I don't normally 'do' envy but....

Without wishing to sound smug and complacent, I'm very lucky with my lifestyle and usually don't feel any need to acquire more trappings. And yet....and yet...recently I've been afflicted by the Green Goddess of Envy. Perhaps sharing my uncomfortable thoughts will make me feel better about them?

First of all, there's the lens envy I've been feeling. One thing I've noticed since being the VPO (very proud owner) of a 'proper' camera is that we photographers (as I now call myself - immodestly) can always be seen surreptitiously taking sideways glances at fellow photographers to see if their lens is bigger or wider or both.  Even with my Canon 100D, 18-55mm kit lens, 55-200mm zoom and 50mm 1.8 prime dangling around my neck, yesterday I felt like the man with a small penis standing at a urinal: I kept looking at everyone else's lenses, wishing mine was bigger! I really, really need a 300mm and a 500mm would be so useful, not to mention a decent wide-angle lens and, before I forget, a good macro lens is close to being essential. I'm sure I'm not the first person to feel this way! 

And if that's not enough, extreme envy hit me again the minute I saw what the Sage of Pempwell had before him - a Travelling Desk. A combination of an attaché case and a writing desk, complete with functioning porcelain ink well!

It was made of wood and is lined with green felt but the great, great thing about this briefcase is that I could write on it, wherever I was! As the inventor says on his website, I could use it "Waiting for the train or the plane, or on the move, in the bus or the car, or on a park bench, or in bed! So it saves you hours of dead time. Armed with pencil and paper and a desk, you can work, you can play, you can think, you can fight boredom, that “delicate monster”. Whatever the hurly-burly around you, you can retreat to a safe and familiar place – a place of words, of thoughts – an intelligent place." Who could fail to be beguiled by such a description? And if that's not sufficient, consider their final inducement: "A STATEMENT OF STYLE: Altogether, the The Travelling-Desk® makes a nice statement: it speaks of an unhurried, nature-friendly, thoughtful man." Yep, if that isn't something to be envious of, I'll eat my lens - if I can get one big enough.