Remember Susan, the Korea-based, US-born English teacher who designed Skype's prize-winning third birthday card? That's her masterwork above, though it could serve equally well as an illustration of my present surroundings.

(The, um, large man sitting next to me in the internet cafe is now eating takeaway chicken. It smells like a deep-fried dead person. You couldn't make this up. I will sell my soul to anyone who can fix my home net connection...)

Anyway. Susan's just got back from a five-day road trip around the Korean peninsula, so she's refreshed and full of chat. "So many people have contacted me since I won the contest," she told me. "Nearly every other day a new person requests my contact details or sends me a 'hello' chat message. They're from all over the world: Australia, China, Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, Germany, Morocco. Oddly enough though, they are all guys..."

But like any good Virginia girl, Susan's heart will always belong to Mommy.

"The only person in the whole world I think I'd want to Skype right now would be my mom! We're always on the phone. The longest Skype call I had with her lasted an hour and 45 minutes, and it was great not to have my dad's voice going round inside my head, telling me how I was spending too much time on the telephone and costing him a fortune. Skype has changed all that."

So far, Susan has converted four family members to Skype (including her cash-aware dad), though she's still working on her friends. "Maybe this interview will help persuade them to get Skype... fingers crossed. I'm thinking of you, Jess, Amy, Rebecca and Matt!"

P.S: That reminds me – there's still more than a week left of Skype's Refer-A-Friend offer. Use this online form to refer three friends, and you'll get 30 minutes of SkypeOut calls for free, plus the chance to win a Sony Vaio and other goodies.