Decisions, decisions

When one is determined to be very economical, to reduce spending to a level matching low income, the expenditure of a thousand Dirhams... about two-hundred Euros... demands sober reflection.

There is also a question of brand loyalty here. For many, many years I have been very happy with Sony products. My inside jacket pockets are weighed down with kit bought in 2003... two T650 mobile phones (to deal with both my SIM cards) and the chunky camera (3.2 megapixels). The phones remain in my opinion examples of very elegant industrial design and I have been proud to own them. In particular the silver-and-black one with its English/Arabic keys has always felt slightly exotic.

As for the camera, I have been perfectly happy with the results in 3.2 resolution. But the tiny screen at the back has always meant that it's more a question of "point and hope" rather than "point and shoot".

Then there is the brand loyalty issue. The Samsung laptop I use was not my choice... it was a matter of not looking a gift-horse in the mouth when it came into my possession!

But I have found it reliable... as reliable as any PC can be... and I have no real complaints about its performance.

Furthermore I have been ogling television sets of the South Korean marque and have more or less resolved to replace my vintage Sony with a Samsung HD when finances permit.

But this morning, after my wake-up cappuccino, on the spur of the moment I stopped by the mobile phone desk in my incredibly convenient and comprehensive supermarket across the street. 

One relatively light candy-bar device to replace the three pieces of kit currently carried? The phone can accommodate both of my SIM cards, it shoots 5 megapixel photos and has a decent sized screen.

An extravagance? I think not.