Live Chat is the talk of the town, a number of companies add this feature on their website and those, who are not aware of its benefits, it is a platform that allowed you to chat directly with your visitors. It has a positive impact on your sale and conversion, it is important to add it to mark new high standards in your work. It is one of the simplest ways to get connected with your customers and you should also try it for better outcomes. If all its benefits are still secret for you, so, you are at the right place, let the cat out of the bag to know this feature better.

• Convenient For Your Customers: One of the major benefits live chat feature offers is the convenience to your customers, which keeps them happy. And if your customers are happy, so, you won half of the race already. It gives them the opportunity to clarify their doubt about any of your offered product and services through a direct conversation with the executives.
• Cut Down The Expenses: It is proven to save your phone expenses or employee efforts, which will surely minimize your expenses and save your lot of time. Also, it increases efficiency and makes your customer executives and customers both the happy without breaking the bank.
• Doubles Your Conversion: Well, no doubt, if your customer is happy and satisfied with your website and find it trustworthy, so, it will surely double your traffic and rate of conversion at the same time. The time a visitor comes to the website, till he/she check out, live chat feature provide them full support, which increases chances of conversion.
• Stand Out Among Competitors: The Live Chat Feature takes you one step forward to earn the trust of your customers and apart from that, it also helps you stand out from the crowd. With this one major step, you may leave your competitors behind and successfully built a great brand image.
• Easy To Monitor: Every time when a visitor comes to your website, so, it will show you from where they come and what they look for, which helps you solve their quandary before they leave. It makes it easier for you to monitor which page of your website get a higher click.

As, now you know the importance of having a live chat feature on your website, so, go and get it now to keep your customers satisfied and to increase your conversion.

After talking extensively with clients, I find that a huge roadblock to finding a lasting romantic partner is overworking. So many of us are addicted to work. We are working 40/50/60 hours and sometimes even more.

When I was a massage therapist, I had a regular client who was working 90 hours a week. He was a young guy and had a five year plan to do computer tech programming, score a bundle of dough then start his own business. A noble goal. The problem was that the long hours, with no fresh air and bad food, were aging him rapidly and his body ached from lack of exercise. I was his only social life other than his workmates who were also overworked by choice.

Then, there are those who have financially crippled themselves, one way or another, and have no way out but overwork. Still, many wonder why they only have time and energy to roam the social networks to chat up other overworked souls that live too far away. Do we only have energy to work at digital relationships?

One way to handle this problem is to scale down our buying, which in turn will scale down our bills, and in turn will require us to work less. This seems such a simple solution, yet the outcome of overwork is to overspend because we think we deserve it. In fact, we feel entitled. Entitled to keep this disturbing self-sabotage afloat.

It is not only romantic partnerships that suffer when we overwork ourselves. ALL our relationships are impacted negatively. We are irritable, impatient, and unloving when we are drained of energy. Health problems arise and other addictions creep into our lives.

There are those that thrive on their heavy workloads, yet that is a very tiny percentage and those people have made huge sacrifices in other parts of their lives. Balance becomes tricky in this digital millennium. Yet, balance in all parts of our lives is the very thing that enables us to have great relationships.

In these ACCELERATED emotional months that are swayed astrologically by Super-moons, we all have a chance to re-access our priority. It all breaks down to kindness. Are we kind to ourselves? Are we kind to our partners, our children, our friends and family members, our fellow workers and to all living beings? Do we have time to be kind or are we pushing ourselves over the limit to make money?

With all of the new technology out there and more coming out every day it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. Most people use an instant messenger to communicate from time to time. There are so many out there and they all say they are the best and they can do this or that but how do we really know which to choose? What do we really need to accomplish without messenger? Which ones out there actually do what they say and are safe to use. Here is a list of the top five instant messengers out there. These are all safe and have proven they are trustworthy and reliable for everyday use.

1. Digsby

Digsby is a free instant messenger for Windows. Digsby supports multiple chat networks and it allows you to merge your friends and their multiple usernames into one entry. This allows you to communicate with all of your friends no matter which instant messenger they are using.

When you minimize Digsby and you receive a message it will pop up and alert you with a bubble that you can respond to. You can also connect it with your email, Facebook, twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. They can ll be updated and viewed through digsby.

