Skype me!

We did our first free phone call last night courtesy of those nice guys at Skype. I've been trying to persuade someone to Skype with me for about 18 months now and finally Lindz comes through. We chatted for about 40 minutes and it didn't cost either of us a penny. Technology wins - at last.

The voice quality was good although there was a little echo on the line just like there used to be with transatlantic calls in the 70s. There was no time lag however and that made the whole experience much better than I had imagined. Lindz was using a Wintel setup and her b/f Stu was fiddling with settings most of the time she was on the call while at this end our Powerbook G3 just worked. We had her voice coming through the internal speakers and we just spoke at the machine - I cannot even remember where the mic is situated. And everything worked perfectly.

Gill was cooking but could hear what was going on and just popped over to put in her twopennorth at will - just like an old fashioned conference call. Admittedly it is strange talking to a computer but no worse than talking to an answerphone machine and you do get proper feedback! If anyone else wants to Skype us, feel free.

Today was the first day for a week when we had no "must dos", no deadlines, no imperatives of any kind. We breathed out and congratulated ourselves on what we managed to accomplish in a week. A day of doing just what we pleased and, more importantly, doing nothing that we didn't want to do was immensely satisfying. We did take the girls for a wander around the garden - seeing them both up past their elbows in clover and oxalis was a hoot and despite the extensive grooming required after the event they seemed to enjoy it. As did we.