Thursday 1 March 2012

Today I won an iPad 2

And I don't even like Apples.

This afternoon, I experienced the awkward silence when a piece of cotton wool falls into your lab experiment and soaks up the measly single gram of product that you have painstakingly spent the last few months making. Luckily, we managed to recover most of it. As if the day wasn't exciting enough, at 6pm, we had a fire alarm and what I presume to be a real fire at the chemistry department! So I didn't get home until hall was about to close. After cycling home, I bumped into my gym buddy F at the main entrance to my college just as a taxi pulled up.

Using the high pressure tactics that only a seasoned salesman could employ, he managed to convince me to get into a taxi with him and go to a company presentation at the Cambridge Business Park. What sold it to me?

The free pizza.

So we turned up, and I ate a whole pizza's worth of Dominoes. Since I hold no interest in software, I didn't really pay too much attention to the presentations.

Neither did the other guys from Selwyn.


However, from what I gather, the Redgate employees have so much fun that I don't know how they find the time to do any work.

Anyway, there was a raffle, and being the strategic sharks that we are, a group of eight of us decided to pool our tickets together in increase our chances of winning the iPad 2 that was on offer. I had a feeling that 197 was going to be a lucky number but I decided to pool anyway...but sadly, logic failed me for once!

I went for the risk averse route, since the expected return is the same ~ a £400 prize with 8 times less chance of winning, as opposed to £50 with 8 times more chance of winning.

My number was drawn, and I looked onwards in horror as I realised the £400 that could've been mine had now dwindled to a £50 share...

One of the guys, F in fact, actually bailed out of the pool at the last second, but he told me that he'd rather be him than me, since he came and left with nothing, whereas I could've had much more... >__<

We made F take the obligatory photo.


I'm still in shock.

Like, I just don't win things. It's not in my genes.

But since I came here purely on a fluke with no intentions or interest whatsoever, I guess it's just a case of you win some and you lose some, right? So it's funny how quickly things change when the stakes become high. Guess this is why I should never get into gambling.



Guess it's just ironic that the girl who despises all things Apple ends up with the iPad 2.

If you are interested in buying it, do let me know ~ it's white, wireless and has 16GB worth of love...! Plus it comes in a pretty Redgate company bag.

Have you ever won anything of high stakes value before?

Yishi xxx

9 comments:

  1. I can't think of anything high value I've ever won. I think I won a small chess set once at Bingo, that was probably the biggest ticket item I won. haha

    Hey, you know the IPAD 2 has some really great language learning Apps, right? It also has speaking phrasebook programs, flash card programs, childrens foreign language game software and menu translators. ;) And you can rotate through different language keyboards.

    I got one shortly before coming to Korea, I'm not big on apple computers and stuff, but it has actually proved really useful as a learning tool. :)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Oh, I adore chess sets! :D

      Unfortunately, my friends are planning on selling the Ipad 2 and splitting the money, since I did enter into a verbal agreement with them when we pooled our tickets together. Hindsight and regret are powerful tools to make me feel gutted about this!

      Delete
  2. Wow, congratulations on winning! o: Maybe your luck is changing~ >u<
    I guess, pooling tickets would have been better, in terms of increasing your chances, but wow~ what a lucky number you had!

    It's quite ironic how someone who dislikes Apple ends up winning an iPad. xD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe yeah I thought so too~

      Oh well, I guess you win some and then you lose some! xD

      Delete
  3. Congrats!!!You should keep it. The only apple product I own is my ipod and I love it. But my sister has an ipad and she lets me borrow it from time to time. It actually comes in handy. You might learn to love it. But I guess you could use the money for something you actually want/need. On the other hand, it was free and you won it!!! XD Pretty cool. I never win anything. I think the only time I ever won something was in the 4th grade. And technically it was my who won. It just happened to be one of the raffle tickets with my name on it. But "I" won $300, and to a 9 year old that was a lot of money. lol

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    1. Oh my days, you won $300!? That's pretty incredible...especially when you were nine! xD

      Delete
  4. God I would hate that. It was YOUR ticket!! Did you all decide in advance you didn't want to keep it? I could never pool my ticket for exactly this reason - I would kick myself if I won and if someone else in the pool won I would feel really bad for them.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Yeah, when my number was drawn, instead of joy, my face dropped in horror.

      It felt like the other guys had all just gained, and I had just lost out... >_<

      Delete
  5. I'm so jealous that you won an IPAD!...not for your situation though, I would be really upset to have to sell it back with my friends. I feel like my friends and I would do something similar...we're very strategic about things like this!

    --Becky
    preppypremed.blogspot.com

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