25 before 25 - The Camera

I have definitively lost the cable to my tiny and rubbish camera. It's gone. Sob.

Rather than propelling me into a mad cable-buying frenzy, however, this has been the impetus to research what I've been wanting to buy for a long time - a Proper Camera. 

Yes, some may say that buying a £400 plus camera in order to replace a lost cable for a previous camera may be a false economy. 

I have nothing to say to such people. 

I've never owned a Proper Camera, and though I've daydreamed about owning a Proper Camera for some time and all the lovely pictures I could take with them I had never got further than that. So yesterday when Tim and I went into town, we hopped into PC world so he could look at headphones and I could look at cameras. They were all very lovely and looked very impressive but I did not understand what any of them did and from the perspective of someone whose sole idea about Proper Cameras is that they are Well Chunky, I was properly intimidated and tried to walk along the glass displays looking surreptitiously at them without attracting any shop assistants who might come and ask if I wanted any help because I might then just break down and fall to my knees and cry, "PLEASE HELP ME I HAVE NO IDEA". 

Anyway after Tim had finished looking at headphones and we had both had a look at TVs (they are ridiculously cheap! I mean RIDICULOUSly. Who knew?) we realised we both needed to go to WHSmith's and get some suitable reading material for the night. Frankly the array of camera magazines was only marginally less intimidating than the array of cameras, but luckily they were considerably cheaper so I agonised much less over which one to purchase. I chose one that had an A to Z index of all the camera terms you might possibly ever need to know. 

In case you're interested, Tim chose a magazine called "Android Apps for your Phone" or whatever it was about and he seemed to find it very entertaining. 

Then we went out to dinner and spent the first half of it reading our magazines (separately). I realised we must have looked like one of those couples who are on some kind of Last Ditch Attempt to Save Their Relationship date but find interacting with each other just too unbearable so end up looking at their phones and texting their friends instead rather than talking, and now I have decided to judge such couples less in my head since, who knows, they may be texting about a fascinating camera or discussing the relative merits of a prime as opposed to a zoom lens. All of which I now fully understand.

When I went to bed, I read my camera magazine until I fell asleep on it, and when I woke up, I lay in bed, reading my camera magazine. And then I went to the computer, and googled all the cameras I found and circled in my camera magazine. That is research. 

In the meantime, Tim was happily occupied with his Android Apps magazine, whatever that is, so you can stop feeling sorry for him. He was fine. 

We don't buy many magazines. Perhaps you can tell. 

Perhaps it's all for the best. 

Anyway, the point is, I still don't actually know which camera to buy. My main objections to a DSLR is that it is bulky. Hell it's bulky. I want a camera I can tote along on a long walk in Malawi and snap things with. But I don't want a compact. I want a camera with manual features and good zoom lens.  Perhaps a super zoom. Perhaps a Compact System Camera. But then I'm worried it's trying to be a DSLR in a compact and not going to be good for either - still bulky, but with poorer image quality with its smaller sensor. But then would it matter that much to me at my level? But then a camera like this will be an investment that I want to keep buying lenses for and using and improving with for most of my life. But I also dislike the notion of having to buy new lenses quite quickly to do the photography I want to do. But then maybe I don't even have to buy new lenses to get reasonable results, but then is there any point in buying a DSLR if I'm resigned to only getting reasonable results, which I'm sure I can get with a CSC, which will be able to do most of the zoom settings that I want anyway? 

In conclusion:

1) Cook one new recipe each week
With the advent of the veg box, this is pretty much a given.
2) Buy a proper camera, and take an interesting photo each week
I love how enthusiastic I was! I miss being a student, and having time to take interest in things. Things like your life outside of work.
3) Pass my driving test
4) Keep a memory jar faithfully
5) Do an audit
On my second.
6) Go cycling/camping in the Lake District
I've pencilled this into my diary, Ms Smith and Ms Harley.
7) Visit Edinburgh.
Pencilled into again Ms Harley.
8) And eat a deep-fried Mars bar.
Naturally this depends on number 7.
9) *secret*
10) *secret* 
I think I've achieved number 9. God knows. I've forgotten what it was, so I'm going to assume I've achieved it. That's the benefit of secrets!
11) Be totally vegetarian for a week
12) Be totally vegan for a week
13) Set aside 1 hr at the weekend for myself, just for contemplation
What a joke. This is clearly never going to happen. But I shall leave it on there, as testimony to what my life used to be like.
14) Do yoga once a week
I love it!
15) Buy a new bike.
16) Cook a proper English roast
17) Make puff pastry by hand
18) Actually do NaNoWriMo
Again, now unlikely to ever actually happen. Until I am 67.
19) Finish Michel's French course
20) Ice and decorate a cake....properly
21) Visit the Edinburgh Fringe
Three of my 25s are to do with Edinburgh! It seems excessive. But I have pencilled it in.
22) Read a new book every month (and stop re-reading books)
I think camera magazines should count.
23) *secret*!!!!
24) Use Ruth's sewing machine to make something I will wear (and wear it with pride!)
25) Learn to dance swing