Novel ways to keep in touch with your other half! :)

[thatbritishlass 2]

Well I last saw the boy in May, it's now July, and my next trip isn't until 3rd October.....and whilst I don't want to wish away a generally lovely British summer, I am going slightly crazy here!!

So it made me wonder, just for fun, how you guys stay in touch while apart? Not just literally but emotionally as well. We use the obvious methods of Skype, letters, etc...Facebook is single-handedly responsible for lowering my phone bill though. I set up Facebook mobile so every time he sends me a PM it is converted into a text message to my phone - I can reply by text too (standard UK rate i.e. free on my contract and then the message I send back is turned into a text at his end. So it's a convoluted but ultimately free way to text each other.

Plus I send him Disney pins from other Disney parks I've been lucky enough to visit around the world

Does anyone have any unusual things that they do for each other to keep the romance alive? (I do NOT mean that in a dirty way, btw )

J

[imaisha 1]

Wow that facebook thing is genius! I've got to figure out how to make that work. This whole 25c to send 20c to receive thing is rough- and he doesn't actually ever get them half the time.

[thatbritishlass 2]

Wow that facebook thing is genius! I've got to figure out how to make that work. This whole 25c to send 20c to receive thing is rough- and he doesn't actually ever get them half the time.

We suffered the same problem...I've always had international calls/texting on my phone as standard (O2 love me ) but he didnt and he couldn't receive my texts for ages. Kind of figured out the Facebook thing by accident. It's generally pretty reliable but sometimes it does just stop working - but it saves me so much money I can't complain

To set it up log in to Facebook and click on/search for the Facebook Mobile application, then follow the instructions to set it up. You'll have to specify that you want personal messages addressed to you only texted to your phone - this means other PMs you get from other people will be texted to you to, but I don't get that many of those Then make sure your other half does the same...voila!!

One amusing side-effect is that your Facebook inbox becomes stuffed with messages to and fro...planning on taking a printout of it as additional evidence when i go to the embassy

[wexford65 0]

To send text messages you should consider using email>SMS. If for example he/she is on the AT&T network in the US simply use 5615551212@txt.att.net (obviously replacing the numbers with his/her cell number!) as an email address and it will arrive on their cell as a text message. Message length limits still apply so dont get carried away!

Here are the formats to send to mobiles on most major networks in the US. As most packages in the US allow VERY cheap text messages this is a great way for UK to US texting. I haven't lived in the UK for a while so maybe someone can comment on the reverse. I suspect something similar is possible.

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com

AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net

Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net

Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com

Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com

Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com

CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com

Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com

Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

Hope this helps someone

Paul

[Wyld Blu 35]

Let's see. He is 9 hours ahead of me, so my morning is his evening and visa versa. At night, my time, around 9:45, is 9:45 am for him. He is just getting ready for work and I am getting ready for bed. We jump on Skype for about a half hour, then he is off to work. We spend a LOT of time on Skype on the weekends together. But during the daytime for me, while I am at work, he is on Yahoo chat, which I also get on my phone. Costs nothing for either of us. I im him and he im's me via Yahoo, or sometimes MSN Chat, both of which work through my phone.

-Blu-

[Nik+Heather 121]

We are both book worms. Sometimes I'll get an audio book from the library, and put it on while Skype is running.

Yes, it's basically the equivalent of watching TV together, but sometimes it's just nice to have that presence on the other end. I've got a non-fiction book lined up soon, so maybe that will stimulate some conversation.

[Cry_Tuff 0]

My husband and I were always on our web cams, head sets, and skype to keep in touch daily when he was there.

We would always send little things in the post as well. His mum loves the Pillsbury Brownie Mix, his dad is an avid art fan/collector and likes maps of different areas in the states he hasn't traveled to as yet. When Pete was here, he on one of his first trips, he fell in love with Mountain Dew and his adult son loves M&M's. I would always make a little "care package" and mail it off to him and his family....just something little for each of them, and they loved it. I would also get those Hallmark cards that have a certain song we both like...or a lovey dovey song and send out to him. We would go on You tube a lot and send each other links to our favorite television shows as kids, songs, etc also.

I think communication is the major key; whether it be through text/web cam/headsets/emails/telephone/snail mail, you have to have strong communication between your significant other and yourself.

[NotworkSte 19]

Hey there. After C and I got together I went through a crazy few months of phone bills before getting sensible over the whole thing. We did use Skype but that was a bit iffy, especially if she was traveling (which she does a lot) and the hotel Internet connection was rubbish. C signed me up for Vonage (from the US, not the UK) and with the $20/mo contract it's free for her to call me or me her, since I now have a Fl phone number at my home in Scotland. I get free call all over the US on it, and I also get free landline calls to the UK (so it's cheaper to call Dhillons take away in Livingston from it than use my own phone!) I had worried about the quality on my home DSL line and the fact it connects over the interweb to the US, but it's been fine, certainly better than Skype. I dunno if it would be as cheap signing to Vonage in the UK though. $20/mo is nothing since I am now not paying over £150 a month to Orange :-D

As for other novel ways. Well, we both have work blackberries (work for same company) so we are always taking pictures of random stuff, like being out at the shops and seen something nice, or worked on the house and mailing them to each other, makes it more "visual" and makes you feel a bit closer as you see what they see. And I send her flowers, usually with badly rewritten song lyrics and have her try to work out what the original song was!

