Dear reader ,
After nearly 30 years of marriage (to the same person!) one would expect to know all of his foibles. But often travelling with someone emphasises some side of their character that may be of concern.
I should have known that his delight in finding a Technology section in the duty free shop at Melbourne Airport was an indication of things to come.
The rot really set in when he opened his case in the apartment in Rome and produced a number of small bags filled with adapters, leads, a number of chargers and even a power board.
Between the two of us we have two tablets ( one big and one small) AND 3 phones, including my iphone. As an android addict Ewan was sure we needed two android phones to use local simcards.
That idea has some merit, or at least it did until we were admiring the Trevi Fountain in the midst of thousands of tourists and managed to lose each other. OK , I have to admit that I threw a coin in the fountain for good luck. Ewan lost sight of me and rang me on my newly-simcarded phone. An excellent use of technology I hear you say! Except that I had no idea about the ring tone and assumed it was someone else ( thinking to myself how annoying it is when people don't answer their phones!).
He takes great delight in keeping up with the news whilst we are soaking up the atmosphere at some famous historic sight: comments like "how the hell did Carlton beat Richmond ?!" in the midst of the colosseum seem a little odd.
And he does like to test the technology: 'does the tablet know where we are' is the latest game - can we see ourselves as a little blue dot moving on a map somewhere? Are we in the right part of town or have we fallen into the Tiber River according to our friend the tablet? And most importantly do the phone and the tablet agree about where we are?
However, today we set off for the catacombs which are out of town near the Via Appia Antica and quite a few bustops from anywhere we had been before. The little blue dot was constantly assessed so we knew exactly when to get off the bus: although the big sign saying CATACOMBS probably helped a bit too.
And then a sad thing happened - the battery started to run out of charge on his phone. Would we be lost forever like the 500,000 people buried in the crypts there?? Would we spend our lives wandering around the Via Appia Antica haunted by the ghosts of thousands of triumphant soldiers who had marched down that very road centuries ago?
But no! From within the black bumbag came a new gadget: a portable battery charger! Hooray we are saved!!
Ewan has even dressed himself so he has all of these essentials close at hand: the tablet is stored in a big pocket in his shorts - although he couldn't pedal the bike at the Villa Borghese without removing it first.
The only shopping he has shown the slightest interest in has been to buy a new bag to store the tecnological bits and pieces in when we are out sightseeing, and the purchasing of the TIM cards ( see previous blog!).My only hope for doing some shopping is to park him in the Italian equivalent of Dick Smiths and leave him there!
The other technological challenge for me has been that I have replaced my books with using Kindle on the tablet. Gone are the days of lugging some huge tome around for leisure time reading. Now I can just read anything I fancy! As long as I don't inadvertently press a button or icon just at the best bit of the book, so the whole screen goes black or reverts to online maps or something totally unrelated!!!!!!!! I am sure I'll get there yet but it's a struggle. I'm working on the theory that there will be more space for shoppping without the real books.
Time to go : the battery on this tablet is in need of a charge and I am off to bed to recharge my batteries for another day's sightseeing.
Did I forget to mention what we actually did today??
Oh well there's always tomorrow!
your luddite traveller
Dianne
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