Great but Quick or you'll miss it

I purchased this camera about 4 months ago, recomended by the woman in the shop because 'it looks good'. So I started out wanting to know what the camera can do. Shots outside it's good at, long distance is good too. Also inside and in the dark it can cope with with ease. In near enough any location in any conditions this camera can give you a good quality photo. It even has a great ability to review the photo's even with a slide show which is great to show your friend. As a web cam the quality is again quite good with a alright battery life, but for long term webcam use it would probably be better to have a plug in power adapter.
The only problem with this camera is that it takes too long to take the photo. They say it has a perfect auto focus, which yeah it does, but to get the perfection takes time. So if something just happened that you want to take a photo of, you will probably miss it by the time the camera is ready to take. If people are posing they have to wait around while it sorts its self out, which is fine for adults but not fidgety children.
Ok maybe it doesnt take that long but its far longer than my old camera and many others out there and its too long for me really, but the other features are all good. Just not the time to take
ADDED LATER:
ok after using this product for some time i have decided the following in summary:
When its Light, in the sun for example, this camera takes photo's quickly as it can focus easily.
When its dark, any time flash is needed (quite a lot),this camera takes too long to take pictures, 1-2 seconds.
All of the other features are very good. Some of them seem to have very little use but that doesnt matter.
The ability to preview about 6 pictures at once is good (press zoom out)
the zoom is good
the picture quality is good
the interface is easy to understand
the menus are quite complex having 6 screens, but easy when you get used to it.
Its not too bulky - fits in a pocket well on a night out
its not too heavy
its got a good strap, seems strong enough
Ability for others to take a photo (so everyone can get in):- they usualy manage ok but due to the flash delay they sometimes get confused
the flash - causes a delay but good quality
the mode select switch on top sometimes moves to easily when in a pocket so when trying to take a picture sometimes it records a video instead - its easy to check before taking a picture but why need to bother
the screen is a good size with a good quality image