"I skype my girlfriend"

It is a few years now since I first heard this remark and I must say it made me sit up and take notice. "What did he say ", I wondered. Skype , what is that? Do I want to be skyped too ? Those hard consonants s,k and p also make up another word which my mind immediately came up with ; Spank ? Do these two words have anything in common? My mind filled up with all sorts of visions.

Actually this was the reply to a question my colleague posed to one of the candidates at the speaking test and we also learned that the said girlfirend lived in Vilnius , quite far away. In my position as examiner taking notes I could not ask for clarification .

That evening when I went home I found out a little more about skyping ; yes this is the new way of communicating over the computer . It seems to be very popular to skype across countries and my wish came true last year; I could get skyped as my daughter skypes us all the time from her new abode in Europe, somwhat west of Switzerland . It takes a bit of getting used to though . I enjoyed being skyped until the day my cover was blown , No I don't really know everything and cannot say I am a techy. Bringing my laptop to school to show video clips I have researched for my lessons is an attempt to keep up with technology. Unfortunately the skype community have to know that you are not always available to chat. Well yes a few times it has happened to me as soon as I set up my laptop in class someone wants to skype me and knowing how to put on your little hat( to say I can't talk now) is very important! Otherwise students have a habit of expecting new excitement everytime they see me set up the laptop. Where's xxxx29 they ask? They do not even know the identity of my friends ( who are actally female) But just as I have a vivid imagination as you see above so do they.