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I am loving my twenty first century telephony - even if it is at least one model out of date.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