Still talking about the weekend – look, you had a week of peace and quiet, now I’ve started again there’s no stopping me – Sunday I tried a bit of retail therapy, everyone I know raves about it after all. And to be honest, I quite enjoyed myself this time. Yes, you did hear that correctly – I enjoyed shopping.

Of course, I was shopping for a new camera at the time, so I suppose that may have been the reason why. I’d been talking to Himself about it for a while now – I was planning on it being a Christmas present. But this weekend Himself insisted we go and look and to be honest I didn’t put up much of a fright against it. He was all for me buying a SLR digital camera with detachable lens, but I'm not ready for that sort of thing. It's more a professional photographers camera, I'd be worried about damaging it when out on a walk in the rain.

My Kodak is a good camera, it’s given me hours of pleasure and has produced some good shots but……

There have also been times that I’ve taken photos only to find that when I’ve downloaded the quality or detail have let me down. The bird I was trying to capture for posterity was a tiny dot in the centre of the picture, which let's be honest could have been mistaken for a bit of dirt on the lens. It was a great camera to introduce me to the joys of photography but I’d got to the point I wanted better zoom and more pixels. Want, want, want, that’s me.

So into Kidderminster we went – yes, I probably could have brought one off the internet for a better price, but I needed to try the camera out – because how they sit in your hand is important. No, honestly it is. Yes, I grant you that all the super zoom and pixels are important, but if you can’t hold the camera comfortably then you may as well just forget all the clever extra bits. All that will happen is when you press the button you get camera shake because you move the camera as well as the button. Naff pictures all the time.

So we went all over – PC World, Currys, Dixons and Jessops. And I bet the assistants just loved me. I made them show me everything – unlock cabinets to remove cameras, made then search their store rooms, got cameras out of boxes and then I asked question after question. At the end of it all I said the same to all of them; thank you for your help, I’ll think about it. I left them putting everything back.

In the end I decided on this one: http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_SP-510_UZ.htm

The gentleman in Jessops definitely went pale when I entered the shop for a second time, but rallied when it dawned on him that I wanted to actually buy a camera this time. Not only a camera but a memory card, more rechargeable batteries and a new camera bag. You’ve got to admit that when I do get around to shopping I don’t have a problem making up for lost time.

As we were leaving the assistant told me that if I wasn’t satisfied with the camera I could bring it back within 30 days for a full refund. I smiled at Himself and said; Oh good, we’ll be able to return it after the wedding then and get our money back. You could tell by the look on the assistant's face that he wasn't at all sure whether I meant it or not. Himself gave me a dirty look and assured the man I was joking. Bloody spoil sport, no sense of fun.

Curly fern, bigger than the real plant.

And this time I could take pictures from a distance; which meant the subject didn't do a runner and spoil the shot.

Blame the ant pictures on Scally, she should never have said: 'I suppose we're going to have to put up with hundreds of pictures of ants or something while you fiddle with it and get the settings right'.

Wood ants at work - click on the picture, go on, click it - look at the one with the leaf, he's smiling!