Things have moved on. We went on our first holiday - to Taba Heights, on the Red Sea in Egypt. I travelled with a girlfriend - a woman I worked with years ago and have known since our kids were babies - and I had grave doubts about whether to let Kevin tag along. I knew there were advantages, of course - most notably that I wouldn't have to pack a kilo or two of paperbacks in my suitcase and that I could convert my work-in-progress into a pdf file to read and review while I was away from home and without my laptop.
That was actually what I planned to do the evening before we left. But horror of horrors, for the first time ever, I emailed the pdf to my kindle address and it didn't arrive. I tried again - and again - and still, it didn't arrive. I contacted Amazon via live chat and asked what the maximum time could be for a download. They assured me it was usually instantaneous unless the file was humongous. Mine wasn't. I sent it again - and again, with the word 'convert' in the subject line - and aaaaaargh, it still didn't arrive! And then... all five attempts arrived in quick succession. I thanked the 'customer service associate' (yes, really!) and signed off.
I can't read a single word on my Kindle, even with my reading glasses, without changing the font size to somewhere between large and extra large (take note, Kevin - it's the way I usually prefer my men too) so that was my next task. Only it wouldn't work. The option to change the font size was simply not highlighted in the menu. I tried everything, before contacting Amazon again. A second customer service associate tried everything too, but to no avail. Eventually, he took my phone number and said someone would be in touch.
By then, I was practically on the verge of a nervous breakdown, already mentally calculating how many frocks and pairs of shoes I would have to unpack in order to squeeze two weeks' worth of real books into my suitcase - and furious that I was missing the football. Technology, I cursed, reverting to my Luddite roots - you can never, ever rely on it! To their credit, Amazon called me before I had time for a total meltdown - and they did solve the problem, but the whole process took over an hour.
And that wasn't the end of my stress-fest. I was still worried about Kevin getting sand in his suit on the beach and that perhaps he wouldn't function so well after that. I fretted that he might bump into someone else while he chilled out on a sun lounger and I went for a quick dip or to fetch a drink from the bar - and that he might simply move on. But my fears were ill-founded. With Kevin, it was always love at first sight, of course, but after spending so much quality time together - on the plane, on the beach, in bed, and on long coach journeys to visit Petra, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, I think I have fallen even more deeply in love. My breath is bated till the next time...
