Having "Me" Time

It's the end of August.  This time last year I was in Malaysia visiting a good old friend just before Malaysia's independence day.  This year, I am in Bangkok, and am instead keeping touch with good friends through other high tech means such as Skype, Google+ and Whatsapp.  It really is quite amazing all this technology.  It brings people together.   Yet, it can also bring people apart. You might have noticed that since the advent of BB messaging and chat programs on iPhones, smartphones, androids, many of us (me included) sometime zone out of conversations and instead grin at our phones.  We are living in two worlds at once. One moment, I'm in conversation with the person next to me, the next, I'm in a conversation with someone else on the other side of the phone.  Maybe that person is in another country.  I don't mind it at all, but sometimes I think we ought to put down our phones and enjoy the person next to us.  Enjoy ...

Yesterday I got sucked into a world of figuring out which phone package was best for my lifestyle and internet usage and found myself drowing in all its information content.   There are three main mobile companies in Thailand (DTAC, AIS, TRUE)  and only one of them at the moment has 3G.  The other two are working on it.  I happen to be using DTAC which doesn't have 3G yet and at the moment is suffering from a lot of technical problems. Now I'm a loyal customer of over ten years, but sometimes things may need to change.  I'm not sure if you've had the same experience as me but lately, its been getting harder for people to contact me from lack of signal and other technicalities.  I'd be there sitting with the phone in front of me, then a message pops up showing a missed call.  A few minutes later, the actual will come through with a rather disgruntled voice asking me how come it's so hard to get through. Was I using the internet?  If I...