Connectivity and staying in touch

Sunday morning at Millstream, Fred and Barry were quietly chatting on the veranda, I fetched my iPhone, opened FaceTime and called Shawni. We all had a wonderful 4 way catch up and I was able to both see her and chat.

I miss my family but love how we can be in touch so easily from wherever we are.

I was struck this morning how quite wonderful our communication tools are; our cellphones and computers, with Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, FaceTime, email, voicemail, sms and digital instant photos.


Shawni and I were on Whatsapp early today, both watching South Africa playing cricket against Sri Lanka in the World Cup quarter final, she in New Zealand and me at home in Johannesburg.

It's not too long ago that we used letters, postcards and telegrams.

So I went digging though my box of letters and found a set of cards and a telegram from Fred sent during the winter of 1984.

He was working for Telemecanique and was on a business trip to Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

He sent me this telegram from the airport as he was leaving: 'Hi Beagle, missing you already'. How different staying in touch is 31 years later.

Postcards and stamps!

I did send a few postcards from the USA on my last trip because Dad is no longer using technology but it's a rare occurrence to shop for cards and to buy stamps.

Such a treat to reread these cards from Fred.

He was enjoying his course in Singapore, was hot and bothered by the pressure of 'small people' in Hong Kong and as I recall he had some wild, crazy experiences in Thailand.