Tempest7: Blogger

Shopping with Karebear

I was out with Karen today hanging out in my new area; Mong Kok. I had some time before my new writing class tonight, but they didn't provide me the material before hand so I went over to SME to ask for it. Karen dropped by and I introduced her to the group, they were a little tongue tied. I guess Karen has that affect on people.

We hit the streets for some shoe shopping. The funny thing is, Karen wanted to shop for shoes and I'm the one who ended up buying. I think this is some sort of rule, the person who is accompanying the one shopping does the most buying. I picked up a pair of dark blue converse shoes for $179 HKD. Not a bad price, just shy of $30 CAD. I felt a difference right away buying from "shoe street" instead of buying from the "factory outlet" near APM. People tell me that the factory outlet sells real shoes but the soles fell apart pretty quickly with my walking. The new soles feel a bit more firm. We dropped by Lady's street and I ended up buying a bag ($80 HKD) for carrying my laptop to work. I was pretty interested in a pair of white/brown/orange adidas shoes but I should hold back. Besides, this was suppose to be Karen's day out shopping.

But actually I decided to be a bit selfish and I dragged her out to look at cell phones. I've been consumed recently thinking about buying a new cell phone. Specifically I want to buy a phone from Japan. Here's the deal, I've fallen in love with the new Sharp mobile phones. The Sharp 903 SH and the Sharp 703 SH really caught my eye. There's something artistic about the Sharp mobile phone. The QVGA screens in Japan are beautiful, I totally understand why Motorola and Nokia just aren't doing well in Japan, the screen quality just doesn't compare. Karen doesn't like the phone, I guess it is pretty obvious we have very different tastes. She calls it a "hunk of plastic". The lower end model, the 703 SH, is known as the Sharpy SX313 in HK. It goes for close to $3900 HKD. If we talk about buying the parallel import version (or "Shui Fau") the range is from $1800 HKD to $2200 HKD. Back to buying it in Japan, the total cost is a stunning $700 HKD. Cost to unlock/convert the phone in Hong Kong is $200 HKD. The risk and hassel is there, but for the price of one phone, I can pick up two.

Well, before it got out of hand Karen too the lead. We headed to Mexx at Festival Walk, stopping in the MTR for a quick bite of Beard Papa.

After shopping I rushed home to meet the plumber. My new toilet likes to flush; too much. He changed out the inside just so it would stop flushing after I flush it once.

I ended the day teaching my writing class. I had dinner with Connie and Raymond after, suffering as they kept playing with the fact that I appeared in the October issue of "ishop", the PCCW free magazine. I brough up my plans for buying a new cell phone as well, hopefully Raymond can help me out.

Welcome to Hong Kong Jesse! Jesse just got a hold of me today, waiting to hear about his schedules.

posted by Tempest7 @ 11:00