2. Adium

Adium is a free application for Mac. It is an open source chat client that supports multiple chat and social networking services. It supports AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and many more. Because its open soured it can pull contacts from your address book and use system themes. This messenger also has a ton of addons. There are thousands of extras that you can download to customize your messenger. Adium also has a really neat option with their “off the record messaging. This is a completely encrypted chat.

3. Pidgin

Pidgin is a free application for Windows/Linux. Pidgin is another open source messenger with a ton of features. You can also download a variety of plugin to enhance your experience as well. Pidgin doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as the rest of the messengers but it has many other things that keep people coming back. There is also a portable version.

4. Meebo

Meebo is a free web based client. This is a perfect solution to multiple instant messengers. Instead of having to download an instant messenger you can handle all of your instant messaging from meebo. You can log into multiple services through this web based client. You can log onto all of your instant messaging profiles through one area.

5. Trillian Astra

Trillian Astra is an application for Windows. The basic edition is free and the pro version is $25. This is a very good instant messenger client as is connects you to all of your other messengers. There are many features but most of them disappear after 30 unless you sign up for the premium membership.

If you are searching for free psychic chat rooms, or free psychic readings in the main search engines, you will be presented with several million sites, that offers these services. There is a huge variety in the services available, which are practically only a mouse click away. This could be asking a clairvoyant a free question, getting in contact with a deceased loved one, fortune telling, tarot card reading, astrology just to name a few. Humans are spiritual in nature and lots of us experience times where we need advice and guidance from a spiritually gifted person, a psychic.

When taking part in online psychic readings this can be either in private chats or in public free psychic chat rooms. The public free psychic chat rooms are usually for people trying out online psychic readings, before they decide on which, if any, psychic to engage with. The public chat rooms are also good for people with many different needs of advice, since other users of the public forums will provide advice and discussions to help out.

Whether you start out in a free online psychic chat room or engage in a private psychic chat, the following advice will prepare you and give you the best possible experience in the free psychic chat room.

• Check the reputation of the psychic reading site . This can be done by reading reviews on the site or to ask for feedback in the public forum.
• Be sure to ask for the psychics real name . Most psychics use artistic names, but they should have no problems giving you their real name if they are genuine skillful psychics.
• Remember that keeping an open and positive attitude towards the psychic and the reading is a necessity for a beneficial reading. Do not lie to test or trick the psychic – this will only be wasting both yours and the psychics time.
• Make a written down list of questions and concerns for the psychic to address. Quite often the reading gets you exited and you might forget important questions you wanted to ask. This could be questions regarding you love life, relationship, career and the like. Describe the topics for the psychic in the beginning of the chat.
• Trust the psychic and do not be afraid to reveal uncomfortable information. Never disclose personal financial information or other sensitive information, but also remember that the psychic needs to be informed of all relevant information.
• Follow your instincts , and if a psychic reading or the psychic does not make you feel confident, do not hesitate to back away from the session or the psychic site.

Following these simple guidelines, you can have a truly extraordinary psychic experience that might change your life forever.

I want to share a few news stories profiled about the funeral industry just last week; “FTC Undercover Inspections of Funeral Homes in Nine States Test Compliance with Funeral Rule Disclosure Requirements, Unlicensed Funeral Director Probed for Questionable Cremations, Funeral Home Owner’s License Revoked After Settlement, and Family Alleges Funeral Home Buried Wrong Baby During Service.”

With those sorts of headlines, is it any wonder that consumers are skeptical when they walk into a funeral home? We know that with any profession, there are bad apples and operators. A quick internet search will reveal similar news about poor practices in financial, medical and other industries. My point here is that the funeral industry is not leading the charge of positive news and demanding necessary change; rather we are allowing the negative news to dominate the headlines.

The FTC mandated General Price List disclosure is a fundamental regulatory tenet of our business. Violations sit squarely in the lap of funeral home owners, period. I have personally conducted “secret shopper” services for funeral home owners and to their dismay; some of their employees would have cost significant fines for lack of disclosure. But why should there be surprise when funeral homes conduct no consistent training, monitoring or any regular oversight of their directors? Our industry is predicated on people that when the preverbal “arrangement room door closes,” the funeral home owner and the family are subject to whatever information the individual funeral director provides… right or wrong. What really fascinates me is the posture many in our industry maintain about training, “trying something new”, use of digital presentations, or changing their current operations.

