I phone the family from Newport

Picture right, is the spot where I made my mobile phone call... it was so good to hear everyone's voices, sounding so near, yet so far away...

I phoned the family from Newport, Rhode Island. I spoke to my grandsons who were at an art exhibition in Norwich, featuring their grandfather's paintings, with their Mum and Dad. I was outside the Anglican church in Newport, more or less in the very spot where this picture was taken.The church looks as if it had been transported from the City of London to Newport with its Wren/Hawksmoor style of architecture. I remember standing there and thinking how extraordinary it was to be able to talk to the family from so far away from a tiny mobile phone, but also, what an immense pleasure. Inside the church notable features were high sided pews for nursing mothers and wonderful Tiffany windows.

We then went to have coffees and cakes at a little cafe and looked for the 7 for all Mankind jeans for my youngest son in the shops, where the young assistants enjoyed trying to track down a local stockists on their computer. I found out I could have got them in Bloomingdales, but the message failed to come through when I was in there. I've just noticed the name below the window, Cornelius Vanderbilt and I remember how our guide pointed out a Vanderbilt mansion nearby,