An Unexpected Candle Lit Dinner

Last night Papicito gazed out of the window at the lawn and commented that the garden could do with watering, but he never got around to it.

Just before Chiquitito's bedtime the skies grew rapidly black and it started to rain. The smell of fresh rain on the dry earth gave off a gorgoeus smell, and as the rain quickened the storm gathered pace with louds rumbles of thunder and huge flashes of lightening.

We went and stood on the under cover terrace to watch the storm when the biggest crack of thunder went off right over head at the same time as an enormous flash of light. Everything went silent, and we turned around to see that the electricity had gone off.

The daylight was quickly fading into night so Papi went to check that it wasn't just us and to get our supply of candles from the garage, whilst there was still enough light to find things. Usually the power doesn't stay off for long, but we wanted to be prepared.

Chiquitito was tired and didn't put up an argument about bedtime, even though the power cut had upset his routine. His room is the smallest of our three bedrooms, and without his fan on it gets unbearably hot, so we put him to bed in our room with the windows open and the tiniest of breezes.

We lit our citronella candles, to ward off mosquitos, and sat on the terrace with a pre-dinner drink, watching the storm rumbling on. The inside of the house was an uncomfortable temperature, whilst outside was perfect.

Still no electric.

Luckily, I had baked a quiche the day before so Papi was able to prepare dinner by candlelight (the two candles in the kitchen were far superior to any of the others we have and I will definitely be buying some more of them!)

We ate outside - with the glow from the candles supplemented by the bright lightening. The lightening flashes were so frequent that I made Papi venture out into the wet to make sure there was nothing on fire in next door's garden!

Two hours after the power went off it came back - to the sound of cheers from us and our neighbours.

But do you know - it was so romantic sat outside drinking vodka and coke by candlelight that we didn't come back in for quite a while.

Welcome to 21st Century Telephony

When we lived in the UK I always had an uptodate mobile (cell) phone, on contract, so therefore heavily subsidised, and I always had (and used) lots of inclusive minutes and texts. Whereas Papicito has never been a mobile lover; indeed before we met he had a reclusive handset that rarely left the house.

It came as a shock when we moved to Malaysia in 2008 to discover that whilst phone calls were incredibly cheap, even on PAYG, handsets were not. I struggled to get my 3 handset unlocked, so grudgingly I downgraded to a basic Nokia handset, something to similar to the one on shown here.Mobile phones were still in the early days of internet access so I guess I didn't miss what I'd not been used to.

When we moved to El Salvador in 2010 we were provided with phones from my husband's company, contract phones that allowed free calls to each other, but once again not technicalogically advanced and quite heavy to carry. Hence we named our "new" phone el bricko! A year or so on and we got offered the chance to upgrade, to a more advanced phone, but at extra cost, so we took the sensible decision to keep with whatever phone we got offered for free!

So, despite having all mod cons with our iPad and Nexus, for six years we have been living in a telephony timewarp.

Then, a friend who was in a pre packing frenzy before their move oerseas advertised her 32gb iPhone 4s at a very reasonable price. I looked, I ummed, I arghed, I procrastinated, then Papicito said the nicest words a husband can: "Have it if you want!"

Two months later I can already see how it has changed my life. I no longer carry my cumbersome iPad around with me, or even the sleeker Nexus7. Instead my handbag is barely any heavier with the addition of my iPhone. Now I don't have to look dumb when the dental rceptionist asks if she can WhatsApp my appointment reminder, I can squirm when the mechanic is delighted that he can FaceTime me with the arrival time of my car and I can Skype family back home using a normal phone, instead of having to talk into the back of the iPad.

We were discussing an upcoming shopping trip to the US and Papicito asked me if I wanted a new iPod for Xmas, to replace my elderly 80GB one. Er....no! I have plenty of space on my iPhone for a reasonable amount of music. Well would I like a new compact camera? Er.....noooo! My iPhone is my new compact camera!

I am loving my twenty first century telephony - even if it is at least one model out of date. To me it's perfect!