I hate technology. It provides so many different channels of loneliness.

Every time you check your email and don’t see a new message, you know that, even though people have the ability to contact you at any time of the day from anywhere on the planet, no one is interested in doing so. Phones are constant reminders that 160 people you know fairly well have nothing to say to you most of the time ― written by Adi Alsaid, in Somewhere Over The Sun.

Well, it's one view but not mine. To me, technology provides so many different channels of friendship.

I've friends across the world - friends that I'm very close to, who live in my heart, and yet I've never met them - not in person, at any rate.

Sneery cynics tell me - 'That's not the same thing as REAL friendship, FACE-TO-FACE meetings...' No, not the same, but just as special. Not INSTEAD (which could be deemed as a bit sad) but AS WELL AS...

I'm going to have such a wonderful week with my real live family. I can't wait.

I'll miss my friends, though, if the internet access isn't too hot.

See you when I can!