The Day Carrot Went Out For Some Fresh Air

I have been spending an in-ordinate amount of time online lately. I'm kind've stuck in limbo, really - until some very important documents arrive from Australia, I can't finalise my enrolment, which means that I can't get a student card. Without a student card I can't do any singing practice, so I'm cooling my heels a fair bit, and spending an in-ordinate amount of time online! Thankfully I'm going away for the weekend, so I'll get to spend some time out of the house and away from my laptop. In fact, I'm going to see if I can impose a 48-hour internet ban on myself by consequence. So no sneaking off to the intenet terminal where I'm staying to check email, facebook or football scores, either. Wonder if I'll make it.

Since moving to Holland and using the internet a lot more, it's struck me how extraordinary it is, and how it's changed our lives remarkably in a very short space of time. In the past 24 hours I have -

- communicated with poeple all over the world
- watched and shared movie clips online
- had numerous (spoken) discussions online, also with people all over the world, including a forty-minute conversation with my bank in Australia, for free
- checked my bank balances in two separate countries, and I'll soon have the opportunity to do it in three
- organised international bank transfers between the same
- given 200+ people an instant update what I'm up to (facebook)
- published my ramblings to a potential audience of billions
- received complex electronically coded documentation by email
- looked at and shared photographs

Think that's the lot! And the remarkable thing is that all this is now so mundane. Remember when fax machines and mobiles were cool? No wonder I've spent so much time online - there's so much to do!

That said, if in ten years I can go from "the internet's for nerds" to it running my life for me, I hate to think what will happen in the next ten years. Maybe I really DO need some fresh air - I'd better stock up on it while I can!

See you in a day or two!