June 15, 2007
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Double
TroubleLife
is full of strange little coincidences sometimes. When things go
wrong, they will not go wrong individually, but will instead come at
you in 2′s or 3′s…or more if you’re REALLY unlucky. Recently a
couple of technical problems arose, with the laptop experiencing
issues first, and then the Suzuki.As
I finished writing my novel on the laptop, it holds a lot of
emotional value for me, and as it was also not exactly a cheap
laptop, I am also somewhat loathe to get rid of it and buy a new one.
The NEC would constantly shut down and restart, which would annoy
the crap out of me, especially if I lost work I was doing. It would
just make a weird sound, which was usually followed by the sound of
me saying “Oh bollocks”, and then reboot. Sometimes it
would happen 10 times a day – and if I lost important things I was
working on, you can understand why I was annoyed.After
pretty much completely breaking down and refusing to restart during
my recent trip to Europe, I decided to take it in to NEC in Taipei
for repair. I called up for their address, and they told me to take
it over, which I did. In England, or pretty much anywhere else for
that matter, if you take your laptop in to the manufacturer for
repair, they will need it for weeks on end, and will charge you a
fortune (probably more than it would cost to buy a new one) for your
trouble.In
Taiwan, they repaired it on the spot, and charged me only for the new
hard drive they installed. Off I went back home, and played with it
some more, installing all the software that had been erased by the
installation of the new drive.Alas
the next day the same problem reoccurred and so I had to go back to
NEC to sort it out. Thankfully the guy who repaired it before was
still around (he was the big boss of the technical department!) and
so he saw what the issue was very quickly, but needed a day or so to
repair it. He was also very interested in what I was doing in Taiwan,
and asked me what my job is. I told him that I am a co-founder of a
company that manufactures Digital Signage devices, and he asked what
that is, so I told him too.He
also saw some opportunities for one of his friends in this field, and
so told me to send some information on our range of products, and
also said he would try to arrange a meeting for me with this friend
next time when I come to pick up the repaired laptop.The
following morning, as I was riding the Suzuki to a client I missed 3
calls from him, but when I got out of my meeting, I called up and was
told that the laptop was ready. It would cost me 6000 Taiwan $ but
was still a lot cheaper than buying a new one. He had had to replace
the motherboard, which – he explained – was causing all the
difficulties, and he guaranteed everything was now completely fine.
Nice one. I told him I would be around later that afternoon.So
when I went over, not only did I manage to pick up my laptop, but I
also got in some business discussion, which could well come in to
fruition and make my company some rather nice amounts of wonga.
Seriously sweet deal.It
is June, and it started to rain, so that meant only one thing:
Computex has arrived. Taiwan’s largest IT show lasts 5 days, and is
huge, taking up 4 halls across various parts of Taipei’s Hsinyi
district. Next year, apparently, the show will move a few kilometres
east at a new location in Nangang. On the day the show started, the
rain was coming down in torrents, so I dressed in my shorts and
raincoat, with a spare change of clothes in my backpack, and tonked
over to the 101 building to register as a foreign buyer.I
met up with a load of people – potential suppliers – and had a
meeting in the afternoon with other vendors across town. In the
evening I had dinner with my good friend Hunkyu, but as the weather
had improved, I went out without the raincoat.Dinner
was wonderful, and Hunkyu and I had a good discussion about life and
business. He has met two of my previous girlfriends, and within a
week of meeting them, both relationships turned sour. I am not
introducing him to my next girlfriend, unless I am trying to end it.After
dinner we could hear the roar of thunder as the lightning flashed,
and I knew I was going to get wet. How wet I was going to get,
however, I was not prepared for. By the time I had got to Hsinchuang,
just 4 km from his hotel, I was absolutely drenched, having ridden
through flash floods and massive downpours. A fellow motorcycle rider
stopped next to me at a red light, looked at my drowned kitten status
and I smiled over at him (mainly because he had a cute looking girl
on the back of his bike and I wanted to kop a glance at her). He also
smiled broadly back at me, probably laughing at me in reality, but I
did not mind – because I was only a few minutes from home, where I
could dry off and change clothes very quickly.The
next morning the Suzuki started just fine and I zoomed in to the show
once more, for meetings and discussions, but had a problem in the
evening when I wanted to go home. The bike didn’t start, so I had to
take the MRT back out, which effectively doubled my travel time. The
Thursday saw me at the show again but and I found a Suzuki guy who
looked at the bike in the late afternoon, before pronouncing it was
not possible for him to play with it. He arranged for someone to give
me and it a lift over to the place I bought it – as a 250cc bike,
it is not a run of the mill type of scooter that he is allowed to
touch, unless for basic maintenance, and so the guys at the official
dealer looked at it, gave me new oil, a new spark plug and air
filter, and packed me on my way. I headed out for dinner with a
friend/colleague/client (call him what you will) and then zoomed
home.Which
was all fine and dandy until I got to the Guandu Bridge, where the
Suzuki sputtered and decided that it was going no further.“Oh
bollocks.”So
I had no choice but to leave the Suzuki on the bridge (thankfully
away from the traffic) and hope that no one would steal it overnight.
I walked home – 3 km in total – across the bridge and then along
the river. Thankfully the rain had stopped by this time and I was
treated to the sight of several frogs and hundreds of snails, as I
trekked along the riverside path that leads to my home.The
next morning I called up Suzuki, and hassled them big time. After
all, this was a serious issue and one they should have seen the
previous day when I had taken it to them. They said no worries –
they would send a man with a van to come and pick it up (and me as
well), and take it back to town for repair. At no charge to your
humble chronicler.It
was more than a tad inconvenient, as I had to ride to several places
that day to pick up components for the PCB which were urgently
required over in Europe, so I spent my day in taxis, heading here,
there, and everywhere, spending quite a lot of cash in the process,
but essentially achieving all my goals for the day, ending up at TNT
where I sent everything over to the guys in Slovenia.Saturday
morning I got the call that the Suzuki was ready, so I hailed a cab
who dropped me off at the Suzuki dealer, and picked up my bike. They
had repaired everything, and I was able to ride off, this time
without the worry of anything happening to it. She rides smoothly
again, and – like my NEC laptop – is in full working condition. I
am hoping that the words “Oh Bollocks” will not be heard
from my lips for quite some time.
