Laptop hunting

(2026 Edit - This is one of the earliest posts found in the archive of this blog. It was dated 13 November 2007 and published just before noon. At the time I was working for and American company as part of their multifunctional night team, working from 8pm to 8am.)

It's day four of what would be my four away from that place they call work, or rather it would be if I didn't have the next shift off, therefore it's day four of twelve. I shook the sleep from my eyes early this morn and headed on a walk into town. My first thought was to check out the shops in Churchill Square, however as I arrived at the monstrous glass and stone monument to retail delights before 9am, I carried on and headed up towards the Seven Dials area of town. I hardly ever explore this end of town, indeed the only time I've ever spent time up this neck of the woods is when I was shagging a part time DJ with a passion for weed and taking it up back passage when the girlfriend was away!

As memories of those sexual adventures faded I carried on along The Old Shoreham Road until I found myself outside PC World, which is a pretty long way, in fact according to Google maps, it's 4.9 miles! I snuck inside and marvelled at the expensive laptops on offer and wondered, A) if I could afford one. B) If any staff were actually there to help or just chat amongst themselves. After a full 20 minutes of browsing the technical wizardry and no sign of any employee venturing anywhere near me to offer assistance, I departed and trolled up the road to Curry's! 

It occurred to me that service these days seems to be a lost art to most shops. PC World, could and would have had a sale, if only their staff had come to aid me in my laptop deliberations. Yet, as the two closest members of uniformed staff discussed their last nights activities the chances of me splashing out £800 on a new laptop diminished by the second. Yet, at Abercrombie, the staff were there, ready willing and able to assist and offered such on a very regular basis. Even Curry's, never known for good service, offered assistance as I checked out the merchandise, I was tempted, very tempted!

Whilst I was riding the bus homeward, well come on, even I am not silly enough to be walking over 9 miles before lunch, I had a textual conversation with young Jakey and made plans for him to come round this evening. Jake was suffering a dull lecture up at the university on something or other to do with his business studies course. He was also suffering the effects of too much cheap wine the night before, not that he'd been anywhere, it's just last night was one of the few times all the inhabitants of his shared student house were all in, present and correct at the same time. He can't recall the last time that has happened, so they all clubbed together and got 5 of the big bottles of Lambrini! Oh the reckless abandonment of the youth of the day I thought as I read the last text, anyway, Jake was seeking more adult company, or rather, he needs some washing to be done, so plans are afoot for him to make an appearance at Shaw Towers at around 8pm.

My mood buoyed by the promise of spending leisure time with Jake, I started smiling at the old lady sitting across from me on the number one bus, an act that obviously surprised her, as she promptly got up and moved three rows of seats forward! Is my smile that scary? Or is it simply that we've got so used to our insular in our own worlds and have a negative distrust of strangers that for someone to show us a happy greeting is so alien that we recoil away from it?

Now, as I sit at my PC, I wonder why I even bothered to venture into that strange and cold world on the side of what they call out? For I have thousands of electronic retailers at my fingertips all offering better deals that I could have gotten at PC World, had the shop assistants deemed it within the scope of their job function to actually assist!