There is a story I heard about the differences between a Kiwi bird and an Eagle. The Kiwi bird is short, has a long beak, and is flightless because of its lack of wing structure eating bugs, worms and such. The Eagle has large wingspans, a hard beak, with powerful talons and eats small game. The Kiwi spends its day trying not to be eaten by predators and searching for food in fields with high grass, basically keeping their head down and only paying attention to just what they can see beyond their beak. The Eagle takes to the sky searching for opportunity to gather its food. So, if a field is on fire, the Kiwi keeps right on going about its business and doesn’t know the field is ablaze until its beak is on fire. On the other hand, the Eagle circles above to prey on the food that will be running from the fire…

We have too many Kiwi’s in the funeral industry… myopic, resistant to change, apathetic and no idea that the “field is on fire.” The FTC mandates, most States regulate, industry organizations (NFDA, ICCFA, NFDMA, etc.) offer best practices, yet the funeral industry Kiwi’s dominate the headlines. So, how do we change this dilemma?

First, the Eagles have to clean up our own house. The simple answer is training and behavior modification. Create and conduct regular in house training on relevant functions such as when to provide a family your GPL, proper body identification procedures with checks and balances, etc. Sit in on arrangements and evaluate the information being provided to families. Of course many are afraid to do this… but who owns your business? Even more important, who is accountable and must face public scrutiny along with paying fines for poor behavioral practices of your staff? Demand accountability, but clearly communicate through training, monitor and follow up your concise expectations. Training provides your team with the knowledge that as an Eagle, you set the operational tone of your firm. Failure to do anything short, well, you’re a funeral Kiwi.

Once we have our own houses in order, let’s all engage in providing a cure for our symptoms. How about we demand federal legislation that if a funeral home has a website, their GPL must be displayed? By providing consumers information, they can make educated funeral decisions. The firms that fail to either have a website or comply, well too bad. Let’s change the CEU system… attending boring classes about mundane subjects that have no teeth or relevant educational value is a waste of time and resources. How about add exams for the CEU’s with a high proficiency rating for continued licensing? Now, that sort of news would be much more encouraging to consumers if we are making serious efforts to “police our own.”

Okay, so there’s my two cents worth about the disturbing news last week and initiating conversation about solutions. For what it’s worth, yes, our firm trains at least 3 times per week. If you want to have conversation about how we accomplish this, please email me and we can chat. As for the Kiwi’s, frankly I don’t think we’ll hear much from them… they are too busy looking for worms. Let’s hear from you Eagles! Cheers y’all!

Online Speak is the modern language of today that surfaced on chat sites and online communication boards, and is currently being used by just about everyone across the world regardless of their own native language. It’s really a foreign language that has been expanding for more than a decade and still maturing.

In this article I’m going to expose you to a number of common online acronyms or abbreviations that are used on the internet nowadays on chat sites as well as other web based communication systems. We shall begin with the more frequent acronyms like “lol”, “btw”, and then I am going to cover a few lesser known ones like “lmao”.

. “LOL”: “Laughing Out Loud”

In case you’ve conducted just about any online chatting at all, it’s likely that you’re already familiar with lol. This is because it’s the most well-known and most commonly used acronym online today and it’s the standard method of indicating that something is humorous. Keep in mind that even though it is short for “Laughing Out Loud” it could be employed in any kind of situation when a smile is warranted. If you’ve done video in addition to text chat, you would ofttimes be amazed by how many folks who are not even smiling when they type “lol”. “lol” has developed over time to the level where it really is now the established acronym to use in the form of response to any funny comment made by other people online.

. “ROFL”: “Rolling On The Floor Laughing”

This as you would likely have guessed, is the extreme variation of “lol”, it can be justifiably made use of in especially funny contexts. “rofl” is usually less put to use than “lol”, nevertheless it really does serve essentially the same functionality. The rule of thumb is, if something genuinely made you have a good laugh for real (not necessarily really loudly) then “rofl” is essentially the word to use. A lot of people choose to use a prolonged “lol” like “loool” as a substitute for “rofl”, this is certainly practical too, at the end of the day everyone has his own preferences and you learn to make use of the acronyms that match well with your character and overall attitude. “lmao” is an additional alternative for “rofl” that we’ll talk about later on in this article.

