A Wifi, World Wide Web Free Weekend

It’s the end of a 3 day bank holiday weekend and the beginning of a pleasingly shorter working week.  We spent the long weekend in a warm cottage, in chilly Shropshire.  We were with some of our oldest and bestest friends, and we had NO WIFI; or in fact any mobile phone signal at all for the majority of the weekend.   All of us are used to regular access to the internet via our phones, and probably organise most of our lives via it. Many, (myself included) although not all of us are fairly regularly plugged into some form of social media.  And, some of us do jobs that rely on continuous, uninterrupted access to the internet.  But, do you know what?  It was fine! After we accepted we couldn’t check the weather forecast, book a table for lunch or research the area we were staying in via the various devices we got on with enjoying being together and being in a beautiful part of Britain.

Partly due to the secluded spot that we were staying in, but probably mostly due to the lack of contact with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email etc we unintentionally slipped into a slower pace of life.   We travelled on the  steam train which passed our cottage. In fact the first glimpse of the steam train from our kitchen window had us all running out side in our socks to wave at the passing train like a scene (albeit a slightly demented scene) from The Railway Children.   Apart from the railway,  our cottage was perched on the banks of a canal with a lock practically in our garden.  So, we were able to operate the lock to allow a slow travelling narrow boat through whilst passing the time of day with the skipper and crew.  We mooched up and down the tow path noticing and commenting on the wild life and plants and flowers.  We played card games, and table tennis and I finished my book!

Of course now we  are all home  various posts have popped up on Facebook, Instagram and twitter but lack of access to the digital world we take for granted was a refreshing way to spend the weekend!

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