The disconnected 'connected' generation

We are the parents of one Gen X'er and with wives and partners, four Gen Y'ers. And although we're Baby Boomers, we as connected as our children - with one exception. Being brought up on the principle that it's always polite to return phone calls and answer letters, we're pretty good at answering e-mails, texts, facebook posts and even voice mail - their modern day equivalent.
Gen X and Y are supposed to be the 'connected generation'. You know, with an iPod in one ear, left hand sending texts and the right hand answering e-mail on the laptop or iPad.
Trouble is, despite all this connectedness, trying to get them to answer simple questions like, "are you home for dinner?" or, "can you both come to dinner in a week?" are met with nothing. Silence.
I reckon the connected generation is not as connected as everyone says or is that they're just not focused on planning ahead. Rather than commit to a dinner date with parents or parents-in-law (what could be better) they wait until the last minute - in case they get a better offer. (Maybe I could do better)
As frustrating as this is sometimes, we have just learnt to live with our disconnected ' connected' generation.

PS. We love them just the same. Hope they don't read this.
Comments?

Oranges and Sunshine ... a reflection

Just after Christmas, 1960, our family of four - Mum, Dad and my younger brother and I boarded the Fairsky for a five week voyage to the UK. I was eleven and my brother 14 months younger. Spending five weeks on a boat that was making the return trip to the UK to bring more '10 pound poms' to Australia was great for two young boys. Dad was an opera singer and was off to the UK to further his career.
We made the return journey 18 months later - this time the Fairsky was also carrying English families looking for a new life in the 'lucky country'. What I didn't know at the time was that that ship (and others sailing the same route) were bringing some of the 130,000 orphans to a land of 'oranges and sunshine' in a 'scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia.'
I am the same age as many of these children whose story is now told in the just released feature film starring Emily Watson, David Wenham and Hugo Weaving.
Oranges and Sunshine is a simply told story with much of the detail of the abuse suffered by the children told in flashbacks to interviews carried out by Margaret Humphreys, on whose life the story is based. That both the UK and the Australian governments were party to such an arrangement is appalling. Worse is the treatment and abuse the children received at the hands of charitable and church organisations once they got here.
At last the story has been told in this moving film. See it ... you won't be the same afterwards.

Looking at the world digitally ...

I've been wearing reading glasses for 15 years or so and despite the annoyance of occasionally misplacing them, they're a part of life. On my most recent visit to my friendly optometrist I decided to try a pair of multi-focus lenses. Whilst I knew that would mean wearing them all the time, at least I would have progressive correction as things got closer-which sounded perfect.
The lenses are called digital lenses because of the way they're made. The top of the lense is for distance viewing with the bottom set for close-up work and reading.
The one problem is that the manufacturing process used means that the bottom left and right corners of the lense is blurry - which means a quite narrow 'field of focus' in the bottom of the lense.
So instead of seeing the whole page of a book or my computer screen in focus from left to right, there is a 'hot spot' in the middle which at times only covers a few words. This means I either have to track the book left to right as I read, or move my whole head.
Both options are a bit of a nuisance - so there is one alternative left to try which will give me a slightly wider reading angle at the bottom.
I hope it works ...