When our daughter was recently backpacking in Europe we were able to communicate with her easily despite some internet hiccoughs.
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Using a combination of social media Whatsapp, facebook and phone calls via Skype meant that for most of her two month trip we were able to keep in touch almost daily.
There was a short time when we did not hear anything. Thankfully it turned out to be simply poor internet coverage where she was travelling. As soon as she was able she got in touch and set our minds at rest.
I can’t help but stand in awe of modern technology and how its convenience kept us in touch.
The young girl within me vividly remembers the time when my father was so excited as he carefully unwrapped a long awaited parcel from overseas.
Inside was a well-wrapped plastic reel to reel tape, the type you used in cumbersome audio tape machines.
At the time these machines were considered to be an amazing piece of equipment.
Dad worked for National Panasonic in those days and while we couldn’t afford such an expensive piece of machinery then, he was able to borrow one from work for this event.
I remember Dad carefully threading the end of the tape through the machine and winding the end onto the opposing empty reel.
Turning the machine on we heard the hesitant voices of relatives who until this time, for Mum and me at least, had been simply faint, scratchy voices over a telephone line.
"Hello Nick, hello Elwyn, hello Sharon...it's May here...' said a strong Liverpudlian accented woman.
A pause, then others followed suit, saying very much the same thing. Sadly the tape remains unfinished.
The need and the means to communicate remains the same through every generation it seems.