Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The power of technology

It was a truly a wonderful experience to converse with family at home via webcam and voice over IP this weekend. It was quite something to be seeing grandparents in real time across the internet. Despite feedback on sound and a grainy picture on screen it was a new communications experience that brought the West Midlands to Wellington and vice versa.

The next virtual meeting is already arranged and I'm sure it will be as exciting. I think we'll have to get the dress code right next time though as it was an early start for us so PJs were the order of the day.

The power of satellite TV has also meant we've been able to keep tabs on the sports fest of World Cup Football, Wimbledon and the Tour du France. It was very unsettling however this weekend to talking to parents who were ringing to tell us they were watching the All Blacks play the Wallabies (ABs won by a mile).

Although we now have the technology I'm struggling to maintain my previous standards of e-communications. Email was a stable part of my daily routine but now I have had to focus on tackling the organisational email mountain of the Ministry of Justice rather than exchanging news with friends and family. At least this blog is an appreciated shorthand for people to keep tabs on our kiwi adventure.

It's been good to have a range of pleasant distractions from the NZ news that seems to be full of stories of macabre murders and body parts being washed up on beaches. Oh, the rain's come back too!

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