[originally an email to the morgueatlarge list, sent September 2003]
Most of you will probably have heard about ‘flash mobbing’, where crowds of people suddenly gather to perform a pointless act and then disperse.
This is not one of those. This is a FlashMorgue.
This Thursday, September 11, marks the one year anniversary of my departure from New Zealand. To celebrate/commiserate, I hereby summon all my friends and family currently in Wellington, New Zealand to a FlashMorgue.
The FlashMorgue will take place on the north side of the pedestrian crossing on Courtenay Place, the one down the Embassy end. Specifically, it will take place in the view of the webcam here:
http://citylink.co.nz/services/webcam/courtenay/
The FlashMorgue will take place on Thursday evening. Please gather at the FlashMorgue site at 7.56pm precisely.
Greet your fellow FlashMorguers with good cheer and hearty wellwishing. (Singing is entirely appropriate but not compulsory.)
Somewhere between 7.59 and 8.03pm, the webcam will update, recording an image of the FlashMorgue for posterity.
At 8.06pm, please disperse. Or, alternatively, go to a drinking salon of your collective choice, I’m in Scotland so I don’t particularly mind either way and even if I did there’s not much I could do about it.
I encourage all Wellingtonians to attend this FlashMorgue, and all non-Wellingtonians to attend virtually. (In the UK, for example, you’ll want to refresh the link above about 9.05am on Thursday.)
Have fun, and most importantly, be safe.
NOTE:
I will organise a reward for anyone who comes in one of the following costumes:
* a spooky cow
* a bemused moose
* a pigphone
* a Jon Ball
Additionally, the spirits of the east and west inform me that anyone attending who is waving a flag of any description at the precise moment the camera shoots will experience good luck for the remainder of the week. So wave those flags, superstitious folk!
———
I have a big email about the festival coming, but I haven’t written it yet. In the meantime, I will relate to you the following brief story. Today in the work café as I was ordering a panini (cheese and mushroom), a girl stopped me and asked, are you from New Zealand? To which I replied, Kate? Kate Druce?
We were both a bit surprised at our feat of memory, because the last time we saw each other was in about 1989. And we weren’t even friends then – we only ever met a couple of times. (Through the kid’s journo pages of the Evening Post, as it happens. Mum, you may dig through your archives now and find an exact date.)
Of course, this being a “New Zealanders all know each other” story, I expect that many of you will also know Kate Druce. If you do, please reply. I’m curious to see whether the law will prove true.
—-
The sun is shining and I am a happy morgue. Peace, love!