Toys!

Rem and I returned this afternoon from my least favourite store in Utrecht: the Media Markt. A gigantic electronics and appliances store, it's where we've obtained our computer, oven, printer, electric mixer and toaster. As useful a place as it is, I find it unpleasantly crowded and difficult to get good service.

Today, however, our expedition resulted in a very diverting toy, so I am pacified. And quite pleased.

We have a new digital camera! Hurrah! Our old one started acting up the Christmas before we came here and eventually quit taking pictures altogether by mid-summer. Hence, no pictures since before the wedding. My mom kindly sent me back here with her old advantix and I used it for a couple shots at Christmas and in Oslo: two rolls of 25 shots cost me 25 euros to develop! Good heavens! After that, it became pretty obvious that we needed a new digital since we do want a photographic record of our travels.

Our new toy is partly my birthday present and I've even been reading the manual this afternoon (gasp!) to figure out all the great things it does. We got one with 3x optical zoom and it even does macros - close-ups. I've been wanting to do close-ups ever since I saw a dewy spiderweb one sunny morning on my way up a Taiwanese mountain. Hurrah! Now I can!