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Two more images of the cross-cultural pavilion at Te Kuiti.

The sculpture of the Maori man, and of the Maori 'totem', made powerful impressions.

On my 64th birthday, a well-meaning but ultimately misguided friend sent me a link to a special kind of website.   It's one of many that offer a deceptively simple 'service' to their users.  You write an email and send it to yourself.

You can, of course, do this at any time.  The seductive aspect of the linked site is that you can specify the date on which you want the email sent to you.  Which means that, on some future date, you receive an email that will remind you of how you felt the day you wrote it and - depending on how seriously you take these things - one that will give you a self-penned catalogue of how you saw your hopes and fears and challenges at the time.

So...I sat right down and wrote myself an email.  I received it yesterday, on the morning of my 65th birthday - exactly one year after I wrote it.

It makes sobering reading - which, I guess, they usually do.  After all, nothing really goes to the design you set for it, feelings don't last forever and our perceptions of people, events and 'things' change, even slightly, as time passes.

It would be unwise to the point of folly for me fully to reveal the contents of my email.  That way lies perdition and humiliation, both of which stalk the ageing and unwary and both of which should therefore be avoided at all costs by the wary (ageing or not).

The email is an inventory of sentimentality, misplaced priorities, unattainable ambitions, frankly bizarre observations and hopeless misperceptions.  I must be getting old.

'Dear FutureMe,
Yesterday was your 64th birthday.  You met up with Hildie, talked way too much about Serge (again) then went to see Skyfall....
...this year you managed to get to Berlin and Munster - so did Barry and Jean.  That all made you very happy.  It was the natural thing to do...
...you spent your first Christmas in France....
So here we are....
You met up with Paul today....he has sold The Quadfather. Watch this space!
It took you 2 hours and more to get home from Paul's in the blizzard....
You are going to Paris for Saint-Saëns anniversary next weekend - then on to Beaujolais to bring Serge here for Christmas.
We are meeting up with Susan in Edinburgh.
As for plans...'
 
Which is where it got really embarrassing.

Anyway...

I've just written another.  It will be sent to me on my 66th birthday.

If you want to risk a little self-revelation, try it.

http://ohlife.com/timecapsule/splash - or try FutureMe.org

(If the links don't work, copy and paste them into the Search box of your browser.)

Go on...I dare you...

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AGM XLIII
Does anybody know when the next AGM is?

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CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com