Camera woes

I'm embarrassing myself by admitting that I cried yesterday when I got the invoice for the camera repair, but I'm doing it anyway.

It will cost me 1760kr(~P15,312) to have it repaired. For a point-and-shoot? No way. Worse, if I don't have it repaired, I have to pay 375kr(~P3,260) for having it checked. What on earth?!? Maybe I'm ignorant about procedure, but there was nothing said or written about this charge. Had I known about it, I wouldn't have left the camera with them. I'll simply send it back to the Philippines, where it is still under warranty and since I bought it from Canon directly, I know they'd do something about it. I could still do this, but if I can make a deal with the service center to leave the camera there in exchange for a certain amount, essentially selling it to them, I'd consider it.

Maybe 375kr is not a big deal to Danes, but that's two weeks' worth of food for me. I worked six weeks to buy that camera, and it served me well, taking over 6200 shots in 10 months. I had been carried it with me all the time even before I left for London. As a rule, I'm detached to my things, having my cellphones damaged, lost and stolen over the years. I was telling Jon that since I stopped wearing eyeglasses, there's really nothing I can't live without. (Then again, I need eyedrops. Maybe lotion, too.) I feel that I can always start over anytime. And I will.

I'm definitely buying a cheap new camera next month. As much as I love Canon, I'm also going to look at other brands that can deliver decent quality at a good price. Anything under 1000kr(~P8700) that you can recommend?

By the way, today is a holiday in Denmark: Himmelfartsdag. Sounds funny, but it's actually Ascension. The next holiday is Whit Monday, or the day after Pentecost, on the 28th. Weird that such an un-religious country marks it on the calendar. But any holiday is welcome, right? With 6 weeks of vacation a year and 37 hours of work every week, I envy the Danes.