I had some money in the bank that was intended to settle a residual on the lease of my old car. But with the purchase of my new one, the settlement was handled in such a way that I didn't need to pay the residual, it being paid from the trade-in of my old car.

This left me with the ability to scratch my itch for a digital SLR camera, which I have been wanting for ages. So yesterday I placed an order with B&H for a Canon Digital Rebel (known as a 300D outside the US) and some lenses and other accessories. Although the Canon 20D and Nikon D70 were tempting I decided to restrain myself and go for the cheaper 300D. I will start building up a collection of lenses that I will be able to use later with a more advanced camera body.

I also bought Mela a full set (48 colours) of Trichem fabric paints. She has used Trichem and Hobbytex paints for years and was badly in need of some new ones as many of her old tubes were empty or the rollerball tips had packed up.

I think I will visit the new Incredible Connection in Somerset Mall to buy a new Palm as my Palm V is five years old and besides only having 1MB of memory, is starting to misbehave a bit. I was checking their website and they have the Tungsten E at quite a good price so I'll probably get that. It has more features than the Zire 31 and the other models are too expensive.

While I'm there I will see what they have in the way of MP3 players as Christopher has said that he wants one for Christmas. I'm sure he would love an iPod or a 20GB Samsung Yepp but they are rather pricey. I'll probably get him something with 256MB in a USB thumb drive format. Consumer electronics are unfortunately not as affordable for us here in ZA as they are in the rest of the world.