For a long while I have been recommending my mum to get the Panasonic DMC-FZ7, and now she was finally ready to take the plunge. Of course, when reading up I found that the Canon Powershot S3 IS was out as well and has close to identical features. The differences are: the Canon is twice as heavy, uses AA batteries rather than a propriatery lithium-ion battery, has a shorter minimum focus distance (good thing ) and zooms quicker. After much discussing, she ended up with the DMC-FZ7 as it was lighter and I'm quite confident it was a great choice even though I liked the lens of the S3 a bit better. Price difference? $1.

Owen Morse-Brown has made a set of CDs if you want to play duets but have no-one to play with. The series contain Telemann Boismortier sonatas.