Staying in contact is really essential in the modern world, so our move to Spain initially looked as though it could cause a few problems in that area.

In the UK Lisa and I had a landline, a mobile/cellphone, emails and Skype but the latter had not been used a great deal since we set up home together in the UK. It’s free-to-use computer to computer link had been our main method of talking and seeing each other before that. We had used it for hours every day.

Arriving in Spain, we looked at the choices between landline providers but none really offer the service we want and neighbours suggested forgetting a landline and just going with a mobile, or cellphone if you prefer, as the area in which we now live has excellent mobile reception.

It was well meant and good advice but we need something more. We have to be able to call relatives and others in the USA and the UK and to provide them with an inexpensive way of calling us. After all, it is not their fault that we moved to Spain. For that reason, just relying on a mobile phone is out of the question.

Lisa has to be given the credit for suggesting a solution which we are finding is absolutely fantastic. We are now using Skype again but this time in a completely different way.

We now have two Skype telephone numbers, one in the USA and one in the UK. These allow people to call those numbers, using ordinary telephones, at the cost of a domestic call to New York in the US or Sussex, UK, to talk direct to us in Spain.

We also have Skype subscriptions that allow us to make free (yes, free) unlimited calls to both landlines and mobile phones anywhere in Europe and North America. Of course, we still have the free Skype computer to computer link too, so video calls remain possible.

If we are not online when someone tries to reach us, the incoming call is forwarded to our mobile which I can answer as long as I am not driving. Under Spanish law even the use of hands-free phones is forbidden -but motoring law here is another story.

Oh, one last thing, anyone who has my old UK mobile number listed, please delete it.

Talk to you soon.