Alexandra.

Well, it's not quite show-stopping, but as a first shot with a brand-new camera (auto setting, I'm afraid), I'm quite pleased. I need a name for him; something that indicates his sturdy, stoic nature - Napoleon, or something like that. I didn't name the Nikon D40, but she would have definitely been a girl, albeit a butch one, like Helga, or Olga (apologies to anyone I've generically offended there).

Mum, Dad and I headed into town this morning (I was up at 8am, waiting for Jessops to open at 11am...) and went straight to the shop to pick up my lenses. Mum and Dad very kindly added to my bundle of excitingly shiny new camera toys by buying me some UV filters for the lenses to protect them from dust and scratches, plus improve the camera's performance in bright sunlight (in Aberdeen? Pah!). Jessops offer a brilliant 10-months-interest-free service, whereby after an initial payment, the rest is taken in monthly instalments for 10 months (which can be cancelled at any time should you want to just pay the rest upfront). Unfortunately I have a very poor credit history due to moving house every year for the past 5 years (not through eviction, through being a student), so that option was not available to me. From now until December, I shall be existing on beans. But... It is all worth it, my beautiful Napoleon (it's starting to stick) has two new noses and I'm armed and dangerous.

We had a great lunch at Zizi, throughout which Mum was incredibly patient with Dad and I, despite us taking photos of her eating her pasta and speaking about technical performance capabilities and photo opportunities. Mum had spotted this 'very Blippable' flag hanging from the Alexandra Hotel in Harrogate town centre yesterday (she and Dad are very good Blipper's Assistants), and we walked along Princes Street as I took hundreds of pictures of everything from the Olympics-inspired topiary on the roundabout to daisies on The Stray.

All too quickly, it was time to catch a train back up to Aberdeen after a lovely weekend with Mum and Dad. I downloaded a computerised version of the 50D's handbook to my laptop and have got through 112 of 228 pages of operating instructions; so I'm hoping to limit my 'auto setting' use to a minimal number of shots in future, like I used to do with my Nikon (less so the Leica; its settings aren't as instantly adjustable - although when I have time I always do).