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Mojacarmagazine.com   Issue 16                                                                                                                                       Page 69
It all sounded crazy, but this was different.  This was the time I would use on the Internet. Another friend, already on the Internet, kindly advised me who was the best Server to go to and explained the cost.
I bought a package which gave me four hundred hours to use in one year and no monthly restrictions. This seemed to be the way to go. So, with my modem connected to my Server, and my Server having installed a browser, I was finally ready to Surf The Net. Wow! The  mind boggles with so much terminology.
I thought it would be a good idea if I treated myself to a dictionary and learn some of these new words that kept popping up.
By this time, I was really becoming very cautious about spending. However I decided that  a little book was essential if I wanted to become familiar with this computer language which was so new to me. .
Well, don’t you believe it! This was no little book. This book was thick and large. The price was more than I had expected and it contained thousands of words. I put the book down, walked out of the shop and decided I would never ever need to learn or use so many words.
Danny was not on the Internet and so it was up to me to buy books and teach myself. I did a couple of mornings at our local Tech, and that helped a little. I had already built up quite a library with books ‘For Dummies’ which was a very apt description of me, and now added to my library were new books about The Internet. Again,  ‘For Dummies’.  All of them I read avidly. Gradually, my whole world was changing. Every night I would go to bed and read as much as I could manage to take into my brain and then I would feel obliged to get up in the middle of the night and see if what I had learned I could transfer to the screen.
My days began to get very long and my nights were getting shorter, but I didn’t care. It was all so new, so wonderful and so exciting, especially when something new I read and put into practice, actually worked. Happily, this was happening to me more often and my confidence began to grow.
I was now able to show my husband some of the wonderful places we could visit and learn about.  "Look at London. The people are actually moving on the screen! And it is all happening at this minute as we watch. Isn’t it wonderful? And look at Mars, can you imagine, we are looking at it now, where the spacecraft is at this very minute?"
We sat for hours in awe and were amazed at all the exciting things we were able to see and learn about. Yes, this really was wonderful and we felt pleased that we could enjoy so much. We thought about the cost, but at only $1 for an hour we knew we were getting very good value. This was our new form of entertainment, and we loved it. Forget about television and the cinema, we sat glued for hours at a new screen. Oh dear!  Excuse me, not screen it is a ‘Monitor’.
However, it was about a month later when I discovered that while we were Surfing the Net, no one could reach us on the phone as we were    
using the telephone line. No one had told me about this when I went on to the Internet, and then when I asked, I was told that many people had mobile phones and that was the answer. However I looked into this and thought of all the friends who phone us. They are mostly pensioners like us and they would have to pay more for a call to speak to us on a mobile phone, so that was out.
Here we go again, I thought, will it never end? What did I let myself in for? And how many more expenses will I suddenly discover? So, I had to have a new telephone line, which meant a rental charge for a second line, but at least I was lucky as there was a special offer  which was half the usual price for installation, so that made it a bit easier. Well at  last that was it! Finished. No more extras to pay and now I was able to use the Internet without any worry.
I was due to go to England in October that year to see my family and friends. I left for England and was to be away for two months. I kissed my husband goodbye, unplugged  and covered my computer.
Two  whole months without my husband and two whole months without my computer. However would I survive? I stayed at different places visiting family and friends, and when I was staying with my son, Gordon, and his family, he suggested that I should go with him to his office on the Monday morning . We had to leave at 6.15 a.m. so that we would beat the mad rush of traffic going into London. By leaving so early, he said  we would avoid  a whole hour of driving and the frayed nerves that come with sitting in long queues of traffic. He always did this.
It was dark when we left home and dark when we arrived at his office. The night cleaners were just leaving. There was no one else in the office so he made coffee from the machine and we chatted . Gordon now had time to explain some of the things I wanted to know about the Internet. Gradually, staff began to arrive, and Gordon introduced me to members of his team..
"This is my Mother, she lives in Australia, is seventy and on the Internet," he said. I staggered at such an introduction. Since when have I been introduced and my age mentioned? This was something very new to me and I was not sure I liked it. The young men, dressed in suits looked very smart and handsome. "How are you enjoying your stay in England and what is the weather like now in Australia?  Do you like living there? All questions that needed a reply, and I felt relaxed and happy to chat with these polite young men who seemed interested in what I had to say.
Then I suddenly thought, maybe they were being kind to an old lady of seventy. I had never seen myself that way before but it could be the case. I wondered. Yes, I wondered! .
The two months passed so quickly, and soon I was once again back home in Australia. Home with my husband  Cy , back to the old routine, and so very eager to get back to my computer. But now there was a difference, for when I send an e-mail to Gordon I can now visualize his    
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