Saturday, February 5, 2011

Another small step

When we came to the island we started with one mobile, because one needed a number, for bureaucracy, but in reality there was no-one to call, and calls to those we knew would be in life-and-death disasters, back in South Africa. No point in a landline, we were going to move to a place of our own, and anyway, what did we need it for?

Very soon we realised one mobile phone was not much use as no, we did not go everywhere together, and the kids, when here, sometimes went off without us too. So we got a pay-as-you-go for me because I am not very good about having it with me or charging it. And gradually we settled into island life. Of course it was more expensive than we'd realised to move us and the animals and our stuff here, and the US Dollar fall against the Aus $ hasn't helped... so we're not moving any time soon. And from only having each other to call, 2-5 calls a day has become more-or-less the norm. And everyone - especially some of our more chatty friends - whinge at us about mobile rates. The bills were a lot higher than I enjoyed, especially when I was calling the various Unis and emigration about the kids' status. But even just over the December holidays, there were a lot more calls.

So we've accepted reality and got a landline - dug out our 2 South African phones and the instrument John left here. Today - having web-contacted them Tuesday, had them call us on Friday... it's up and working today. B and I made our first calls.

I was out picking some tomatoes for supper when - great excitement - the phone rang. I came in post haste to find out just who had been our first caller.

It was a wrong number.

2 comments:

  1. Just wondering -- you do use Skype for long-distance calls, right? I've found it is significantly cheaper to most locations, even when calling regular phones.

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  2. Imagine when the phonebook comes out, it'll be Flinder's own version of Navin R. Johnson! ;)

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