What camera?

I've been thinking of getting a new camera for use in the Dominican Republic. I really want something better than my phone camera, the 3.2 Mpixel k800i, so that I can make another photo book like I did with my photos from my European travels last summer. I was thinking of getting the canon Digital ixus 70 for a while. The orientation sensor was a great feature which would save rotating the photos once I put them on the computer and the smaller screen than the ixus 75 means extended battery life.

Now i've found the Pentax optio w30 which looks like the camera i've been looking for. Designed to be rugged the camera is waterproof to 3 meters for 2 hours. This alone makes it tonnes more suitable for going adventure touring in the DR. There are drawbacks, of course, the optical zoom is only 3x as it has to use a refraction lens because of the waterproof shell. There is no orientation sensor and the camera is around £175. However it is 7 Mpixels and the sample pictures seem ok. There is a coating on the screen to make it visible in bright sunlight and the underwater pictures will be stunning in the clear Carribean sea. I think these things make up for its downfalls and I can always sell it afterwards to get some of the money back. Who doesn't want a waterproof digital camera?

Injections

I went to get injections today. On the phone I was told I would see the nurse and have all the injections done on that day and everything would be fine. Hah. The nurse I saw was a total hypochondriac. As soon as i walked into the room and said where I was going she started to reel off a large list of diseases and conditions that I would be susceptible to if I didn't have the right course of injections. She said that it was probably best to have the emergency vaccines that give immediate protection as I was so close to the deadline for having the other one. Admittedly I should have insisted that I only wanted the one injection and that she should give it to me now anyway but a person reeling off a long list of diseases can be quite bewildering.

So now I'm scheduled to go back 3 times for 4 injections as she recommended hep A, B, and typhoid. I've also been recommended to start taking malaria tablets ASAP just in case I have an allergic reaction to them (quite rare when used for the prevention of malaria)
but oh well. None of my friends had this much fuss made about going there but I guess the injections are free anyway and I don't really want any of those diseases. I will just have to take lots of insect repellent (although it has to have 50% DEET, mind) and a mosquito net impregnated with DEET or some other such rubbish. I'm sure everywhere I stay will have mosquito nets and I'm sure the Dominicans themselves have to use insect repellent so I imagine all the best supplies will be out there although I'm prepared to be enlightened.