. “BTW”: “By The Way”

Essentially self-explanatory, having said that it may be used liberally in online communication to basically talk about anything that branches from the key topic. In real life you cannot simply go into a place filled with strangers talking and say “btw, how can I do xyz?”. Online you’ve gotten more freedom to utilize “btw” for different purposes.

Bare in mind that you shouldn’t use it on a regular basis to switch the subject as it can certainly irritate some people, especially if whatever you happen to be saying isn’t going to relate to the primary topic being discussed.

. “ATM”: “At The Moment”

As you’ve probably have suspected, this has absolutely nothing to do with ATM machines, not likely as well known as the ones I’ve already stated, nevertheless it is definitely not uncommon online. Even in formal email interaction, you find “atm” utilized in the same way it is utilised in real life. Having said that, if you’re going to make use of “atm” in an email ensure that the person obtaining your mail knows this acronym, you would be surprised by the amount of of people who are unaware of this word and would stop reading your email to make sense of what you’re actually trying to say.

. “AFK”: “Away From Keyboard”

This is a truly organic acronym, employed to convey the fact that you’re simply not near your keyboard anymore, or more specifically, you are not available anymore to talk to other people. It’s a good idea to use this word even if you may be going away for a brief amount of time, or else, people might continue chatting with you, thinking that you could be basically ignoring them. If you think that someone you happen to be communicating with is not really aware of exactly what “afk” implies, you can actually basically use the extended full version.

. “IMO”: “In My Opinion”

Regularly used on web based boards to show that you’re not revealing a fact, that it’s merely an opinion. Additionally it is a smart way of politely disagreeing with others of different viewpoints. “imo” is fairly new compared to the other acronyms we’ve stated, nonetheless it is a very common one today, even in professional interaction.

. “LMAO”: “Laughing My A** Out”

This is yet another way to convey the fact that a thing is humorous. It is actually less widely used than “lol” and “rofl” and is fairly new, however join just about any chat room and you’ll see it utilized all over the place.

Lmao is almost certainly not the right phrase to utilize when you’re replying to your boss’s humorous email about you being late for work. It is actually much more commonly used by youngsters, rarely utilised in any kind of formal context.

Who doesn’t dream about falling in love, meeting “the one and only”, having a “once-of-a-life-time-connection” just like in fairy tales, the movies, the TV?

But can such a dream really come true, or are we often too naïve?

Desperate singles are prone to be mislead into impossible “love”

Throughout the years I’ve often witnessed singles whose desperation for love, crave to be touched and embraced, drove them to “fall for others” and believe that “my time has finally arrived.” They feel good about having “Finally found someone to share things with;” “someone who cares about me;” “someone who wants to be with me”. They convince themselves that it is only a matter of time until together they’ll “develop the greatest love of their life”.

Here’s a short story depicting one such individual. It might have happened to you or to people you know.

Love Poems

Lying in bed she read the love poems he had sent her day after day. So many of them. All filled with love, so honest and touching. Was there ever anyone who loved her like he does? Who wrote ever such beautiful poems, for her and about her?

“Write me a poem,” she asked him once, semi-joking, in one of the long chats they had during the last few weeks, she from her bed (usually at nights) and he from his hotel room overseas. And she still remembers his response: “fine, I’ll always do whatever you ask me.”

It was then that the poems began streaming in: poems of love and romance; short and long; some rhymed, some free-styled, many of them passionate and erotic. Does he love her so much? Desires her so much?

What a wonderful feeling it was! One day he’ll return back from overseas where he’s at work now and come directly to see and they’ll experience together all those wonderful things he has been writing about in his poems. Isn’t that what he promises her time and again? One day, upon returning from overseas. If there was any comfort in the geographical distance between them it was that the distance allowed him to express, openly and freely, everything he felt towards her, everything that has been developing between them since the day she responded to the ad in the internet-site, just like that, for the first time in her life, which started all this snow-balling-effect of poems “at her doorstep” (as she enjoyed terming it).

