— As mentioned earlier, getting the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch Ultra, and the 2nd gen AirPods Pro was never in my plans. But then, there were four things that happened this year.
First and most obvious: our friends from Spigen reached out to me last July for a possible collab.
Now, I’ve been a customer of the brand since my days with the Pixel 2 XL, and I’ve become even more so when I got the 13 Pro last year. They have my trust.
So, even when I had to turn it down that time for scheduling reasons, we agreed to collaborate on something in the future when another opportunity arises.
Second thing: my Papa, for the nth time, insisted, now more adamantly, on forgiving the rest of my loan for the video equipment. The previous times he told me to, I still wired what was owed for the month, out of palabra de honor. But I felt like this time around, he was being serious—as in he would get pretty irked if I still push through with it haha.
Still, one can’t help but feel the need to pay him back somehow, if not out of obligation, well at least out of gratitude.
Third thing: my Mama got tickets to Dubai to spend time with Papa for a few weeks. Occasionally, we go there for vacation. But only Mama has the time to fly this year.
Fourth and last thing—and this one’s pretty shallow: as much as the Sierra Blue is super classy, upon seeing the Space Black 14 Pro, I realized that my bias towards sleek black devices was just too strong haha.
Then, things suddenly clicked.
What if, instead of payment, Papa would be sent some Christmas gifts; to be the one to receive a “balikbayan box” for once, with Mama as the courier?
It may be easy to wave off someone’s gesture to pay, like with one's relatives at dinner, but it’d be pretty hard not to accept a gift from someone, especially if said gift is from one’s own son.
Papa’s job involves dealing with undersea cables, and with him having started getting into fitness, the Apple Watch Ultra was just perfect. Also, he was the first in the family to own an iPhone, and it shows lol. But I remembered him eyeing the 13 Pro last time, and told me he had plans to buy one for himself. I knew then to whose care I’ll hand my classy Sierra Blue.
So, I got back to Spigen, made a proposal, and we decided to give this project a go.
And that’s how we ended up here, with a new daily driver in the form of the 14 Pro, and a user that can maximize the Apple Watch Ultra—my old man. There is something to be said about 2022, but at least for this endeavor, things just gladly fell into place.
Thanks to @SpigenWorld for making this possible!
P.S.- Oh yeah, about my AirPods Pro haha. One night, I was washing the dishes while playing music with my AirPods on. And then I felt a tap on my shoulder; it turned out to be Mama. Apparently, she had been asking a question and I wasn’t responding. She got worried I was playing too loud, to which I said it was the Pros’ noise cancellation. She then got curious about whether they’d be useful on the plane and asked how much a pair would be. Hearing the price, she promptly dismissed the thought of getting one, so I ended up just giving her my Gen 1 Pros. Surprisingly, she quickly picked up the controls when I taught them to her haha
Stamps 0:00 Intro 0:05 iPhone 14 Pro 0:15 Easiest tempered glass 0:32 A closer look 0:48 If you liked it then you shoulda– 0:54 MagFit accessories 1:03 AirPods Pro (2nd gen) 1:14 Rugged case for AirPods 1:20 Apple Watch but G-Shock 1:29 Apple Watch Ultra 1:59 Midnight Ocean band 2:09 Stainless steel band 2:32 Other Spigen essentials 2:52 My new daily drivers 3:02 For the provider 3:28 Outro
