iPhone Launch Party

It was the end of a long long week. The FSA (Financial Services Authority) had been in to regulate us, nothing to do with our bowels or the Food Standards Agency but it was gruelling. The only light at the end of the tunnel was the thought of a long communist era queue outside a shop at the freezing start of November. Worse still, the shop was in Larne. For those who have never heard of Larne, the place where I was married, in the eastern shores of Northern Ireland, it is said that there are only two good things in Larne:

1. The boat to Scotland.
2. The road out.

Well I just want to repudiate that statement right now, because there is a third item I?d like to add… another good thing in Larne:

3. The remaining 19 iPhones in the shop after I was there on launch night.

Nowhere else in the country at 5:30pm was the launch party looking like this:

The shutters were down, I waited for a while eager to have craic with my fellow enthusiasts. An elderly gentlemen approached, tried the door… I muscled in on his attempt to bunk the queue but he hadn?t even heard of the iPhone. I spat on him and threw him to the dogs.

5:45pm – My friend arrived for moral support, anticipation grew as the crowd of the 2 of us (only 1 buying) watched the shutters slowly lift:

It was a slow strip tease, we were shivering with … well, the cold. I phoned two friends also in queues around the country – Lisburn had 15 and promotional girls, Worthing had 40 and banter. Larne had nothing, nothing except the prize.

6:00pm – Two other guys arrived. Phew – I wasn?t the only idiot in the Eastern part of Antrim! (But they were in looking for a Sony Ericcson).

(Max O?Malley, visibly excited)

Sure enough at 6:02 they put us (I mean, me) out of our/my misery. The three retail assistants who had prepared all afternoon since 3pm for this monumental occasion had to open their shop until 10pm to serve, just me. I felt blessed. I tried to pretend I didn?t know very much about the iPhone and tried not to correct the manager. I didn?t want to come across like a geek. None of us that queued that night felt we deserved the mocking of the crowd, we hardly could believe ourselves that we were doing it.

After crossing the shop assistant?s palm with considerable money and various attempts to get the credit card system to work (Carphone Warehouse servers couldn?t cope with the UK?s iPhone loving crowd) I walked out of the shop into the cold Larne air with my precious.

I love her and I will tell more of her next time.