Soon she became addicted to his daily poems like a prisoner to weekly visits. And who wouldn’t? Night after night to read poems which warm her heart and arouse her femininity, after surviving so many dry and lonely years…

Every night, upon going to bed, she took with her the leather folder in which she placed all the printed poems. Lying in bed she read and re-read them time and again, trembling with happiness and desire. The depictions, the images – nothing was left for the imagination, yet all was left to her fantasies. Reading his poems she felt how her heart expanded endlessly. Doesn’t she prefer this love on all the adventures her friends were telling her about? Has any of them ever dipped in a deep and lucid sea of such beautiful-personal-erotic poems?

In another city, or maybe in the same one, a woman is going to bed, taking with her a collection of poems from her lover who she’s never yet seen who’s overseas on a sabbatical leave.

And in another city, near-by, or maybe far away, yet another woman goes to bed at night, her heart filled with poems her lover sends her from somewhere.

They shut their eyes.

They breathe the words and whisper his name…

Dependency, neediness, fear of being alone and unrealistic fantasies

Usually when I hear singles telling me such a story, the words which come to my mind are: Dependency, neediness, fear of being alone and unrealistic fantasies.

If these sound like key words, they indeed are. These are key words which describe a person who is driven by such a deep and unrelenting need to find love and have a partner that she (as the individual in the story) behaves in a total desperate way: she literally “falls in love” with someone whom she’s never met, getting “hooked” on his poems due to her loneliness, neediness and dependency. She doesn’t even consider, not even for a minute, that there is something odd about the situation. Is it really possible that a man she’s never ever met will send her poems so romantic and erotic, so “tailored” for her? Is it really possible that she’s become his “object of desire” – without him ever seeing her?

As she fantasizes about him, she doesn’t even suspect, not for a minute, that there is something weird here, something strange and suspicious. Her neediness and desperation push her to vehemently fall into the web he created and to naively expect him to be with her upon returning from overseas.

The heavy price one pays when driven by dependency, neediness and the fear of being alone

The woman depicted in this short story (and apparently the other two as well) is not unique. Many who are controlled by their own neediness and fear of being alone might be too eager (and naïve) to “jump” into a “relationship” with someone who they’ve never met, out of unrealistic fantasies. They convince themselves that they’re in love; that the man “on the other side of wherever” truly cares for them; that his poems are candidly tailored towards them, expressing all these wonderful and honest feelings of longing and desire.

When such a story ends – either by meeting the person face-to-face and realizing he is not who he portrayed himself to be, or by “suddenly” not hearing from him anymore – the single woman is likely to feel shame, disappointment, sorrow (for herself), disillusion and, most of all, really alone. The dream that shattered like a vase of flowers has its toll on her. To escape her desperation, she might very quickly find someone else to begin a “relationship” with.

A vicious circle

It is very likely to assume that such a woman (or, for that matter, a man) will get into endless “dream-like-scenarios” which will shatter one after another and will further lower her already low-self-esteem. This might “push” her, even more quickly than before, to “fall in love” with yet another “possibility” (which she will name: “potential partner”) – and the vicious circle will continue…

Self-Awareness: the way out of the vicious circle

The way for such an individual to get out of the vicious circle is to combat her needs, dependency issues and fear of being alone and release herself from their grip. She can do so by developing Self-Awareness: understanding where these originate from and realizing the heavy toll they exert over her life and relationships.

Having the courage to become aware and to de-activate the power they exert over her is the only way possible to stop shooting herself in the foot, stop hanging on to unrealistic fantasies, and stop “falling” for strangers (and other unsuitable men).

Having gained such awareness will enable her to know which steps she needs to take to stop the vicious circle from continuing and become able to develop a sincere, healthy and satisfying relationship.

Craig gazed at Susan sipping her latte. She looked back with curious expectation.

He had met her in a grocery store checkout line, and they’d immediately hit it off … so well, in fact that he’d suggested a “get acquainted” date at Starbucks.

“I’m really glad you came,” he said, “I brought something that will help you get to know me better.” He removed his resume from its manila folder and handed it to her

It was packed with information about himself: his height, weight, eye color, level of education, career choice, future goals, hobbies, sports, and likes and dislikes in movies and music. It sported an 8 x 10 glossy of himself leaning against his new Tundra.

