I got my way with him (or my wish really)

That sounds promising - does it not?
No torrid stories to come - but I did get the camera I wished for, coveted, - and I have managed to geet it to work, - to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer. Actually I am quite proud.
One picture I took and posted on my Norwegian blog was promptly presented on another blog.
It was the message shown in the picture, - not the fantastic photographic qualites of my shot that got the attention of the other blogger.

But who knows, - I just might learn to manage the camera one day, - I might even take a picture or two worth looking at.

I study my everyday surroundings for motives, - like the diary at work.

I am the proud owner of a new ....

... digital camera.
I have read the instruction manual, I have taken quite a few pictures, - of the instruction manual and the empty box the camera came in.

One day, very soon, I am going to be a daredevil and take a look at the CD, and find out how to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer. Soon, I promise, soon.
*Fingers crossed*
At least I hope so.

The trick of learning new words

About 15 years ago I was at the Sorbonne learning French.

I was by far the oldest student in the class, - the teacher was about my age, - although she would probably not have admitted it.

The rest of the girls in the class were mostly au pair girls around 19 years old, - with just a few exceptions. Thus I was very happy to have an Italian psycologist of 32 as a friend, although it did nothing for my pronounciation.

Coming from all over the world the students were a lively bunch, and even though they definitely were there to learn the language, they were also in Paris to have fun.

One American girl had her own program for learning a little extra, - she had a list of about 5 or 6 new words that she should master each day. Her way of forcing those words into her active vocabulary was to use the words over and over again untill they were stuck in her memory, and could be included in a sentence at the shake of a hand.

And that is just my problem now:

Today I have learned a new word, - I think I know how to pronounce it, - but how on earth am I going to be able to include that words into the rather meager number of sentences in English I use every day at the library, and may enough times for the word to stick?

The word is: troglodyte.

I want a camera of my own !

It is 24 years since I last got my own camera. A lot of water has gone into the sea since then. We have also been given lots of photos from friends as memorabila of vactations spent together. All of these photos, - theirs, and our own are in boxes.
That might sound not too bad, - but, the trouble is that not even the boxes are dated.

I have friends making the lovliest albums for their children and grandchildren. Every date worth remembering has been documented, in nice photos - with the apropirate caption underneath.

Not so our children. Not only have we terribly missed taking photos of our youngest daugher M, - thus hurting her badly for life, - but we have not even taken care of the pictures that were taken over the years. Well - yes, the pictures are not really lost, - but it is rather hard to put a date and a setting to each and every one.

Most of my friends are so much better at this, - but a few others are also late bloomers. But, definitely with good intentions.

"If only I could be certain of having the house to myself for a few weeks, I could bring a table into the guest bedroom, - put all the photos all over the bed and the table and organize them. But - it is difficult, - I do not have the time, people come in, - and I have to clear the stuff away, and the pictures get more and more messed up each time", sais K, the nicest, most supportive of grandmothers still working but never saying no to a needy daughter.

I am a librarian, - and as a librarian one of the first things I learned was to catalogue books. I very quickly learned that I did not like doing just that. That was a bad start, - I probably should have left the profession then and there. I did not, and I am still a librarian and tremendously enjoying my work.

A bit more than 20 years later a new area hit even our library, - the computers, the databases, - the online catalogues. And guess what? - All of a sudden I had an idea that even cataloguing might be interesting. OK, it took me another 10 years for this to become a reality, - but that is another story.

Why am I telling this now?

I want a digital camera, - that is what I want. I want to be able to treat pictures of the family in the same way I finally found it interesting to catalog books.