Better to have ....

So Monday was the trip to the Apple Store.

Packing my iBook with the care afforded to a new born baby (like locking the gate after the horse has bolted) I headed in with my 'eigo ga dakimasu ka?'* all ready. Because this wasn't something I was doing as a game of charades!

Walking into the Apple Store, I could have been in any country in the world. The same sterile whiteness, the same pretty things, the same store attendants from California.

So I waited my turn patiently until my name was called and then slowly unwrapped my once beautiful iBook. I could see him physically recoil at the damage and could see the judgement in his eyes.

After a few minutes doing his 'Apple' thing, he told me the good news - All my data was still there.

The bad news? It'd cost $900 to replace the screen.

I'd made a deal with myself, if was to cost more than $600 to fix, I'd buy a new one. So I asked how much it would cost for a　replacement.

About $1100 he said. And then looked straight at me. If I were you though, I'd wait a couple of days. No reason, and definitely none that you heard from me. But I'd just wait a couple of days.

And right on cue... Apple announce brand new Mac Books today!!! So despite the niggling guilt, and the distant wailing of an already forgotten iBook saying "I thought you loved me", I am looking at buying a new one.

A wise woman has advised me to buy a Dell, or Compaq or equally 'less pretty' unit, in the hopes that if I love it a little less, it's life span will be a little longer than my last two. But to that all I can say is ....

"Tis better to have loved and lost, than have never loved at all"


* Do you speak english?