Skyping about Skype

Happy to admit that I was a little slow on the Skype uptake, after all the good old telephone had served me just fine. But as more friends moved to wonderful, exotic and far flung destinations and the frustration of expired phone cards built up, I decided it was time to finally get Skyping.

I bet you've heard of Skype, after all its been around since about 2003. But in case you've been living in a cave, here is the low down. Skype is basically a piece of software that once downloaded allows the user to make voice calls over the Internet (VOIP).

Some 'early adopter' friends of mine did installed Skype long ago. Whenever they called us speech was delayed and the line crackled to the point it was unusable, so I am blaming those reasons for my delay in getting onto it.

Once my decision to Skype was made I downloaded the application (for free) to my computer and was surprised by its simplicity. After answering the required questions and picking a username and password I was done. With download complete I started using Skype, but only via the text based chat. Skype to Skype phone calls are free, however I didn't know if I even knew anyone else with Skype, so I stuck with the text based chat until I found my mojo.

Imagine my surprise when my computer started ringing one grey afternoon. I actually didn't know what the noise was and totally missed the call. When I looked at the Skype window it displayed that I had indeed missed a call from a dear friend who is currently living expat style, in Malaysia. Keen to trial Skype voice calls and with a contact now on my radar, I hit the call button. She answered!!

The whole conversation was a little awkward, after all my laptop isn't sporting a camera so whilst I could see her and her beautiful daughter, she could only hear me. The confusion on her four year old daughters face was priceless.

My sister in law has also recently cottoned onto Skype and the chance to see my nephews and the opportunity to show off my own 7 month olds new tricks is to wonderful not to love. So now I am rolling out the bandwagon and enlisting my family and friends to Skype up.

If you are no sure how to go about downloading and getting started, check out the short You Tube tutorial below. When you are done why not Skype me to try it out! Skype: kerrib100