Ringing the Changes

She'd wanted one for ages. There was no avoiding and no denying with adverts everywhere, that they were beautiful. But too expensive to buy right away.

It was her birthday when she got one. I'd saved a little each week. The standard model, and I couldn't stretch to the case she wanted.

Then the bad times arrived. It felt like we sold everything else before we had to arrive at the iNVphone.

The walk to Cash Converters was silent. Luckily it didn't ring on the way there. The sign outside was a real shock: 'We no longer buy iNVphones'. A look at the window display explained why - it was filled with them. Confirmation that the credit crunch was squeezing everyone.

I knew there was a small pawnbroker hidden away a little out of town, so we sulked our way towards it. No posters here, just a wizened old guy explaining he had plenty of these already, so he couldn't offer much. I was the only one happy to accept his offer – the kids would get fed better next week.

As we left the shop with the cash but without the iNVphone, my wife turned to me and said 'we'd have got more if you'd bought me that case'.