Ending June

It's been an awful month for me and personally I'm ecstatic knowing that June 2006 will be over in 3 days and will never ever be repeated ever again.

I had a most harrowing weekend. I had the brilliant idea of buying another sim card, a brand known primarily for its wonderfully low-cost mobile phone call offers. My present phone, his name is Markus, is locked to a different network. No worries, we've got Greenhills, the land of plenty (of piracy and of random dirt-cheap useful accessories). One can easily get a phone unlocked at a very reasonable price. Now I've had many unfortunate, patience-trying, temper-inducing experiences specific to phone purchasing at Greenhills. But did that stop me from going back? No, but let me explain. To be fair to myself, I did consider it seriously. I really thought about it. And I concluded that it's happened to me several times enough to deduce that it would be a statistic improbability for yet another unfortunate, patience-trying, temper-inducing experience specific to phone purchasing. But I felt cursed so I didn't go to Greenhills. At least, not straight away.

So a friend and I went to Park Square to have my phone unlocked last Saturday. Beautiful sunny afternoon. We found a repair center straight away and I was told it would set me back 500 pesos. Hm a bit more than expected but I don't own a Nokia phone which apparently is the cheapest to unlock. Anyway I said okay fine do it. So he set out to do so. Twenty minutes and a jamaican patty purchase later, the "technician" informed me that he encountered problems and could not unlock it. Hm. Trifle annoying but okay that's fine. I checked my phone, okay everything seems to be in order. Fine. We'll take it to another place.

Off we went to a phone tiangge in Glorietta. And that was an ordeal. Nearly an hour went by and still the phone wasn't unlocked. The "technician" and I use the term very very loosely started preoccupying himself with a different phone. There was something I found particularly off-putting about him, from the way he moved to the way he spoke. I asked him how long it was going to take. I noted that he seemed surprised with my presence and asked me stupidly if I had anything important stored in my phone. I said of course I do, why what did you do? Well the fat fuck didn't care to let me know that he too encountered problems trying to unlock my phone. He did, however, succeed in deleting all my phone files. He restored my phone's factory settings without consulting me. I started getting upset but I refrained from shouting at him. I made myself listen to him explain what he was going to do, he said the phone files would be gone forever but he would be able to unlock it. I figured well fuck we've been here for 45 minutes already and there's nothing I can do about my phone now, so okay just make it quick. I said that last bit rather rudely and I'd like to justify it by pointing out that the fat fuck just deleted all my contacts, some are numbers which are my only way of reaching a lot of people. So fuck yeah I was pissed off. Plus he was a fat fuck. I didn't care if he didn't mean to be a fat fuck. No one means to be, right? And for the ones who do mean to be fat fucks, well that's their choice and you've got to respect that, yeah?

I know now that I could have handled this situation differently. Actually the whole thing could have been less painful if I had just backed all my files up. But I didn't and I was in that situation. What I should have done was I should have remained calm but maintained a dialogue. I should have been firm and made sure he understood the gravity of what he had just done. No, instead I plunked myself resignedly in one of the chairs in the shop, crossed my arms occasionally muttering obscenities not quite under my breath. My friend insisted I should say something...I knew what I wanted to say but I was afraid I would blow up. I'm used to being non-confrontational and I don't like losing my temper. But I should have said something. I know this now.

Well in the end my friend spoke to the guys while I sat stewing in my anger. She came back with bad news: he couldn't unlock the phone either. That did it. I bolted upright, shot out of my chair screaming Whaaaat?!, walked up to Fat Fuck, stuck out my hand and said to him, Give it to me, GIVE ME my fucking phone! He held it up, I grabbed it roughly and shoved my way out of the shop with my friend trailing after me.

I hang my head in shame. I behaved poorly.

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On Sunday I went to Greenhills and bought a cheap ass second hand phone. Everything was dandy. Till the battery died. The phone wouldn't switch on even after hours of being plugged to the socket. I had two thoughts: no, not again and the Greenhills Curse will always be upon me. I wanted to sleep for a week. I got all melodramatic thinking that I will never change, I will always be irresponsible, I will never learn to look after myself properly, I will always be doing damage control and never really progress to something better, I will never be a proper grown up, why do I even bother what does it all mean anyway we're all going to die soon etc etc etc.

Fade to black.

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This morning I went to the mall. I lucked out. The phone was fine but there was something wrong with the fake housing I bought. I bought a new one and a proper battery. And that was that.

But yeah I have about 3 people in my directory at the moment. So for those of you who used to be in my phone book, please please please text me or email me your contact details.

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Everything's forgotten now. I'm back to being Just Peachy. I just need to remember to perform better in future sticky situations. So for all you fat fucks out there, BRING IT ON.