Hurray for Harry

I have not yet heard from the repair shop for my Dell laptop. I'm not too worried. They've come through before, and I'm sure they'll come through again. They've done miraculous things with the machine - the machine that I took to Australia (and back) to fix - the machine that other, Australian, repairpeople told me to abandon. (For one simple reason: in the West, it is often a lot cheaper to buy a new computer than repair an old one. But it's not so true here, when hardware is expensive, but labour not so much.)

Unfortunately, it's a busy time at the repair shop. A lot of people are trying to get their machines fixed up, including a corporate client or two. Everyone wants their computers back before Tết (the Vietnamese New Year). Because during Tết, the shop with be closed, CLOSED, CLOSED, and the staff will be off to visit their relatives. If the customers don't get their laptops back now, they'll have to wait for a week until the shop opens again.

I reckon my machine is fairly low on the repairpeoples' list of priorities, and it looks like there will be a bit of a wait before I get it back. Damm... lots of free time made for blogging, but no hardware to do it with. Blast.

So, I'm using this site to give my hearty thanks to Harry - a great guy, but sadly now an ex-workmate. Harry (who is also in the business of English Teaching) has been working on and off in Việt Nam since the mid 90's. He's had enough of the country, and of the school I work for. He's off to Macao with his family. Since he's discovered the joys of Powerbooks, he wants to unload his computer. So I bought it off him, and for a very, very good price too, and just when I needed it most. Now I'm using it to type these very words. Thank you again, Harry - and best of luck in the future.