My daughter, my husband, a cell phone and a can of…

Her birthday is still three weeks away. She’s been reading cell phone reviews for weeks and finally decided that the Sony Ericsson K800i is THE phone for her.

She’s been pestering me for…what, three months?? She said she would sell her cell phone and give me the money so I could add it to her new cell phone fund. She couldn’t find a buyer who was willing to pay a decent price. She said I could trade in her cell phone so I wouldn’t have to pay for a new one entirely. I told her I couldn’t afford a cash payment.

She scoured the shops at SM Megamall’s Cyber Zone and found one that sold the K800i on a 12-month zero interest scheme. I said that sounded manageable. Bad answer. From that time on — and that must have been about two weeks ago — she hadn’t stopped talking about it. From the moment she woke up to the minute I kissed her goodnight. Every morning and every night.

I dodged, and dodged, and dodged some more…

Speedy said what else did I expect — I was exactly the same. He said when I want something, I am never willing to wait. When I want something, I want it now.

Today, Sam finally wore me down. She was supposed to cover a football festival for the school, had three cameras charged and ready for a day of sports photography… then the games were cancelled and she didn’t find out until the last minute. Problem was she was already up at 6.00 a.m. expecting to leave by 7.00. When she found herself awake with nothing to do, she woke me up and decided that today was the day we would buy her cell phone. She cooked breakfast, made fresh mango shake and was the most amiable person alive.

Funny, just last night, she was having a huge tantrum and refused to eat dinner with us because no one wanted to go to the mall. Who would? Speedy got home from work at around 6.30 p.m. and reported that traffic was very bad after the downpour. It would have taken us another two hours to get to the mall. By that time, the shops would be closing. Who was being unreasonable?

Anyway, with the football games cancelled, Sam and her friends cooked up another plan. They would see “Simpsons, the movie” at Shangri-La Plaza and Alex would go with them. We could drop them off and then we could proceed to SM Megamall to find that store that was selling the K800i at zero interest for 12 months. She couldn’t even remember the name of the darn store. The plan didn’t sound so bad, at any rate. Speedy and I could spend some time together, you know, just the two of us, and the kids would be just a building away.

We had a late lunch at Jipan and proceeded to the Cyber Zone. We found the darn phone — it was the last unit in the only store selling it at zero interest for 12 months. We bought it.

While waiting for our coffee and dessert at Gloria Jean’s, we started texting Sam to tell her we had her phone. She thought we were joking. She couldn’t believe I was sooooo lame that I finally fell for her antics. Actually, I was going to get her a new phone for her birthday but Speedy and I both hated how she was dictating the when. That’s why I made her wait for three months. So, Speedy finally sent her a MMS — a photo of the bright red Sony Ericsson bag.

End of story? Not quite.

It’s Sunday, right? Speedy’s turn to cook. While enjoying our Japanese noodle soups, he chuckled and remarked how he managed to escape cooking lunch. He was so pleased that I could decide where to eat or if I wanted to eat three times at three different places in three hours. So, after buying the K800i, we had coffee and dessert.

Then, we picked up the kids. They had sashimi and tempura while I went to the supermarket. When we got home, it wasn’t even dinner time. In fact, it was still light. That meant Speedy escaped from cooking lunch but he would still have to cook dinner. And dinner was… tadaaaa….

SPAM, of course!