ANNIVERSARY PRESENT -- NEW CAMERA!

My wife surprised me yesterday with an early anniversary gift (we were married on 2 August 2006 in the Bang Rak district of Bangkok). She gave me a "Caribbean blue" Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55 camera, replacing my old DSC-W7 which was stolen back in mid-April. It's a bit of an upgrade in features and styling (being thinner and more colorful, for example) but the 7.2 megapixels is the same as the one I had before.

I'd been dreaming and saving up for the Cyber-shot T100 but at an average price of just under 18,000 baht in Phuket that proved to be unattainable. Tim's main reasoning for buying this particular camera (other than "it looks nice") was that she thought the lens was the same size as my old one and that my adapter and additional lenses/filters would fit (it's not and they don't; I think I'll put them up on eBay). Something I really like is the availability of a custom marine pack -- a waterproof casing that enables me to shoot underwater (up to a depth of ten feet), during inclement weather, or in particularly dusty conditions (my old camera lens had picked up some pits from beach sand). I'm thinking I can take some worry-free Songkran photos next year.

I can't wait to get out-and-about today and shoot some photos (had to spend seven hours charging the proprietary lithium ion battery yesterday). In the meantime, here are a couple of photos I've shot already including the very first picture taken with the new camera (in the IT "mall" in the basement of Big C while browsing camera accessories) and one of my laptop last night while planning an upcoming holiday trip.