Camera ObsCuba

After being cajoled into lending my four month old camera to the mother figure for her holiday to Cuba last week, she returned yesterday morning and informed me she'd lost it through, of all places, a hole in the floor of a Cuban bus. Never in all my life. Naturally, I threw a minor hissyfit (it hit her in the face - fnar) before eventually seeing sense and bellowing "it's OK, mother, the best things in life aren't things." [interlude] "You can buy me a new one".

It means there's a Cuban peasant child (though relatively poor, also highly literate and comprehensively vaccinated) playing about with my camera somewhere. It's still got the photo of me and Joe Mangel (a.k.a. Aussie Oaf Mark Little) taken at All Tomorrow's Parties on it, because I 'protected' it so I could have it in a portable format for occasional screen caressing and whatnotwhat. They're probably thinking: "Who IS this guy, hanging around with charismatic international superstars just for fun?" And then they'll probably be doubly impressed when they find out Mark Little is an international superstar aswell.

On the one hand I should perhaps commend the mother figure for the enthusiasm with which she entered into the spirit of all things communist-Cuban, stripping herself of needless personal property and laying it down for use by the state as a whole. But on the other hand, I'd confidently say that if I was ever to get on a public bus and notice a gaping hole in the floor, I'd say to myself: "I shall make it my mission, for the duration of this journey, that nothing falls out onto the road, PARTICULARLY my son's Sony Cybershot W-50." Never mind though; I replaced it in Middlesbrough yesterday afternoon with a Cybershot W-80. They've stopped making the W-50, and the W-80 is it's improved replacement boasting a "face recognition" feature, whatever that means. Sounds a bit Orwellian to me, I think I'll turn it off. Anyway, during a barbecue at Lav and Laura's earlier today I put it to good use with a photo of a great set of baps. *snort*