I'm afraid that I have become a lousy man who derives pleasure from other's misfortunes. The story is like this: One of my friends, who is a camera enthusiast, had a nice single-lens reflex camera and he had often been asked to take snaps on various occasions like community festivals, field days, show and tells and so on. One day his camera was broken with old age. The shutter unit seemed to have reached its life span and so he gave up using the camera and decided to buy the newest one. He was going to throw the broken one away, and I asked him to give it to me with its accessories for exclusive use. These accessories were useless without its compatible camera itself. Additionally I bought two lenses from him which were in general use and he would trade in.
I ordered the repair from a shop and the broken unit was totally replaced. That meant the camera was the same as a new one. Including the accessories, the full set of the camera would cost more than 250,000 yen new, but I got them for 40,000 yen. It was wonderful. I'm planning to visit Europe this autumn and this camera would make the trip more enjoyable. I prepared the space for them in my bookshelf. Whenever I bought something like these gadgets, my wife would make a fuss, but this time I could get through it. No matter what she said, I got only a broken camera.
(Vocabulary)
derive sth from sth ＜…＞から＜喜び・恩恵など＞を得る
Many people derive pleasure from reading. 多くの人が読書から喜びを得ている．
derive pleasure from someone's misfortune （人）の不幸を喜ぶ
with old age 経年変化により
cost $__ new 新品だと＿ドルかかる
fuss (ささいなことに対する) 大騒ぎ, 空騒ぎ
make a fuss 騒ぎたてる, 不平を言う
She kicked up a fuss when the waiter forgot her order. ウェイターが注文を忘れたことに対して彼女はぶうぶう言った．
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