dominican journal

Apologies for neglecting the blog in recent weeks but I’ve been rather busy at school getting exams ready. My own studies have also kept me hard at work and it seems to be paying off. I’m not one to boast about my academic achievements (namely due to the fact that I don’t have much to boast about) but somehow I managed to get marks in the high 90s on my last three assignments (99% on the last one!). So, have I become some kind of uber dorky mega nerd? Well, I should hope not but it’s certainly starting to look that way.

Moving on. My phone decided to go mental this weekend for no particular reason. Half the keys have re-mapped themselves so that what used to be a 2 is now an 8. The 8 is a 2. The 5 has become the delete key and the delete key only works when it realises that it’s not a 5. The 0 key doesn’t work at all, which is a shame given that the standard prefix for most numbers in this country has a zero in it. What’s more, the button to navigate backwards in menus has become the select key. This leaves me with a phone I can’t dial numbers on and if instead I choose a contact from the phonebook, I can’t get back to the home screen without turning the bloody thing off and back on again.

Most of you who know me well are probably thinking that I’ve gone and blown all my money on a brand spanking new iPhone to replace it. You’d be wrong. I actually went on a bargain hunt and bought a new Nokia for 645 pesos (€13). At this point, I would usually take great pleasure in listing all its features but as you might have guessed from the price, it doesn’t have any! Do you remember when mobiles had yellow backlit screens and no camera, or picture messages, or bluetooth, or internet? Well, that’s pretty much what I’ve got now. But I’m not moaning because it was a bargain and it vibrates, which ten years ago was an optional extra. In fact it’s so retro, it almost makes me feel old.