“Oh, this looks good!” she said and handed him hers.

Craig read it over quickly and compared it with his own. Yes, they seemed to be compatible in almost every way. He glanced up at her. “Well this looks really good. What do you think? Should we start dating?”

She nodded. It looked like a very promising relationship…

PEOPLE DON’T DATE PAPER

If this scenario doesn’t sound silly to you it does to me. Whoever heard of a real life relationship (except employment) beginning with people handing each other resumes?

So, why should it be any different when you’re searching for a mate online? Why would it be any more effective in cyberspace to judge a person from a piece of paper, no matter how thorough the description of that person might be?

The traditional approach to online dating does exactly that: you post your picture and profile on a dating site, and search other profiles. If someone likes your profile they contact you if they think you’re compatible (and vice versa, of course).

THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT

The trouble is that even if we are really good at presenting ourselves in writing, we generally can’t get across one essential element, and that is OURSELVES. Even a short written blurb doesn’t do it.

And that can make online dating a frustrating experience. Usually we get very few “bites”, and the ones we do get are usually just not right.

Why? Because a piece of paper just isn’t the real you, it’s something ABOUT you. You, that is, your personality, usually doesn’t come across.

The person that is looking for you, the real you, may never come your way.

YOU WILL SEE A STRANGER…ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM

In the real world, you may walk into a room, whether it’s a bar, a dance floor, a classroom, or a church fellowship hall and … see her/him across the room. You ask around. Does anybody know her? Can somebody introduce you?

Or you just walk up to her and introduce yourself, shake her hand, buy her a drink, and get her email address or telephone number. This is what works.

YOU NEED TO SEE THEM

Chatting allows you to begin talking with someone online in your own personal style; the person you are chatting with immediately gets a feel for your personality.

I’ve been chatting for some time now, with MSN chat, Yahoo chat, and ICQ, and have made a few friends online, but the trouble with these traditional chats is that you can’t actually see and interact with other people the way you would in real life. (Some might argue about the cam, but that’s the subject of another article).

Enter the two dimensional (and lately, the three dimensional chat), which greatly increases your chance of actually getting to know somebody, and having them get to know you.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU — THE VISUAL CHATROOM

Visual chatting has been around since 1999, but has never been fully utilized as an online dating tool.

The visual chat I am most familiar with is The Palace, http://www.thepalace.com. The Palace is actually a potentially infinite collection of “palaces”: online chat rooms set up on hosting servers by computer savvy members.

These “palaces” consist of a main entrance gate and many “rooms”, comprised of living rooms with fireplaces, outdoor scenes, bedrooms, dining rooms, etc and etc. The theme of the palace is usually consistent with the interests of the owner. Many are adult-only and may not be areas you wish to enter.

A directory of palaces is located at the palace.com site. You may choose to read either brief or long descriptions. I recommend reading the full description before entering a palace.

With the palace software installed, you can click on the link found in the directory and find yourself in any palace you choose.

INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE

In order to install the software, click on the palace link, fill out the registration information, download and run it. A unique identification number will be assigned to you.

When you run the software after installation, you will be given a default “avatar”. Your first avatar is a yellow “Happy Face” and your default identity will be “New Friend”. You’ll want to give yourself a new name. Think of a positive sounding name that describes who you are.

When you enter a palace, ask to visit their “props” room. There you can find an avatar that most suits you. Try to pick one that looks as much like you as possible (or, at least, what you would like to look like).

DANCING ONLINE

Be ready to have fun! You have entered a new world, where you just might find the special person you’ve been looking for. Soon, even though you may be 3000 miles apart, you can still “sit together” or actually “dance” with them online.

From The Palace, it’s just one step to Yahoo Messenger, cam, and, if things work out…

Real Life.

The people who have just started their business and who have established themselves on the market can use video chatting to their advantage. It is cheaper and can get the results of a face to face interaction with your clients and your employees. The internet has made its way to almost all the corners of the world and you can have an interaction with your client sitting at a remote destination, without taking the trouble to travel to meet with them. Using this service is so simple and it is a user-friendly application. The websites provide elaborate detail on how to use their service to grow your business. The growing popularity of video chatting for business is a clear sign of the benefits linked to using this service. It is one of the easiest and safest services available and the cost involved in using this service is very low compared to its' benefits.

