What Recession?

Today was the last day of the first Sg IT fair for 2009. I thought that since it was the last day, the rush of people would have already thinned out. Having already had their fill the days before. But I was stunned when I got to Suntec. Nagpanun ang mga tao. There were already closing some escalators to prevent people from going up to the fair. And the line to the escalators themselves were incredibly long. It seemed that the entire four million population of Singapore decided to meet at Suntec. In fairness, there were no or minor pushing and shoving. But it was slow and torturous going to the fourth floor.

Actually, I was there on a mission. To buy a laptop for my mom who requested it for her birthday. Initially, she said that she was going to buy one but I volunteered to buy it for her and offer it as my birthday gift.

At first I was set on an Acer. It's got pretty good specs for a decent price. But once I got reading the reviews on their products, I changed my mind. They said that Acer products have got shoddy quality and are likely to fall apart earlier than the other brands.

Then I settled on an Asus but they seemed too expensive for my budget. When I got there, the Toshiba booth was right in front of the door so Toshiba it was. I hadn't been reading the reviews on Toshiba laptops but I got a feeling they aren't too bad.

The one I bought was a little out of my set budget but what sold me on the white 13" laptop were the freebies. Three year warranty, RAM upgrade, antivirus software plus a free Canon printer and Toshiba videocam. Weeee! It feels like Christmas. :D

I initially wanted to keep the printer and videocam for myself but now I am debating on whether to take it all home with me and give it to my family. I don't need a printer that badly. I hardly print anything anyway. Plus the old dot-matrix printer we have back home really needs an upgrade.

The videocam is something I want to play with but my sister might ask for it once she knows I have one. Hmmm... lisud gyud ning ulirang anak and igsoon ta uy. :D Hehehe.

Almost everyone that went to the IT fair was carrying something they bought from there. And many were big ticket items as evidenced by the enormous boxes they were lugging around. Buti na lang the videocam we had to claim later or we might never have made it out of Suntec with the laptop and printer boxes we had to carry. Good thing the Canon printer came with its custom stroller.

I don't know what the train people were thinking but they had the gall to close the underpass link to the mrt station from Suntec. People were stuck underground wondering what the heck was going on. Aggravating the situation was the fact that it was pouring buckets out. No way were people going to risk getting their new toys wet. So they were all just standing around waiting for the passageway to be opened. Good luck with that. As soon as we saw stairs going up to the streets, we immediately hurried out.

No way was I going to stand and wait there and slowly go out of my mind with claustrophobia. We had umbrellas and jackets anyhow and can keep the boxes somewhat dry. We got lucky and scored a cab just a block from where we came out. Whew, we made it home alive.

And now I just can't wait to play with my presents.