell Is He Doing With My Tech Stuff Now.

Laptop #5: This baby so new, it doesn’t have a name yet. Unfortunately, it is also my first Apple Mac. The Kings has decreed I shalt not Gelaskin it. When I buy him Paul Smith and Hugo Boss and Hermes, I don’t even insist he wears it even once. Humph. So here it is, enough with the suspense, to the tune of that cultured classic, I Believe In Miracles:

Then Kings took Gold Sony. I know because, behind in blogging for Reasons That Shalt Be Blogged About In Due Time, I searched his desk trying to get it back so I could put off getting used to a Mac OS for a day. And possibly the next. And the next. Which he well knew I would. So no sign of my old laptop. Humphety humph. This is the way he gives me things ok.

Like, jewelry or a handbag every once in awhile would kill you?

And then he’s very happy spending the whole night messing about transferring all my stuff between laptops and iPads. When he has to go to work at 7 in the morning the next day til late. This is the way my hub says I love you. It’s a weird language that took some time to learn.

But love you too, darling.