Love on the Rocks

Another lovely day here in Kintyre and the opportunity to do a bit more in the garden. The wind is still very cold, but the sky has been mostly blue and with the sun out there was a real need for sunscreen on the old napper.

As many of you will know, my trusty wee compact was acting up on holiday and didn't seem to like the humid conditions. I had hoped to maybe pick up a new one in Hong Kong, but they were even more pricey than the UK. However, the prices in Singapore appeared to be on a par with our shops, so I decided to investigate further. The salesmen in the camera shops in Little India were quite persuasive, but I was not convinced. When we hit Chinatown there were only a couple of camera shops and I decided to have a look. Its just a wee bit different from going into Jessops in Sauchiehall Street! You have to have your wits about you and be prepared to walk away at any point. Anyway, I told the nice salesman I was considering a new compact camera and he proceeded to bring out a range of them and extol their virtues. Once he appreciated you knew a little bit about cameras he only brought out the better ones. There were only a few I would have gone for and when he showed me the Nikon Coolpix S100, I was interested.

When it comes to price, haggle is the name of the game. I portrayed myself as the travelling Scot who had spent all his money -the price came down. No, I will look elsewhere - the price came down. I am gong back to the hotel to check the on-line price in the UK - $100 is taken of the price. It can't get much lower, but a bit more haggling and we agree a price, which includes an 8 GB memory card and Nikon case - deal done. Only problem, I didn't know the UK on-line price and was mighty relieved that evening to find I had actually saved myself about 25% of the cost. Phew...that was a relief!

So why recount this tale? Well, the salesman was at pains to demonstrate the camera's macro capabilities, taking shots of the hairs on the back of my arm to prove his point. Not surprisingly, since getting home, I have been keen to see if the macro lived up to expectations. I'll let you be the judge with today's blip, which was taken with the camera no more than a couple of inches from these loving Ladybirds!