What's happening in Cairo (a Mum asks!)

Thanks one and all for your comments and emails. Just to keep you updated.

We heard from the boy in Cairo yesterday .. to say he was OK, and that he would call 'tomorrow'. Well, of course, he cant phone as the mobile networks have been cut, and so has the internet (did we realise that it was so easy to do that?).

So at this point Mum has to learn not to worry . . . and to go through the reasons in her head.

1) There is nothing whatsoever to be done, so worry is energy expended to no point whatsoever. OK that kind of argument isnt usually very efficacious when you feel a bit of anxiety coming on (that's the point of anxiety -- it isnt susceptible to a good dose of common sense). All the same, it's a good thing to reflect on.

2) Whatever's happening, this 'keeping in touch with the young' habit is ever so recent, ever so 21st century.

When we went away, back packing or studying or whatever, in the 1970s, it wasnt a bit like this.

You waved the family good bye and for the next few weeks or months you tried to remember to send them a postcard from time to time  (and to put vaguely the right stamp on it), and if you were lucky the old people back home received it before you actually got back. If you really wanted to give them a treat (and/or scare the hell out of them) you might very occasional phone them up -- a process that (yes even the 70s) involves going to some central telephone exchange, booking a slot and waiting around for ages until you were called into some sweaty booth.

I think they just assumed that no news was good news; and maybe that was a lot healthier. Though I think even my Mum might had the occasional pang of anxiety if I had been in Cairo at this minute.

Lets hope the boy is being sensible.