Hi Leon,
The other alternative is to just you MSN live with a hotmail account. It's free and easy to setup.
Any webcam will do eg, Logitech etc $30-$50, I think Hardly Normal havde a Microsoft one for sale for around $15 or $18 atm.
Once msn is setup its just a matter of initiating the video call and waiting for the other party to accept. Admittedly they need to be online to know your trying to make a connection, but if you set a time say 7pm each night then they can be logged into MSN waiting.
That's my 3 cents worth
norm