Curse of the Black Nokia

The loathsome techie curse is over! Seems like I'm not the most jinxed guy on the planet after all when it comes to electronic gadgets. There was a time years back when I had a supernatural succession of demonically possessed cellphones that inevitably committed harakiri after three months of usage. Nothing as drastic as an exploding laptop though - mostly death by drowning.

Fortunately it seems like that particular curse has mysteriously transferred itself to Big Bicep Barry via magical osmosis. Two years back, Barry almost bankrupted himself in a desperate bid to get the camera of his dreams ( and the matching underwater casing ) just to snap pictures of little fishies.

Unfortunately during one of his intrepid expeditions into the deep, the ill-fated ensorcelled camera sans underwater casing decided to drown itself in the colourful reefs of the South China Sea. By the time he managed to retrieve the drowning camera and attempt immediate resuscitation, it was already on its last legs.


Fuckin hell... what's gonna happen to the next camera? Go into the washing machine?
Undaunted, Barry sold his remaining kidney - and probably his firstborn - to barter for a new camera at those good folks at Olympus. That last time he had to spin some heartwrenching tales worthy of Oprah while shedding some manly tears to coerce them into driving down the price of the camera.

Unfortunately despite taking lengthy notes on dispelling curses from the local witchdoctors, the centuries-old curse still held strong. Which led to this...

Barry : Think I need a new camera.
Paul : Good God. Not again! What happened now? Drowning again?
Barry : Hey the old Olympus ver 1.0 committed suicide in April, this one is the new one which was shanghaied.
Paul : Abducted by revolutionary Nepalese? Did they send a ransom note in Parbatiya?
Barry : Not sure, maybe by indigent Vietnamese refugees.
Paul : It's a curse, I tell ya! Step away from the cameras!

The alfalfa-sprout-munching, super-zen dude was seriously bummed. Since the fatal abduction though, Barry has been scouring the ends of the earth for a similar camera - since the underwater casing already cost a bomb! - before finding it from two excellent sources, the mysterious corporation of Ebay and those familiar folks at Olympus. Peculiarly, the seller on Ebay shied away from Barry's multiple quotations which led us to think that he might have been the mysterious kidnapper of the Olympus ver 2.0.

Not sure if he'd be able to repeat the ordeal but obviously I underestimated Barry's charming manly charms since he managed to swindle the camera service centre into offering their last camera for ( what he assures me is ) a steal! Right now he's thinking of setting up a Help Barry Fund to drum up enough cash for the camera purchase price :)