I am once again settled into my place in Essex, United Kingdom. The weather is as wonderful as always, blue skies(sort of) and an equally blue sea(sort of) ..The River Thames. The older I get, the more I appreciate the advantages of living in Europe with it's many hundreds of years of history organising it into a great, comfortable and friendly place to enjoy life.

The Internet still continues to amaze me, now with its staggering speed even at sea with the aid of satellite communication. I would now be lost without Broadband/ADSL, just like the cell phone now with emails delivered to my hand!... how on earth did we manage without?

One of the most recent marvels to me, is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) in the form of Skype. This morning I was talking, as clearly or clearer than a normal phone, to a friend in China and most importantly ... for FREE. If you have not yet discovered Skype, go on over to www.Skype.com and find what you have been missing. VOIP is really best with Broadband/ADSL but my friends in China and Spain only have dial-up and our conversations are as clear as a bell. I now even have Skype on my cell phone ... wonders will never end ..

I do miss the European Culture when I am in the "New World" or at sea. Living in the South East of England has many advantages apart from it being relatively dry, in less than three hours I can be down to the South, through the channel tunnel and having lunch in France or Belgium. In the USA I would have to go a very long way to experience such a change of lifestyle but America is yet young, who knows ... in a few hundred years they may have worked out that not everything can be bought at a price, sometimes it is good to slow down and appreciate and learn from what has been around for centuries .... as in the "Old Europe"! We over here have "Been and Conquered" when we were only four hundred years old and now that we have cut the strings of our "Puppet Ex-Leader" perhaps soon we may be able to get on with enjoying the way of life we have, rather than being dragged down by a particular Nation who still wishes to conquer ...... so, as I write this I do see a "ray of light" at the end of the wartunnel! Keep your fingers crossed, I do hope we will start thinking for ourselves and in tune with Europe, for I am sure we can live peacefully together. Maybe it is now time to be like most of our allies and lean more on Diplomacy and less on Brute Force and Ignorance! .... Citizens of a Nation we are proud of ....... being judged by our actions towards others and by taking time to listen to the views of our close neighbours.

Well I guess that is about it for now, I will do my best to try a little harder than in the past, and keep the site a little more up to date.