Room With a Zoom

We set an appointment to get together on Father's birthday in May.

Catching everyone at a reasonable time is always a challenge.  

Our two extremes are Arizona and Sydney but the real challenge is making sure that Mother was still awake considering that she wakes up at 3 AM and sleeps at 7PM.   

I was hoping for a 5 AM Arizona / 10PM Sydney schedule which seemed more reasonable for everyone however Mother requested 7PM Manila time because my suggested time translated to 8 PM Manila time which was already past what Mother called her "Shrek time."

Anyway, I sent off this screenshot a few days before our scheduled meeting but mentioned "just add 12 hours."  I usually know whether Sydney is two or three hours ahead of Manila.  At the moment, we are two hours ahead of Manila.

Before 9PM. we started the call using FB messenger.

I thought we were doing ok.  I took this photo and waited for Mother and Sister Deer to join.  

I went upstairs to enable the kids to greet their aunts and uncles but my connection got cut off.

While I was out, Mother and Sister Deer joined the call and I was left out in the cold.

Apparently, FB messenger only allowed eight (8) simultaneous connections.

(Yes, that was my ear in Slash-M's mobile.)

We learned our lesson and set another virtual family gathering for June.  We set it for the 2nd weekend in June.  This time, we would do it in Zoom.  Zoom allows more than eight simultaneous connections.  Perfect for large families such as ours. 

 

By the time June came around, the restrictions on the number of people visiting a household were revised.   Starting 01 June 2020, up to 20 visitors were allowed to visit a household.  That was a whole lot more people that could gather together in a long time. 

 

Family here decided we would get together for our previously regular Saturday dinner.  The last time we'd seen each other was in February.  However since there were more than 20 of us all together, it was arranged such that the adults would meet at one place and the "children" (young adults, really) would gather in another. 

 

So at the designated meeting time, I excused myself to joined the rest of my family for our Zoom call.

One of the major topics for this call was how to wear a surgical mask properly.  (Thank you, Eldest Sis for the online tutorial.)

For the moment, this is what our family picture look like.

It was good to see everyone!