Sunday 8 July 2012

Friendship reunion

There was a reunion here this last week. My girl Sibs welcomed back one of best friends who had been overseas for six months. They had written to each other (yes, proper letters!) sharing everyday tales of school and activities, and we had managed the occasional skype conversation, but nothing beats seeing your friends in the flesh.


The countdown started a couple of weeks ago when Sibs worked that it was a bit too late to write another letter - that's when she realised that the return was imminent. I noticed that her calendar in her bedroom had the number of days written in as a countdown - excitement was mounting... Eventually we organised an afternoon to get together but the morning went by at a snail's pace with Sibs constantly updating me as to how many hours until C's arrival!

 It was a touching moment...


They compared accents for a while, there were questions about the differences in schools and teachers and food - the stuff that's important when you're nine and ten. Then we headed out to show that the place hadn't really changed much in six months. There is an Antiques Centre near by that I knew they would have some fun browsing around...and I knew that I would have some fun listening to them!


Sibs wanted to buy this bonnet as she fancies herself as a bit of a Jane Austen heroine! 
She also found some long pretty gloves that she assures me she will buy next time we visit when she remembers to bring her own money!


This was one of the best moment for me - listening to the two of them discussing how this 'thing' worked!
It was an old dial up telephone...just like I remember. They were amazed that there weren't buttons to press and that you needed to stay close to the unit.

This led to a conversation about communication 'in the olden days'. The 'olden days' being when I was their age!

They are on the cusp of the wonders of technology. The world of instant and constant communication, where everything is a button press away...
The world that most of us are battling to keep up with - blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, emails, texts...and on it goes!
I sometimes feel as if I'm drowning in the different ways to communicate and I don't sign up for half of them!

Girls, stay with your wonderful letter writing and phone calls for as long as you can....

Back to normal routine tomorrow when school starts again. It's been a lovely couple of weeks to stop and enjoy. I'll do a post of what we've been up to soon.




PS Jane who writes the blog 'Life on Planet Baby' has written a though provoking post on Social Media which got me thinking a bit about this whole communication thing - link HERE

5 Comments and thoughts:

  1. They are obviously very close and it's so nice to see. How funny, their chats about the old technology. I'm sure there are planty of homes still using those phones. Gosh, I remember the exact day we got our first phone - I must have been in grade 1 or 2. How to feel old!

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  2. Oh that's sweet. On of my daughter's friends has just moved to Aberdeen and she misses her very much.
    I can still remember getting my first text message back in 1998, and I really didn't know what it was or how to send one. Now we send and receive them hourly. Funny
    Kylie

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  3. How precious Beth :)
    I am heading home to NZ next month and am really looking forward to catching up with family and friends who I haven't seen in 6 yrs.
    I so want one of those dial phones...though our kids wouldn't know how to use it.,
    x

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  4. What a sweet post! Did they know that letters were such an old fashioned way of communicating too...even older than telephones with cords and dials?

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  5. What a delightful post, Beth. Thanks for the sweet mention. Goodness, it makes you feel old to see them looking at such recent inventions in such wonderment, doesn't it?! J x

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