Wonders of Modern Technology

Ah, modern technology what did we ever do when I was growing up and a teenager without these wonderful "inventions".

New Year's Eve at 6:30pm in Los Angeles, California, I sat at my computer and "up pops" my nephews name in the land of OZ. I clicked on his name and "Viola" there he was in front of me, sitting in his tank top and shorts explaining that it was 41c or 105f at that time 1pm New Year's Day in the land of OZ. My husband and I had the pleasure of seeing my nephew and his wife in 2005 when they stopped briefly in Los Angeles at the end of a vacation. This New Year's Day I was introduced to his children and their children.

I also, with my husband and dog got to see my sister-in-law - I had not seen her since they immigrated to Australia in the 50's. Sadly my brother had died shortly after their arrival in Australia but my sister-in-law is still going strong at 92 years old and she doesn't look/sound or think any different to people I know at the age of 80 years old, God bless her.

Now that I have experienced this I will have to get the rest of my family or at least some of them to invest in a camera for their computer and register with Skype as it is free to register and subsequent calls are also free. WOW what a bargain, talk and see people FREE.

Well must close this as I still need to work on the last chapter of my book, hopefully this will be totally finished in a few months. I also need to send a few emails - another wonder of technology - no need to wait for "snail-mail".

Toodles - will talk again soon.

More family located

Several months ago I corresponded on Genes Reunited with a gentlemen who had posted for information on a person with my mother's name. He allowed me to view his family tree which showed his great grandfathers and great grandmother's names to be the same as my mum's mother and father. In checking further it showed the children of the grandparents to be the same as my mother's siblings. The gentleman then informed me that he had received wrong information; when he checked his grandfather's marriage certificate it showed a different name for his father.

About a month ago I looked and found another gentleman looking for a person with my mother's name. To make this story short he is the brother of the previous gentleman I mentioned and he told me that for some reason his grandfather had put down a wrong name as his father on his marriage certificate. He also checked his grandfather's birth certificate to make sure and it did indeed show his father's name as the same as my mother's father.

These two gentlemen are my mother's great nephews and my 2nd cousins. Hopefully they will keep in touch with me as I want to find out all I can about my mother's life before she married my Dad. I don't know if they can shed any light on that as all of my mother's sibling are deceased; but maybe they will have some "stories" to pass along.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year.

Lovely Day

I know this sounds strange but today in Los Angeles is, to me, a lovely day. 7am this morning is was raining and the temperature was about 55 degrees. When I left the house at 8:30am to run errands and get my morning Starbucks the rain had stopped however it was quite cold and breezy. Home again at 11am, still dry until 12pm just as my groceries were being delivered it started to rain and continued until 2am. It has stayed dry but cold, 63 degrees at 3:30pm. I much prefer this type of day as my energy level is higher. The hot days of "summer" make me very lazy.

The only draw back to the rain is my dog Monte prefers not to venture out to do "his business", however he does in his trench coat and we pretend he is Sherlock Bones when he investigates every bush and plant; "hot on the trail my dear Watson".

As most animal lovers know, especially those without children, treat their dogs/cats as their "children".

Well, I will now wait for some more rain to arrive, should be tomorrow night according to the weather man.

SIBLINGS

I have mentioned many times that my family is in the UK or Australia. I have two siblings still living. I realize how lucky I am that I have nephews and nieces close to my own age. I feel they are more like siblings than nephews and nieces as I can communicate with them on the same level (age wise)and discuss the "trials and tribulations" of aging. I do communicate with some of my great nieces and nephews but not as often as the "age gap" is a little more noticable. They also are busy with their professions, where as my nieces and nephews have been fortunate enough in life to retire at a reasonably early age.

Talking about family, I must get busy and write some emails.

Facebook

I have been a member of Facebook for approximately 1 year. Facebook is probably very "exciting" for up to 30 years of age after that I think it becomes "boring".
I base this thought on several friends/family members I have communicated with (by email or phone). Like me they gradually just don't bother to log in to Facebook.

Emails are private; if anything to do with the computer can really be private. I have thought about unfriending all of my "friends" on Facebook to see if anyone would start to communicate with me personally via email at least. I know certain members of my family would use email as they have continued to do rather than connect through Facebook. Others I feel would not communicate directly but continue to post all of their "thoughts and escapades" on Facebook.

All I have to say is "God, bless them" and hope that nothing they have put into "cyberspace" comes back to bite them in the bum.

Ta ta till next time.

Days of Rememberance

Today, 9/11 is indeed a very important, yet sad day of rememberance, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families/friends affected by this tragedy.

Yesterday was also a day of rememberance for me in a different way. I have been emailing back and forth with my UK high school friend since locating her a month ago. I spoke to her on the phone yesterday for an hour and we still didn't get anywhere near making a dent in the "catching up" of the past 50years.

I received the year book pages and recognized names of teachers and some of the classmates. I have to ask my friend about a few of the names I don't recognize. My friend had also sent me a copy of a copy of a photo, which unfortunately was not very clear. We both "think" we recognize ourselves; she is going to check for the original photo. Neither of us recognized others in the photo and we think it was a photo of "prefects" and not of classmates.

We also talked about how sad it is when friends, either from school or workplace part and promise to keep in touch and very rarely do. I have experienced this with many work friends/associates. In this day of the email it wouldn't take but a minute to say "Hi, how are you doing?"

The most important things in life are: Family - Friends and health.

Goosebumps upon goosebumps

In researching for my book I decided to get some detailed information on my "high school" called North End Secondary Modern on Leigh Road in Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK. I decided to register with Friends Reunited where I could put in the name of my school and hopefully see some names of people I knew back then. One name has been on my mind since starting my book so I put that name in and SURPRISE it "popped up" showing the school and age which would be correct SO I sent a message. I received a reply to my message and sat with my mouth open and yes, tears in my eyes as the person responding was indeed my old friend and classmate of 45 plus years ago. Even bigger surprise is she has been living in the United States since 1979 in So. Carolina. My friend mentioned a few things in her message that brought back memories I can use in my book. She has our 1959 year book with my signature in the "middle" of the back page. She is emailing me the class picture and back page of the yearbook. I am anxiously waiting for the email and attachments, BOY she will get a very long email reply.

I hope the above makes sense as I am so excited about getting in touch again with a friend.

Now I have to wait for the email. HURRY, HURRY. I am glad I do not have to wait for snail mail.