more communication

Thursday themes are great for when i feel like a lazy blogger - i'm always likely to have some at least slightly relevant photos to slap up here......

but after posting last Thursdays "Communciation" pictures, i came across just a couple more relevant pictures from my recent US visit.

And I also actually gave a bit more thought to the topic (hmmmm a hazlenut in every bite)
so I am now being a not-so-lazy blogger, and doing a follow-up post.

With writing.

Its hard impossible for me to imagine what travelling would be like without the instant communication which we take for granted.

In fact I'm not sure I would have visited the US at all if I hadn't developed friendships through blogging and then email.

And I've also been thinking about the ways in which communications and communities spring up, all over the place, with the slightest opportunity - flickr is designed primarily for sharing photographs, but people use the comments box (and even the tags labelling the photos) in all sorts of ways... communicating and developing relationships...


I do believe the instinct and need for communication is one of the most characteristic, universal and inherent human qualities. Speaking, myself, as a recovering introvert.


While away, on both of my USA trips, I didn't miss M or LG at all.

But I texted them frequently and emailed. So, we were in contact... so in a way it didn't feel as if I was so very far away...

[Eddy checking for new emails dozing]

I wonder how much I might have missed them if I'd been mobile- and computer-less? It would certainly have felt odd. If I was travelling completely alone, rather than visiting friends, I would definately buy a lap-top to take with me.

Tho it has occurred to me to wonder whether these advantages might mean that i am missing out on some aspects of travel... there is a certain appeal to the possiblity of being really adrift and out of contact. But i don't think I could trade the internet for that experience, at least not at this stage in my life.

I agreed - rather reluctantly - to let M buy me a mobile phone about 5 years ago. On the explicit understanding that he would accept that I wouldn't always have it with me.
[he doesn't accept it]

But of course I was soon appreciating the convenience of being able to text him with shopping lists or additions to shopping lists. And some of its more qualitative uses.


We didn't speak on the phone while I was in the States

[telephones in the NYC public library]

but knew we could, if we needed.

[telephones in Grand Central Station]

I didn't write any letters or postcards.

I would be sad if people stopped sending postcards altogether, but i seem to have stopped doing so myself.

So, I think I will start again. Next holiday or outing. New resolution.

[mailboxes nr. Liberty, NY]


LG is also extremely appreciative just now of all this wonderful communication technology. Actually, I think she's too accustomed to it all to be truly appreciative - but she makes extensive use of it.

She had an additional week in the Channel Islands, after M and I returned to London and to work.*

Now she is home she is spending an inordinate amount of time sat at a computer (whenever possible, M's new computer with the handily-extra-large screen) and engaged in multiple MSN conversations - catching up with London friends, and keeping in touch with Jersey friends.


In particular a certain recently-acquired Jersey boyfriend.....






*{not v. happy with colour-communicating-mood idea after all... did it communicate anything?}