Video chatting gained its popularity because it is recreational and entertaining and it has the advantage of seeing the person whom you are chatting with. It gained popularity in the business world recently because of its advantages and the amount of money spent in meeting people by personally visiting them for business purposes.

The time which we used to waste by using the postal service or letters has lost its popularity because of delays. We have started to move faster in the past decade. The internet has gained momentum in the recently. E-mails and chats are very common these days and with the advent of the video chat, it is unstoppable. The facilities that the internet provides is amazing and the world is at our fingertips, if we use it to maximum efficiency.

To be honest this vacation paradise has been doomed and unused for the last five years plus. I was there in September 2004 and how quiet it was, which was great for us, but not for the local and Zimbabwean economy. Can you imagine being in the heart of the African wilderness, nothing around but a huge expanse of water, mountains and the knowledge that on shore there are really naturally wild animals? For me, Lake Kariba is the home of the "Houseboat". Ever since I was in my teens I had heard of these houseboats. A floating holiday on a huge expanse of water. What I did not know was the size of these floating hotels and how large Lake Kariba really is. At a vast majority of our ports of call all you can see on the horizon is water.

Landing at Harare airport is much like arriving at any third world airport. Not too much different nowadays to the first world except being a lot smaller. The drive, in convoy to Kariba was pretty exciting due to the knowledge of the turmoil in the country and not knowing what to expect, although we did have some locals with us and they assured us that it would be fine. What a change though having been in Zimbabwe seven years prior, the degradation had taken its toll. Most service stations closed, fenced and locked- waiting for fuel. Driving through the countryside, desolate farms, barns with only shells, the timber and roofing scavenged for creating makeshift houses (shacks). Once a thriving farming country now reduced to a subsidence-producing nation. The drive to Kariba takes about 5 hours. Three hours plus out of Harare you enter the national park. Wow – no fences and the game is plentiful.

Turning off the main road, otherwise you end up in Zambia, is truly amazing. Don't drive too fast as you are now really in the wilds with. We saw elephant aplenty, giraffe and lots of buck. Also the scenery is picturesque, winding down through hills and mountain passes, flat landscapes with the famous African bushveld and still knowing that you will be enjoying the next ten days on a fully catered for houseboat cruise – paradise. Driving through the last mountain pass and seeing the vast expanse of Lake Kariba is magnificent. I could not believe that it was so vast, also around the town of Kariba and towards the wall are mountains overlooking the water. The scenery is breathtaking.

I expected the houseboat to be small, old and dilapidated. What a surprise when I saw it and the crew of four, waiting with the welcoming drinks. It is hot, very hot. The houseboat has one floor at water level and one upstairs. Downstairs are the four cabins, kitchen (galley) and storerooms. Upstairs a vast entertainment area come dining room all under an awning with the sides open, the bridge where the captain drives the boat and then in front in the open is this plunge pool. Two tender boats get towed behind this massive house on the water powered by a huge diesel engine.

Once all the luggage, food and drinks were loaded the captain cruised us out of the mini harbor. I had often heard of Lake Kariba and the vast expanse of water, now sitting in the pool in the front of the houseboat, cooling down with an ice-cold beer, I could not believe the size of the Lake. We cruised out of the harbor into the open water and it was vast. The African landscape on the Zimbabwean side is picture perfect with the mountains sharply descending to the lake around the town of Kariba and towards the wall. South of Kariba town the mountains are further back from the lake and descend gradually towards the African bushveld which eventually the shore. An hour later and still in the pool relaxing with ice cold beers not too far away, we are warned to put on sunscreen protection from the harsh African sun and harsh it is. We hear shouts of excitement and there on the shoreline is a huge heard of elephants. The shoreline on the Zimbabwe side is about one and a half kilometers from us. To see them close up you need the binoculars. The Zambian shoreline is beyond the horizon of water. This gives you an idea of ​​how wide this Lake really is. We move back into the shade of the entertainment area and relax in the many lounge chairs protected from the sun now by the huge awning. This must be one of the most relaxing holidays I had ever been on. Perfect for the afternoon siesta. We are cruising to our first port of call. The ports of call are remote stops on the cruise on either little islands or on the mainland in the nature reserve. There are no towns or villages but just wild animals that greet you ie no civilization, don't take your cell phone.