[NotworkSte 19]

We are both book worms. Sometimes I'll get an audio book from the library, and put it on while Skype is running.

Yes, it's basically the equivalent of watching TV together, but sometimes it's just nice to have that presence on the other end. I've got a non-fiction book lined up soon, so maybe that will stimulate some conversation.

That's such a good idea, the audiobook thing. Never thought of that.

C and I sometimes keep the line open on the phone, or over Skype with hands free units and we go about our think, getting dinner or working or whatever, and not always talking, but there if we want to, it's almost like being in the same room. Plus with the hands free unit I can talk to her and her daughter as well at the same time.

[Leenie 15]

We have a few games that we can play online together - "virtual" togetherness!

We use hand signals to say goodbye at the airport, when either one of us is returning home (so we can say "I love you" even when the other person is fading from sight), and we have made it a type of habit/ritual to do the same thing before we finish chatting on the webcams.

Also, we love to spend a great deal of time sharing our newest Youtube finds with each other.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

I'm a Vonage fan because of all their free features and using any normal phone. I had it in the US, so unlimited calling to UK landlines. And being a telecomm/IT guy, he rigged something so I could call a landline that would ring his mobile. He still has Vonage account in the UK. He's paying £7.99 a month. He brought the Vonage box when he moved here and plugged it into my router and attached a US cordless phone. Now his kids, mother, friends can just call a UK phone number to reach him in America easily. And Vonage can do a simultaneous ring to a second number so it will ring his US mobile, at no extra cost, when we're not home. Vonage has given us flawless clarity of calls. If anybody wants a referral, we can each get an extra free month over signing up on your own. Oh dear, I'm soliciting and that's probably not allowed...Sorry.

We also had a Polycom video conferencing thing set up...a perk of spare stuff from work. It was high quality and somehow I showed up life size on his big LCD TV if he wanted. I could control his camera...pan the room or zoom in. It was pretty cool and so much better than Microsoft NetMeeting. He loves rigging up tech gadgets. We also watch British TV from here with a SlingBox over the computer. But of course that wasn't good enough so he connects the laptop to my big TV so we watch it on that. Boys and their toys!

[thatbritishlass 2]

As for other novel ways. Well, we both have work blackberries (work for same company) so we are always taking pictures of random stuff, like being out at the shops and seen something nice, or worked on the house and mailing them to each other, makes it more "visual" and makes you feel a bit closer as you see what they see. And I send her flowers, usually with badly rewritten song lyrics and have her try to work out what the original song was!

I like this idea I am always taking photos of random stuff that I see when I'm out and about - my phone allows me to send an MMS message to an email address, so I can send the pics to him for free with a little message on what it's about, and he does the same for me. It makes us feel more like a part of each other's regular day-to-day lives, which is important cos sometimes I get in a tizzy about not being part of the 'furniture' in his life.

We have a few games that we can play online together - "virtual" togetherness!

This is my personal favourite - after Jason got a Wii we discovered we could start a virtual band on Guitar Hero World Tour!! I play guitar, he plays bass and sometimes his daughter comes online with us and plays the drums. We form a trans-Atlantic rock superpower It's a lot of fun - plus I'm way better than him so good for the ego

J

[haleywynne 0]

Blackberry is a savior to us. We both have Blackberry phones with internet plans and have basically unlimited texts by using Blackberry messenger! You can also send short voice clips and photos for no extra cost through Blackberry messenger, it's great!

[NotworkSte 19]

This is my personal favourite - after Jason got a Wii we discovered we could start a virtual band on Guitar Hero World Tour!! I play guitar, he plays bass and sometimes his daughter comes online with us and plays the drums. We form a trans-Atlantic rock superpower It's a lot of fun - plus I'm way better than him so good for the ego

J

Fanastic, I love it! I'm a drummer and C is a bassist and I never thought of that!

[Damian&Kelly 16]

We used to do something similar to the audio books, we would take turns picking books and reading each book to each other. We got through a few books and they seem to be that much more enjoyable. We also played games together, one of our favorites was Battlefield, He used to fly the planes and drop me off to sniper, I couldn't control the planes haha.

We always watched tv and movies together and were on webcam loads. We also watched football, and nfl games together. and listened to music through youtube together. We would cook dinner together on webcam and headset. We did everything on headset together except shower. We slept with headsets on and I was always his alarm clock.

My husband used to send me English candy and gummies, but I only like the cherry ones so he'd buy loads and collect all the cherry ones for me and send me a big thing of all the cherry candies.