Reality Check and Learning

Today was a day of learning.  I was reminded how life can be a real struggle for some by a conversation with our waitress at the local cafer where we breakfast when in Cardiff. 
Our waitress, a mother of a 16 year old had just passed her driving test and said she had used all her savings to buy a £500 car.  Apparently, when she arrived home with the new car she found that the engine had blown and she was deeply anxious as to whether the garage would take the car back. As it happened they agreed to repair it so she was happy.  However, she said, "I will need to be really careful now.  My son and I have a takeaway once a fortnight and this will have to stop now for at least a year until I am back on my feet."  She, of course, is luckier than many.  But life is clearly a struggle.
Then, in the afternoon,  I visited the camera centre in the arcade pictured above.  I like these places, not to buy, as we too need to draw our horns in after Christmas, but just to chat to the people in the shop.  I was explaining that I didn't own a macro lens and the young man explained that you could get fantastic macro shots by turning your 50 mm lens the wrong way around and attaching it to the camera with an adaptor.  We tried it out and it worked brilliantly - in the shop!  However, he did utter dire warnings about being careful about getting dust on the sensor.  Oh, you also have to hold the aperture switch down manually.  So, watch this space.