163: 6.3 Death by tea

If you haven't noticed, I treasure my tea. But my dedication to it has caused me to encounter very unfortunate circumstances. For instance, tea literally drowned my phone a few years ago. I had stupidly placed my serving of bubble tea into my handbag. I thought that because it had a semi sturdy plastic cover on top, my other belongings in the bag would be safe. But boy was I wrong. Without even noticing it on the journey home, there was an ocean of tea in my bag with little jelly bubbles floating in every dark corner.

It drowned my ID cards, my money, receipts and most unfortunately, my phone as well. It was still switched on when I found it, but upon its discovery, I quickly ran to A begging for help. We switched it off, wiped it down and placed it in a bag of uncooked rice for the next 48 hours. It was the longest 48 hours of my life. Not having a phone felt really isolating -  I had fewer ways to connect with the larger world. I probably went through a withdrawal phase - staring blankly at walls and not knowing what to do in my free time. Clearly, like many others, I had developed a dependency or addiction to it.

The next morning, A and I had to buy a temporary replacement phone, one that costed pennies. It was a basic Lenovo phone and it had whatsapp and some other applications, but it ran so slowly. Sending a text took 5 times more time than it had on my iPhone. The downgrade really did feel painful - like I was previously flying amongst the clouds but then I was suddenly dropped onto hard earth. It was a reality check - it goes to show that you never really know what you have until it is abruptly taken from you.

After the long, gruelling 48 hours, we freed my phone from its jail of rice. And after alot of prayers and wishful thinking, it miraculously switched on! I was overjoyed! It was like being reunited with a long lost friend. The screen was a bit fuzzy and it had a line down the middle, but overall it worked... for a while. It eventually gave up on life and retired from its loyal service, leaving me to fork out a huge amount from my student savings to purchase a replacement.

After all that drama, we lived happily ever after.

Or so I thought.

I tell this story today because it mirrors what has happened to me a few hours ago. I arrived home and put the kettle on to make my usual "winding down" cup of tea. With it perfectly brewed, I sat in front of my laptop to watch P.S. I Love You on Netflix. I was happily drinking the tea, dunking my last packets of cream crackers in it when it happened. Midway through the film, I accidentally knocked over my mug and tea spilled all over my keyboard. Sounds familiar yet?

I frantically looked for paper towels and wiped the tea off the keyboard. I turned it upside down to free any liquid that could have slid through the cracks in between keys. After typing "tea spilled on macbook" on Google, I took heed of the majority of the internet's advice to unplug it from power, switch it off and leave it to dry upside down overnight. Unfortunately, despite multiple attempts, I can't switch the laptop on.

It has died, and I too feel a little dead inside.

My sister has kindly agreed to bring it to an Apple service shop tomorrow enroute to university. But for now, I am pathetically borrowing her laptop to write this. What is the outcome of all this avoidable drama? Only time will tell. But for now, I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that the news won't be good tomorrow.