Don't worry, I won't be sitting here tapping away as it gets to New Year

You know what? You lot take it for granted. Look at you! Just clicking onto the internet, all nonchalant, broadbanded up to the eyeballs without a care in the world. Imagine that was taken away from you, and instead of your speedy free unlimited wifi service, you had to pay by the minute each time you wanted to check into the online world. Or worse still, have time run out mid way through a Facebook status update. You're shuddering at the thought, aren't you?

This lack of internet connectivity since I've been travelling about takes a fair bit of getting used to. While most places I've been staying have had internet, usually the charge is around $6 an hour (£3.40), payable in advance or by the minute. Wifi has been a little harder to come by, although most (but not all) computers have a USB drive, which means I can write everything on my netbook beforehand and copy and paste it over once I'm online.

Sometimes, a hostel will supply you with a couple of aging computers and a dial-up speed connection. Frustrating isn't the word when you've paid for an hours internet time, only to spend 45 minutes waiting for your inbox to load.

For a blogger who would normally publish anything up to 5 blog posts a week, it's been a bit of a shock to ye old system. Not that I want to spend every minute of my trip at a computer, not at all; my inbox is dead and Facebook now bores my socks off. But travelling and blogging go pretty much hand in hand. When you can't do it as regularly as you'd like, when you watch your stats diminish through lack of reciprocal comments, and to find yourself faced with a google reader full of stories you don't have the money to read...woe is me. For I cannot blog. And I like to blog.

Which is why I like Perth, where I'm back for a few days over New Year. Perth's cultural square is about 2 minutes walk from my hostel, and there you will find 24/7 free wifi. This makes the space outside Perth's museums, art galleries and State Library my new favourite place. I'm writing this on a bench, in the sun, surrounded by about 15 other people all tapping away on their netbooks. Forgive me while I jump around, Skype to my heart's content, read your blog posts, write my own and twitter to a group of followers who, err, are mostly in the UK. Asleep.

But ahhhh, what a novelty. Free, unlimited internet. How I've missed you.

No go on, you. Show some appreciation. Go and give your wireless broadband router thing a hug.

PS. Happy new year, in advance.