Networked

We didn’t have to return to the Orange store, our lovely cell service provider, for just a fourth visit as planned, but returned for a sixth (Kevin) or seventh (Ashley) time. Orange found ways to mess with each of us at least one more time. Having a vast void of time without phones to research the best phone plan, we, while waiting for our bank statements, decided to return to Orange with a goal of purchasing pay-as-you-go phones. All sources indicated this as the cheapest route instead of one year plans. We decided to check it out, but as I was, as usual, unprepared, only Kevin waited in the unruly queue to get his silver blackberry and pay-as-you-go plan. Apparently if you chose pay-as-you-go there is no longer a need to be seen as trustworthy or to produce proof of residence. That would have been good to know a month earlier. Feeling finally connected to the world, Kevin returned home only to find that although the phone on the box was silver, and he had specifically asked for a silver phone, he discovered within the blackberry packaging a new, shiny, purple device. Deciding that using it to call the store and complain could tie him to the hated purple phone for good, he instead trekked back down the hill to fix the matter with the exact salesman who had sold him the phone. Alas, the salesman explained that there was nothing to be done once the phone is activated, and so Kevin now dons the prettiest purple phone you’ve ever seen.

Deciding to unlock the silver blackberry I brought from home, I was informed at the unlocking service that although most phones only cost a couple pounds to unlock, blackberries cost twenty-five pounds, because you know, they’re special. Returning later to retrieve my unlocked phone, I am then informed that unlike any other phone he has ever seen before, the man behind the counter could not unlock my phone because for whatever unknown reason the sim card is permanently built in. Finally I too make my way back to the Orange store and I too buy a new, purple pay-as-you-go phone along with a plan that I never needed the financial statements or proof of address that we had painstakingly acquired. At least my phone is purple on purpose.