I am not a noted clumsy cow. I can generally make my way from A to B without falling over my own feet and without too many detours, unless there is an ice cream shop diversion involved. My fine motor skills are not too bad either, and whilst I wouldn't say that I can throw on earrings like I am playing darts, I can pop in a pair in a matter of seconds without the use of a mirror. Yeh I know that's not a lot to write home about, given that I have been feeling my way around said holes for nearly 40 years, but forgive me for feeling just a little proud given that it took me more than a year to take out the first installed sleepers cos the very idea made me feel more than a little nauseous. How I ever had a baby is anybody's guess.
So last Friday when I was grabbing my phone off the charger and when it flew out of my hands onto the very very concrete kitchen floor, well let's say I was a bit surprised and pissed off at myself. I hadn't quite managed to close the hard case protector - yeh fuck it!
I gathered it and had a look and even though I am no techie, I didn't think it looked too well. All down one side it was a bit cloudy and this cloud turned into a torrential storm system while I watched and pretty soon the whole fucking screen was pitch. The phone still worked and if I could just remember where all the swipe sensors were I could perhaps still use it, except that unlike in the old days when every important phone number was stored in MY HEAD, I have become reliant on the phone to remember all that shit for me. I do wonder when I became so bloody lazy. So as the screen was black and as I am to addicted to the tech to remember anything for myself, I had to see about fixing it.
I took it off to the mobile phone fix it pop up place at the local shopping centre and figured that some 11 year old there would be able to sort it out. There's a YouTube vid which shows a child fixing up a similar problem with electrical tape and a fine tipped soldering iron so I figured it must be possible.
But NO! The old girl was rooted. Well not terminally so, cos for 200 dollars the baby was gonna wave something akin to fairy dust over it and it might be better or it might not be. She encouraged me to buy a new phone instead.
But I hadn't done any research on that and I really liked my old one. It made sense to me. I had learned to navigate around the tiles and the photos were pretty good, not my photographer Carol good but ok for me. I went from phone shop to phone shop and spoke to so many children that I thought I might have been reincarnated as a prep school teacher, but to no avail. The agreement was that it was fucked. I planned a brief little funeral for her in my head and a sad tear slid down my face.
The choice of smart phones is just ridiculous! Except that I didn't want an I phone anything and the androids are ok and the Samsung looks pretty smick but what a price!
The truth is I am used to my Nokia Windows phone. I like it. It makes sense to me. I can work it.
But Nokia was bought out by Microsoft and I wondered whether the new ones were as good as my Nokia.
Steve got stuck in and did some research.
We narrowed it down to a Nokia 820 - my old one and a Nokia 830.
The 820 was a renovated one and I wondered just how much of other people's porn and family drama might be left behind so the 830 was a winner.
Now just for the best price. Online prices came in at about $320, but I hadn't actually held one and as the old one had done a swan dive outta my hands, I figured how it felt was important. Google told me that good old Harvey's nearby had 'em in stock and we decided that even if they were a bit more expensive then it might be better to get it from the as if there is any problem I wouldn't have to brush up on my mandarin to get it sorted.
Harvey's price was $350. The guy there, Guy, was very patient with this old bird who wanted comparative tables and a good old fashioned feel up of the handset. I liked it. But then it transpired that the only one they had was the demo model I had been playing with. Guy said he would be able to make it look like new and he'd remove all the shit on it and restore factory settings. We agreed a price of $280. What a bargain!
Yippee. Guy took it in hand and called me when it was ready. Then he phaffed around with the sim card and got it all up and running. What a guy Guy was, is.
So now I need to get the newbie all sorted out so that she can become my new best friend.
What I reckon is that there is an age cut off mark beyond which the excitement over new techie stuff dies a death. It's like a couple of old fellas that I know who kept hanging onto their Blackberries cos they were used to 'em. Finally when they died - the phones not the fellas, and new tech was needed there was not much thrill, only a lesson to be learned.
Do you love new techie bits and bobs?
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