My first prize - black 30GB iPod

A couple of weeks ago, during work hours, I received a call from Sydney from a guy with a South African accent. He said he was from WealthFocus. I initially thought it was Perpetual, because I do know they do have Perpetual WealthFocus investments (& in fact, I do have a bit of money with Perpetual). The guy said no, he was not from Perpetual. His company is simply called WealthFocus. When I questioned his reason for calling, he advised that I won first prize for an internet survey I did around this time last year!

I could vaguely remember the survey. From memory, the survey was about investments - one of those surveys where there is no correct or wrong answers. I cannot remember the specific questions or areas covered by the survey. All I remembered was stumbling on the survey by accident at night, & I did it probably because I had nothing better to do at that time. I would never have guessed that I would end up winning the first prize some 12 months later.

But win it, I did. The prize - a black 30GB iPod. Just checking Wikipedia, it looks like a fifth generation iPod. There are bigger iPods than the one I won. But hey, it's free, I paid nothing for it. I had previously considered getting an iPod when I go on holidays to Malaysia at the end of the year. But winning it as first prize means that won't be necessary & it's one less item on my shopping list.

To be fair, I was perhaps lucky to have won it, as the WealthFocus guy said there were a number of other candidates who had also been in the running to win the prize, based on their responses to the survey. But I was the only one to bother responding to their call, & since they also liked my responses to the online survey, they decided to award me the first prize. So there - a few days after the call, the iPod arrived in the mail (I gave them my work's postal address). And I showed it to some of my colleagues, who were impressed by my achievement.

Moral of the story - have a go when it comes to stuff like surveys, u never know what u might win. I should pat myself on the back, eh. I must have done something right in the survey, but can't quite remember what. All I did was fill it as honestly as I can (obviously, they liked my honest responses). And I struck first prize, & getting the iPod made me smile. Wow, DT won something. You done good, DT! All smiles! You know what - I'd be smiling even more broadly if I were to have the same luck in the gold lotto ;)

Hehehe, but anyway, now I got to figure out how to work the iPod. Hopefully, the iPod actually works & is not a dud. I'm a bit of a dummy when it comes to all those gadgets. One day, I will get there. I got lots of other things on my plate. Ahh, the distractions.....





The letter confirming that I won first prize (I covered up my work address)












The 30GB iPod with accessories, instructions booklet & box