Late afternoon, plus 4 hours into the cruise we hear the engines slow and realizing we have reached our destination. The captain gradually negotiates the houseboat almost onto the shoreline and the crew tie the boat up with long mooring ropes. We are now actually parked on the shore. The captain turns the engines off and there is silence like you have never experienced. You then start hearing nature. The hippos bark and we all look, sure enough there's a family of hippos. I counted six. The two tender boats are loaded up with refreshments, the fishing equipment and snacks. We choose a boat and off we go. This is the highlight of the trip. Small bays along the shoreline abound but the captains of the tender boats, one is the captain of the houseboat and the other is the chief housekeeper, know these areas like the back of their hands, steer us to the best fishing spots.

As you can imagine the fishing is good (mainly bream) because you are in the wilds where not many humans venture. We keep the larger catch for supper and snacks. I was a bit sceptical about eating bream, I prefer saltwater fish and had never eaten fresh water bream before. The sun is now beginning to set on the horizon over the water. We are told that we must head back. There is nothing like a late afternoon cruise on the water with a relaxing gin and tonic and the beautiful African sunset. On the houseboat we head for the showers. Back up on the top deck we are greeted with a pre-meal drink and with darkness looming we chat about the events of the day. All of a sudden it is dark and the crew are summoning us for supper. Man they can cook. By eight pm everyone was bushed and retired to bed. Most of us slept on the deck upstairs on mattresses in the open. The older folk slept in the cabins downstairs.

Approximately four thirty am you are woken by movement downstairs and a rich aroma of coffee being made. You have twenty minutes to wash, apply generous amounts of sunscreen lotion and have coffee and rusks before another adventurous fishing venture on the tender boats. The sun is rising now above the mountains, you can feel the heat and you realize that the rest of the day is going to be a scorcher. Between ten and eleven am we are arrive back with our catches and eager for some food. We are greeted with a magnificent brunch. While we are enjoying our brunch the captain starts up the engines and the rest of the crew are untie the moorings of the houseboat. He manoeuvres out of the bay and heads out back into the vast expanse of Lake Kariba. We are on our way to our next port of call. We finish brunch and some of us take a quick dip in the pool and relax with the gentle motion of the houseboat cruising along the lake. The rest of the day's cruise is spread between siestas, spot the wild animals on the shoreline and playing card and board games.

We arrive at the next port of call with totally different scenery. A larger but we are greeted with a family of elephants. Now elephants are my favorite animals. Up close and in the wilds like this is one of the highlights of my holiday. The hippos are there too along with the wide variety of buck. The routine is the same as the previous day with the tender boats and fishing. This is by no means boring as there is always something to look at, wide varieties of birds with elephants appearing out of the bush, buck all over the place and the odd hippo close by in the water. Crocodiles are also plentiful but it is the hippos you need to keep an eye on, as they will charge your boat if you get too close to them. If they do then you will definitely end up being a meal for the crocodiles. After another very successful afternoons fishing we have another sundowner cruise back to the houseboat.

The rest of the trip is pretty much the same as the first day but as I have said it is always entertaining and never boring. So much wild life, fresh air and the days fly by. Evening star gazing is incredible, with falling stars and satellites moving around the sky. With so many hundreds of miles between you and the nearest city you can imagine the amount of stars you can see. We did not see the lions but heard them roar one or two evenings. The one-day after the roaring we could see the vultures hovering. The locals and the crew said they were waiting for the lions to finish their "kill" so they could move in after them. They must have been about five hundred meters from us.

Sadly, the time had come to return back to Kariba town. Some said they have had their holiday and now need to get back to their daily lives. I could have stayed on for longer. I would normally recommend this amazing houseboat vacation on Lake Kariba to anyone, however considering the state of the country of Zimbabwe at the present time is a no-no unfortunately. Who knows in a little while things might change for the better and this would become a very popular destination indeed?