As you all by now know, a couple of months ago we moved to Wales – 130 miles away from our family and friends. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t too far. We can go back to Birmingham (I can’t call it home, Wales feels like it has always been my home!) and be back home again in a day easily, and we have pledged to go back there one weekend a month.  My youngest brother, his fiancee and their dog are coming to stay for the night just after Christmas along with my parents, so we can still each other pretty much as often as we did when we lived in Birmingham.

However, my other brother recently moved to Suffolk to live with his fiancee, and that means we now live a whopping 270 miles-ish away from him. It’s a bit far to do that trip very often, so I know the occasions when I see Simon and Charlotte now are going to be few and far between, which does make me sad. We will try and coordinate visits back to Birmingham every so often, but with work and everything else that goes on, it will be difficult.

Tonight, my phone made a noise and I realised it was Simon Facetiming me. It was lovely to spend a few minutes chatting and to actually see his face, and the kids loved seeing him. They adore both their uncles and miss them a lot. I realised just how lucky we are to have technology to keep us all connected.  A few years ago, all you had was telephone calls or letters.  Now, at the touch of the button we can see them as well and that’s brilliant.

I might not see a lot of people anymore, but sometimes, it doesn’t feel that way. I know, thanks to Facebook, how their kids are, whether their cooker blew up, what they had for dinner that night. People might moan about the ‘boring’ and mundane Facebook statuses, but for those of us who live a long way from the people they love, it’s a way of keeping connected with them.

Some of (well, most of!) my best friends are bloggers who live all over the place, including America. I love that I can pop onto WhatsApp and say hi to Trudy from Rendezvous En New York whenever I want. Not that long ago, staying in touch with someone the other side of the world would have meant expensive airmail or crackling phone calls that cost a fortune.

Whether they live down the road, the other end of the country or the other side of the country, technology really has made it easier to stay connected with the important people in our lives.