Just when you feel that you are alone in a Godless universe and out of Shake 'n' Vac, something will happen that restores your faith in humanity, and also gets you thinking that Angels really do exist as well!

I'll begin at the beginning.

For those people that have never met me, read this blog or glanced at my clickage over on my Flickr page, I like taking photographs. When I say 'like, that is a bit of an understatement; I love taking photos, in fact photography is a real passion of mine and (until Saturday) I had rarely been anywhere without my faithful, digital Olympus (or an emergency spare) in about four years.
I don't have any family or friends nearby to go out with, and my beautiful, darling, furry 'walkie' companion of sixteen years, Pudsey, sadly died back in 2007, so without my camera, I don't have any reason to go anywhere.
I'm not kidding you. Without my camera I feel lost; as though part of me is missing. I dread leaving the house without it in case I see something I would otherwise have spent ten minutes snapping away at, and also, I have nothing to hide behind and might end up having to talk to people I don't know.
Also, I'm just beginning to get my name recognized in the Clickage World. Last year the lovely people at The Londonist (who use and link to my clickies on a regular basis) asked me to go take photos to cover both Amnesty's Guantanamo Bay demonstration and The Great British Duck Race, and I was also asked to be the Official Photographer at a friend's wedding, and I was hoping that I might even end up getting some paid work; possibly even make a decent living out of my prints and so.
So, you might be getting the idea that my trusty Olympus is a pretty big part of my life. Without it, I'd be totally lost with no plans as to what to do next.
Going out alone is alright if you have a camera with you. People might stare if I'm taking a piccy of a small rubber duck perched on a statue, but if you just balance a duck on something then simply stare at it as well, you'd better start moving PDQ else the nice men with the large butterfly nets give chase.

Yesterday my camera broke.

It is now as those in the trade say "Shagged". It is totally broked, 'rubber-ducked', out of order, bereft of life, and if it hadn't been nailed to the perch would have shuffled off this mortal coil to join the choir invisible.
It nearly 'broked' a couple of years back when the lens refused to open and shut properly, so I took it to a shop where they told me it would cost almost the same price as a new camera to fix it, and as I didn't have that sort of money, I decided to fiddle with it to see what happened.
To my amazement and delight, it did the trick and behold, it worked again!
But yesterday it started to do the same, but it was far, far worse, and despite every attempt at CPR, nothing.

My trusty, faithful Olympus is no more.

Yesterday afternoon I broke the news to my Flickr friends by posting this piccy and the explanation that you can read below it -

Anyway, I thought no more about it but then later on I checked my emails and so and found this comment left by the wonderful and beautiful, Coralee -

"OK Misty's fans! I would like to start a collection for her new camera...
Please see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/misty69/3205831667/
She's entertained, supported, cajoled and brightened us with all her writing and pictures...is it not time she gets a little bit back????"

I swear Cora is an angel in human form! Anyone who starts something like that just has to be!
Anyways, I read the comment and promptly burst into tears of happy.
I don't know if anybody will throw anything into the 'Misty's New Camera' fund, I'm just happy that there are people out there who are not trying to hurt me and ruin my life like some so-called friends have done in the past.
If it hadn't been for Blogger and Flickr, I wouldn't have met so many wonderful friends over the last four years or so.
If you are reading this, you know who you are and I'm sending each and every one of you a huge hug and kiss!

And I'm throwing in an extra big hug for the lovely, most darling Coralee.
Thank you for restoring my faith, honey!

By the way, if anybody wants to go along with Coralee's idea and help me to get a new, working camera so that I can feel 'normal' again, you can contact her by clicking here, or via Flickrmail on this page.

Happy Monday you fabulous, darling readers of mine!
And please, tell me all about your weekends and how you're doing, akay? I swear I won't tell anyone else about what you got up to, akay?

ttfn,



Extra, 09:34 hours. Coralee has set up a web page for my 'camera appeal', and you can find it by clicking here.
I've got a very big lump in my throat for some reason...