The wonders of Skype

For those of you familiar with the wonders of Skype this entry is likely to induce a yawn - yeah, you know all this stuff, already!  Just humour me and have a giggle at my expense - I can handle it :-) - or skip to the next post.

I've used Skype for several years - just a free account and mainly so I could talk to my parents and sister (all in Nelson), and over the last three years to talk to Nigel's sister (Gail) and her husband (Janos) in the UK.  I've just recently set up the 'answer phone' service, for free, so if someone calls while I'm offline or unable to take the call, they can leave a message.

A week ago we met Marina from Santa Brigida, in Umbria, but at her home in Florence where she has faster broadband, and last night we spoke to Tim who was chatting from his iPad, waiting for his children in a cafe in Pedaso, on the Adriatic coast to the east of Florence.  That will be me soon!!

But the wonders of Skype go further, once you start plugging in a bit of money, and for our situation we think it will be money well spent.  We're going to set up a local number for our Skype account so anyone in Christchurch (and maybe the whole of the South Island - we haven't figured that one out yet) will be able to call the number as if it were a local call and they'll be transferred to us at Skype.  If we're not 'at home' they'll be able to leave a message for us.  With a monthly calling account on Skype we'll be able to call any land-line or mobile phone in the world at low rates, as long as we have an internet connection.  I do hope European cafes have free wireless.  Of course we can still contact anyone with a Skype account for free.

When I last travelled to the other side of the world (in 1985!) I posted hand-written letters and postcards to friends and family in New Zealand, and some were lucky to receive two letters in the ten weeks I was away!  As we've experienced with Gail and Janos, we see more of them now than we did when they lived in Dunedin. It's so much easier to stay connected.  Wonderful!