Spare legs anyone?

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! One of my new year’s resolutions is to get back to posting, now that my City & Guilds embroidery qualification is out of the way – or at least I hope it is. The last assessment piece went off to be assessed a bit before Christmas.

It’s been an up and down few months – mostly up, and very up from an R.A. point of view, but down due to all sorts of hassles with central heating incurring large bills and the need for new pipework, a new tank and a new office floor. All that, plus rows with the flooring people, rows with British Gas, minor irritations with the plumbers is now … done and dusted. (I’m hoping that’s not famous last words!)

So with the new floor down, the new pipes in, the City & Guilds qualification completed, this should be a year of new beginnings … or at least picking up the old threads that got dropped along the way, including my blog.

One other thing that got somewhat dropped, not helped by the horrible weather we’ve had lately, is my photography, so yesterday I decided to go and spend my Christmas money (it’s great still getting Christmas money from relatives at 42 – I know people whose relatives told them they were too old for Christmas presents now at 11!) I bought a brand new, shiny tripod (had to go for a light-weight version as, thanks to the good ol’ R.A., even though it’s not particularly worrisome at the moment). I’d put together a certain amount of money for a tripod and found that if I was going for light weight I either had to double that money or go for a ‘compact’ at considerably less money. Although the compact isn’t quite as sturdy, that’s what I opted for. So, with the money ‘saved’ and a handy second-hand lens available in the camera shop that was just what I wanted, I got a lens too! Then hubby and I had lunch out and hammered out some work-related stuff I wanted to discuss, and finally we’ve ordered a new DVD/hard drive. Nothing like a good bit of retail therapy to make it a cheering new year.

So … on to today. I decided it was too darned cold to test out my new gear outside so decided to go round to mum’s to test it out on her splendid Christmas Cacti. Never got quite that far – I broke the tripod!!! That’s where the spare legs come in … alas, I can’t offer any spare legs to anyone although I’m sure there are a few people reading this who could do with them, as could I, but I fear that’s what my new tripod is going to be. The legs are fine but I have irrevocably broken the head and it’s ENTIRELY MY FAULT, which makes it ten times worse, not only because I’ve clearly invalidated any guarantee but because I feel such a fool!! I shall contact the manufacturer on Monday and see if they can supply a new head for less than the cost of the whole tripod, in which case fine; otherwise I shall have to get a new tripod and then, looking on the rather limited bright side, I shall have a set of spare tripod legs if I ever need them!