I took my new toy (discussed in yesterday's PAD shot) out for its first out of doors excursion today. Some other E-P1 owners look wistfully at the 17mm (34mm equivalent) f/2.8 prime lens, known colloquially as the "pancake" for its shape. I almost feel guilty that my package, one of the last of the E-P1's available, was a twin lens kit which included that one along with the standard 14-42 lens.

Almost.

The exposure is rather darker than I'm used to with the Canons, but the result is certainly acceptable. I'm glad that I didn't go for the cheaper option of the E-PL1, because based on my experience with my Olympus mju the constant searching for menu items would have driven me around the twist. I find the E-P1's controls to be extremely easy to use and very intuitive.

The pancakes weren't specifically in honour of the Olympus' lens. I regularly have them (though I leave the cream and ice cream to one side!) as a poor substitute for being in British Columbia or Alberta. Or Saskatchewan. (Yes, I know that there's supposedly nothing there (aside from wheat), but I really want to visit a place named "Saskatchewan".) Alas, my assistant has resigned and I won't have full time backup for the remaining year before the system that I run is phased out, which means that I won't be able to take more than a couple of days off at a time. Consequently Canada is looking increasingly far away.

My PAD gallery, on the other hand, is showing signs of life again.
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Edit March 2025: Three things.
First, I see that I still had my Canadian fetish here. While I would still love to see Canada, an extra 15 years, three of them locked down with The Bug, has made me acutely aware of the rapidly slipping chances to be in Italia, which is my priority.
Second, The Coffee Club at Rhodes closed down a few years ago. It was probably overdue since it had aged terribly since it was my regular Sunday breakfast haunt. Also, at no Coffee Club will you EVER get such an indulgent stack of pancakes in the modern era. These days you'll get a couple which are about half that height and 4 pieces of strawberry. The past is a different country, and we ate better there. In places like this, at least.
Third, my system being phased out? I originally decided to stick around so that I would get a redundancy package and a long service leave payout. That was 15 years ago.