I have continued the removing of beige from my house by painting the hallway yellow and green (with a pink stripe that will later be covered over – covering the original stripe was a priority).

I would have taken before and after photos but my compact camera is dying a slow and agonising death (its white-balance is screwed and can’t cope with bright light or bright colours). So I just bought myself an entry-level DSLR to have a play around with (it’s not that much more expensive than a good quality compact, maybe an extra £100 so I thought I’d treat myself). I went for a Sony alphaA230L with the standard 18-55m lens to get me started. Just picking up a few extras now (spare battery, UV filter, nice Crumpler case, a couple of SD cards). I’ll think about more lenses, tripods etc depending on how I get on with this. I know that there’s the argument that you should buy as good as you can afford so that you use it more, but I know that logic doesn’t work with me (hence a cheapish guitar too) so went for something that got good reviews for its price point (which was lowish).

Hopefully it will turn up before Xmas, so I can spend the break messing around with it, in between possibly painting my dining room (yes, I am looking for distractions from more decorating).