Recently I've moved to the other side of the world. Leaving my friends and all I know behind in London, I have found myself in Melbourne. As this move was not out of choice it has been one of the most difficult things I've had to do. Going from having a wonderful network of friends, a packed diary, and limitless lists of things to do, to entering into suburbia with nothing but houses and highways around and no-one in your contact list is a complete shock. It's like wandering around in a desert looking for fun things to do. I know there's an oasis around here somewhere but for now I'm just playing in the sand. Anyway, all my BFF's are scattered around London and have promised to always stay in contact. All that lovely technology out there means that it's so utterly simple to make the world a smaller place. Email, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, etc are great (and FREE) and when you're far away bring you instantly back to where you used to be. But this move has also given me the gift of letter writing. Sadly I think that writing and sending letters has fallen out of mode. Post you say?! It's almost like saying your going to fax something. I will argue vehemently that the fax is obsolete but I wanted to take this opportunity to hype about letter writing. Perhaps it's a little romantic but I love getting things in the post and, let's face it, these days it's most likely to be a bill. So when you receive a proper letter that's been lovingly penned by hand it's utterly joyous. So perhaps next time you're sending a little communique you might think of doing it the old fashioned way and send someone a little love by snail mail. Let's hear it for the Postman.
I am very much gratified that you, in a foreign country, and with a
mind almost over occupied, should write to me in the
strain of the Letter beside me.
- Keats (opening line of a letter to Shelley)
