Little pleasures

Okay... I think Fely made herself quite clear when she said to me in one of our 'SMS conversations' -- go and update your blog so that I have something to read.

So here I am, sitting here, typing this, as usual, having nothing in particular to share but various bits and pieces.

Last year Christmas, I received £60 worth of John Lewis voucher and I was beside myself with excitement because John Lewis sells theeeee BEST and the MOST LUXURIOUS kind of yarn from the Debbie Bliss and Rowan range and they are quite pricey. As keen as I am in knitting and doing crochet, I don't really feel right forking out my 'hard-earned' money just to have expensive and luxurious looking yarn when I can get cheaper yarn elsewhere. But if it was a gift voucher, it's a completely separate issue altogether, because anyhow, I will have to spend that amount of money, so might as well spend it on something that will give me immense pleasure for quite some time!!!

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), the closest John Lewis store is in Southampton, which is about an hour's drive away from here (1 hour for me; 40 minutes for Steve). So last month, I managed to cajole the semi-reluctant Steve to make a visit to the West Quay Shopping Centre to splash out on some luxurious and colourful yarn. 

Despite the fact that I had £60 to spend, I was still EXTREMELY reluctant to buy full price yarn and being a typical Malaysian (always looking for bargain), I soon found myself digging through the 'reduced to clear' basket full of 'discontinued' or 'slightly damaged' (when it is labelled slightly damaged, it usually means that it's come loose and therefore deemed unsellable) balls of yarn, and instructing Steve to start digging as well, trying to find as many balls of yarn from the same range and same type as possible. After what-must-have-seemed-to-Steve-like-yearssssss (I think it was about 10 minutes) of digging, deliberation, more digging, and more deliberation, I finally ended up with around 9 different colours of extremely soft yarn balls made from Bamboo.

I've been thinking for a while now what grand project I was going to turn those yarn balls into and the more I thought about it the more clueless I got mainly because the yarns were so mismatching in colours and no way was I going to be able to harmonise the colours !! And also, there is only a limited amount of yarn to each colour, which makes it even more challenging. Then I started to regret not thinking about the colours carefully and merely picking them up because they were cheap !! (serves me right) As you can see from the photo, the colours absolutely don't go with one another, do they?! So I thought, alas, have I spent my precious John Lewis voucher on something that will end up being useless?

So anyway, I thought, I have got to start somewhere, so I started just browsing through websites to get ideas and browsing through the collection of lovely crochet books that I have slowly and surely building up (will telll you about that in another post, a bit of a delight I must say)... and I started making something. Not entirely sure yet what it's going to be, so it will be a surprise project but I will show you what it looks like now. Surprisingly, the colours go really well together, don't you think?

Anyway, I have rambled on and on about some silly yarn (some of you might think) so I'm going to love you and leave you.

Any ideas what I can turn this into?

Hopeless me.

One of the things on my 'To-do list' last week was to ring up my mobile service provider, Orange, to terminate my mobile phone contract which ends effectively next month 2nd March. Since I love my current Blackberry and there is no need for an upgrade, my sensible self tells me that instead of paying up to £30 a  month for the line rental, all I have to do is to get a pay-as-you-go sim from O2 which will allow me to have unlimited text and unlimited internet as long as I top up £15 every month. Simple?

Here's how it went...

Orange 1 : Hello, you are through to Orange Customer Service, how may I help?

Me: Erm, I would like to terminate my contract which ends next month please.

direct and straight to the point. so far so good

Orange 1: Okay. Could I have your telephone number please?

Hmmm, this is easier than I thought....

Me: Sure, it's 07XXXXXXXXX.

Orange 1 : Thank you. Let me transfer you to my colleague who will be able to help you.

Oh oh, and I thought it was going to be straight-forward... perhaps not

Orange 2 : Hello Peng Peng, my name is Beverly. I hear that you are planning to leave Orange. Would it be possible to find out from you why that is?

Must stay tough..... must stay strong...... must stay focussed

Me : Well, I have decided that I can save more money by using an O2 pay-as-you-go sim and top up £15 every month because I don't make a lot of calls or send many texts so I don't really need to be on an expensive pay-monthly contract.

extremely proud of self by now

Orange 2 : I see. Now Peng Peng, How about if I tell you we can do the same deal for you for £15 and on top of that you'll get 200 free minutes as well but it will be a contract-based sim.

Puffff I am not falling for that

Me : Nah, your offer sounds really good but I think for the time being I will stick to my pay-you-go plan because I don't really want to be tied down with another long contract.

Proud of me, aren't you?

Orange 2 : I see. Erm Peng Peng, I can see from your record that you are due for an upgrade of your mobile. Is there any particular phone that you might be interested in upgrading and we can see if we can do you a good deal?

Oh oh......... this could be my down fall....

Me : Well, ermm... welll... I am rather interested in the new BlackBerry 9700 that's just come out. But... but.. to be fair, I am quite happy with my existing BlackBerry to be honest (voice trailing to a whisper...)

Damn it! Stay strong, woman!!

Orange 2 : Right. Now, how about if I tell you that we can get that phone for you for free, and you only have to pay £19.99 per month and you get 200 free minutes, 200 free texts and unlimited web data, which would suit your usage just fine? If you were prepared to pay £15 a month anyway, this is just an additional £4.99 and you'll get a new phone for free.

Hmmm.... I must admit she's making a very, very good point....

Me : Ermm.....welll....Oh okay I'll take it.

Whatttttt am I doing??!!!!!!!! Noooooooo !!!!!!!

Orange 2 : Sorry? Did you say you'll take it? Oh that's great. Let me take down some details.

Me : Oh yes, oh yes...haha (nervous laugh).. can't believe I'm getting a new phone.

hands shaking with excitement by now and voice cracking with giddiness..

..........

The rest of the conversation was just her taking down my details and informing me of my delivery date.

How useless am I?? But I honestly think that was truly caused by her excellent marketing techniques!! And also, to be fair, the actual conversation was longer than that and she had spent a lot more time than I described to persuade me. I only made it shorter so that I don't bore you to death with the actual conversation of me going, ermmm.... ahhhh.... ermmmmm... wellll.....and plus I wasn't entirely sure if the £15 pay-as-you-go sim would provide me with BlackBerry Internet Service so it didn't take her long to persuade me to stay.

But, c'mon, £19.99 for a month and a free BlackBerry 9700 ... Who can resist that??!!

 

As we speak, I have just received a text informing me that my parcel with me new phone will be arriving this evening at 5pm!!! How exciting is that??!! 

Honestly, gadgets and technology would be my greatest downfall. I belong to Geek Land.

What is to be your greatest downfall?