I’ve been busy shopping on the old Ebay recently with some good and not-so-good results. Before I go on, you have to realise how totally un-technical I am! I just about manage this blog and I love doing the podcast but there is great room for improvement in both. So first of all, I got us some webcams for skype and the like. I was asked to do my first podcast interview and panicked for a number of reasons but one being I didn’t have the equipment – at least I’ve solved that problem!

However, one of the webcams didn’t work – we tried it on several machines. I contacted the seller who told me if I posted it back to him (at my own cost), he would test it and if he found it to be faulty he would refund me the difference. I could smell something so I got Ebay involved for a full refund. I mean, call me cynical but I pictured me out of pocket and the seller sending a message along the lines of ‘there is nothing wrong with this so no refund’. You get where I’m going with this?

So I tried someone else and it was a much more successful venture. Dearest Son and I have spent a little time playing with them and finding out all the features Skype has to offer! Don’t be mistaken thinking I’m splashing out – they only cost a couple of pounds each.

Now I come on to my big splash out. For a while now, I’ve wanted a ‘new’ (ie second-hand) camera so I can take better shots for my blog and so on. The camera I have is pretty old and basic so I went up a notch. Drum roll please……I got a Fujifilm S5100. If you know anything about cameras you will know that’s pretty old but to me, it’s wonderful. Few glitches to be ironed out as it doesn’t communicate great with my ancient laptop (which someone found for me at the dump and got it working well enough for us to use). I have now added ‘new laptop’ to my ever-growing wish list! I took a few shots of my garden friend – out the kitchen window and with the zoom, so I hope you like them: