Syndicate this site's blogArchers, Ashes and Hammers
Regular readers will know my passion for The Archers, the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama (or soap, if you’re being nasty). That I can listen to it over the internet is a Very Good Thing.
But yesterday I was struck even more firmly by the distance-destroying impact new technology has had on ex-pat life. I was sitting in the office listening to England winning the Ashes, just as I would have been if I’d been working in Wycombe or Dublin (that’s cricket, and a rare victory over the mighty Australians, for those on this side of the water).
CMJ, Jonathan Agnew and Bill the grumpy statistician - all in my office on E. Palace in Santa Fe. Fantastic.
Then I’m home in the afternoon for my stint of Fionnuala watching. With Finn asleep, I’m wandering through the channels and there’s West Ham vs Villa live - the Monday evening Premiership match (that’s footbal).
Which is all a roundabout way of saying that it’s much easier to feel connected to life in the UK or Ireland while living in New Mexico than it was even seven years ago, during my spell in Kansas. And then, it was much easier than it would have been five years previously.
Obviously, spending all my time immersed in sport and media from back there would be pretty unhealthy, but being able to dip in every now and again - especially when England are just about to reclaim the Ashes - really makes a difference.
