I’m back in one piece from London, where I had quite a pleasant mixture of work and catching up with people I used to know a whole lot better when I lived over there some years back.  Since moving back to Dublin well over a decade ago, I’ve always enjoyed going back to London and every time I do so I continue to marvel at how well – despite all the grumblings to the contrary from Londoners – things seem to work over there and how the city never, ever stands still.

The euro/sterling exchange rate is also something to marvel at for anyone going over there with euros in their arse pocket and I took advantage of this to engage in a bit of Newryesque shopping.  I’ve been looking to replace my digital camera for some time and some pre-travel research showed me that I could save at least a hundred notes on my chosen machine, a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, and I had no problems putting this theory into practice once I hit Oxford Street the other evening.  Having played around with it a good bit in the 48 hours since I bought it, I reckon it’s pretty much the cojones del perro as regards compact cameras of this kind.  It’s got an awesome 10x optical zoom and it shoots video in high-quality 16:9 format, while also allowing you to zoom in and out as you’re taking a video shot.

I’m happy enough that it’s a giant leap forward in terms of taking pictures and videos of the small people but the issue I have now is whether or not to give it its GAA debut in Ballyhaunis tomorrow.  The weather is seriously ugly at the moment and, if the forecast is to be believed (and I’ve no good reason to disbelieve it), it’s going to be fucking cold tomorrow as well.  And showery too.  The Brother is otherwise engaged tomorrow and so won’t be able to join me on the trip west but the other brother (there are more than the one, a good few more, in fact) is talking about taking the far shorter trip to the game from his side.  He’s still not 100% sure he’s going and, truth be told, neither am I.  One to sleep on, I think.