We're Technically Sound

"What color do you prefer?" Wifey asked.

"Black is always the best color..." Sonny replied over the phone, "I want black, please."

That conversation was a week ago, while we were at Courts Megastore in Tampines Retail Park after viewing and "test driving" the Sony PSP alone with no accessories for S$280.00.

We were out for dinner at its Box Bistro... my favourite place for good food and reasonable price with a very nice ambiance and service I might add, to hunt for our son's gift as a reward for his good efforts in his studies and first term results.

Courts' Box Bistro Set Lunch at S$4.80

We also went to Tampines Mall and Century Square Mall continuing our hunt for the best bundled offer, but none was good enough then. The PSP and its accessories added already cost just a little over S$400.00.

Both Wifey and I rewarded him with a S$100.00 gift each as a challenge for him to get within the top 3 spot in class. He got first, so imagine how happy we were to get the news. He was shocked himself too when the teacher announced it to the class.

Quietly, he has been saving his daily allowance money all these months to buy a PSP for himself. It would have taken him about a year to accumulate that much money to buy one, so he was able to realize owning a PSP sooner than he expected with the additional gift money when he did his responsibility as a student.

Well today, he finally owns one.

We found a good enough bargain at Sim Lim Square, a haunt for computers and electronics mall. At S$348.00 net, the PSP was bundled with original Sony headphones, battery and pouch, USB charger and USB cable, a screen protector and an air-foam case.

Wifey did not leave the tech-mall empty-handed either.

She got herself a 4GB iPod... ehem clone, for S$65.00 that came with a rubber-skin case protector and a USB charger.

Interestingly enough, it just does not plays music alone... her primary desire while doing house chores and exercising, but also comes with movie videos, a radio tuner and voice recorder, photo viewer and eBook, and games capabilities.

There is also a surprisingly loud and clear speaker phone to play the radio or MP3 songs out loud. Not shabby at all.

She is happy with it, listening to the radio the first chance when we got into the train on our way home.

I will have to download all her favourite songs from my iTunes for her tomorrow.

Since I have realized my dream a little sooner with my recent purchase of an Apple 8G iPhone, the only thing I wanted was an extra USB to iPod cable to connect my office PC with it.

Fortunately I found one for S$9.90 instead of buying the original cable from an Apple authorized dealer on the 3rd floor that would have set me back S$39.90.

Now I do not have to carry an extra cable other than the earphones with my iPhone between work and home anymore.

So everyone of us was a happy camper as we left Sim Lim Square for dinner at Banquet in Raffles Hospital, a ten minutes walk from the tech-mall.

Everyone was focused on his and her palms, ears plugged with music thumping and fingers doodling on the new toys. Conversation was reduced to hand gestures and occasional "what did you say?" on our train ride home as we reached Tampines MRT Station.

Techno-gadgets kill the conversation?! We are "listening" more than we talk... but not to each other as much. Hopefully true only on journeys on the bus and trains, but not at home...


Wait!

We just received a free Samsung 26 Inch LCD TV two days ago after signing on for another 2-year Broadband Premium Plan with Starhub. The TV is in our bedroom and does not fit in our built-in wardrobe the way our 20 Inch CRT TV is now.

Guess we need a floor stand for this as wall-mountable is not an option. Who will take in the chunky CRT? I will have to contact my siblings if any of them want it.

Talk about conversations...