I was at the Manila City Hall at that time waiting for my name to be called by the tax collector. I was about to pay the annual amortization of our house when a thought suddenly came to me. Since my aunt was in the United States to celebrate the holidays with our relatives, I sought her approval to buy me a new mp3 player, which I would pay when she returns to the country. It came to me that a friend said that it's far cheaper to acquire a gadget in that part of the world than buying it here in Manila.
Behind my harmless inquiry, I am also trying my luck. My aunts are pretty well-off in the US and there is a small chance that my discreet hints might be pick up as a personal solicitation to buy me a new iPod as their pasalubong/Christmas gift to me.
Since my aunt's phone can receive locally sent messages, I sent her a text message. I had a gut feeling that she's with my relatives spending some nostalgic moments in a hearth or something close to such place. My idea was to ask her how much is a 4GB iPod, which she would relay to those around her. My suspicions were correct, for within several minutes she replied to my message.
"Walang 4GB na iPod dito. 8GB meron," she said.
"Magkano po ang 8GB, ang sabi kasi ng friend ko half the price lang po ang iPod diyan compared dito," I replied.
After a few minutes she texted back. My aunt told me the price, which was quite far from what I had expected. In spite of it being too pricey for my budget, I still have enough moolah to ask her to buy me an iPod. After all, I can still pay it in installments for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, I remembered that I still owe Banco De Oro 20 thousand pesos for my good-for-nothing, crash-loving desktop computer. As swift as my daring decision to inquire about getting a new mp3 player, I took my proposals back telling them that I still have to pay for my new computer as an excuse.
She never replied. It felt like they were having deliberations about my inquiryl behind my back.
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A week later. My aunt returned from her holiday vacation.
Her plane touched down at the runway very early in the morning. Since all of us at home were nocturnal creatures, we weren't able to pick her at the airport. Instead, I woke up that afternoon with a single text message from her.
"Meron kang iPod from your titas," the message said
It came as a pleasant surprise, but I knew that it was coming anyway.
It turned out, my aunt was urged by my stateside relatives to buy an mp3 player to catch up with the technology. Since they got it on sale, they decided to buy one for me as well. When I received the package that same evening, my younger sister complained as to why I received so many pasalubongs when she only got only a bag and a cheap-looking perfume.
"Nagbigay kasi ako ng Christmas Gifts sa mga pinsan natin bago umalis si Ninang. Na-touch siguro sila kaya binigyan ren nila ako ng gift." I told her.
But in reality, I got my new gadget because of my nerve to inquire about it, only to back out in the end. What I think is that they felt sorry that I dreamed of something only to realize that I could not afford it.
After all, I work and go to school for my graduate studies at the same time. Ok na excuse na yun para bigyan nila ako ng isang "token" for having a "well-spent life" from them.
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It took a month before I could finally download the necessary software for my iPod to work. It was a rather a frustrating task knowing that it would take a day to download the newest version of iTunes player using my dial-up connection at home. My computer didn't cooperate either. It kept on crashing whenever I use the dvd player to access files from a portable storage device during my earlier attempts to access the software from a dvd disk.
With luck, I was to do everything without any hardware malfunctions last night.
The new portable music player could now spare me from the time-consuming mp3 transfers from the computer to my 1GB Zen Nano every month. The iPod will also serve as my external storage device for my hard-to-find mp3s, which are constantly threatened to be erased with my mother computer's infamous unreliability.
Initially, I thought that my new gadget was simply an old model; a reject from the ever-demanding technophiles of the First World countries. But lo and behold! I took some time to research about my portable player in Wikipedia this afternoon. It turned out, I have the latest iPod model.
Suddenly, I found myself at par with the latest audio technology, and what's so good about it is that I was able to acquire it for free.
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