I'm lucky enough to have spent most of my life living by the beach. In my view there's nothing like it (except maybe a bottle of champers and a back massage...mmmm). Right now is no exception, I currently live a stones throw from the beach I grew up beside. As I said, lucky me.
The reason I bring this up is not so I can rub your face in it, well maybe a little, buy mostly because I want your input in to something.
Last weekend the five of us went for a stroll along the beach in the early evening and found something I have never found in all my 21 (oh ok, 38) years of living by the sea.
A genuine, bonefide message in a bottle!
How exciting is that?!
(Answer: Very)
The lid was glued on tight and couldn't be opened until we got home so we spent the return walk contemplating who it could be from. A princess locked in a tower? A young Welsh boy who wanted to be penfriends? An old lady who wanted to give us all her money? Did it come from up the Irish coast or across the seas? So many questions! So much excitement!
As soon as we got home we got to work on the bottle.
We gingerly pulled apart the carefully tied thread around the notepaper and delicately rolled out the letter.
And this is what it said:
Concordeski Crash Paris
31/12/68 Concordeski TU144
31/12/99 Putin President of Russia
25/7/09 Bleriot France -> England
25/7/59 Hovercraft England -> France
25/7/00 Concorde Crash Paris
1/2/85 Fliteform Aim Grp Heathrow
Steadman Starnes Bates
McBoon Nov 89
1/2/05 Wm Gray Heysham LA3
6/4/11
Now I realise that if you're a girl reading this you're probably thinking 'Oh FFS is that it? Boooooring'.
But if you're a guy you're probably thinking 'Wow a coded message - this is cool'.
I've come to the conclusion that it's probably a secret conspiracy theory sent to us by the bonkers Jim Corr.
What do you think? Any ideas?
Answers on a postcard (in a bottle) to Kate Takes 5, The Irish Sea.
First of all... 38?! WTF?!
ReplyDeleteSecond of all... whoever wrote that message has seriously neat handwriting.
Thirdly... I wish I could decode messages. I think somewhere in there is the exact date of the apocalypse.
Oh bugger - I'm actually 37 - see what happens when you get old and crazy?
ReplyDeleteThis is sooo cool! I live near (but not that close) to the sea,and I've never had this.
ReplyDeleteWhat is even more fun is if you google it and then see your not the only one to receive this message.....
(Yes I am that sad!!)
BNM
Ooo now that IS cool!
ReplyDeleteOMG OMG OMG this is the best thing ever, ever!! Very Bourne Identity. Keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteoooh very strange. You need whatsisname Langdon out of the Da Vinci Code to sort that out for you ;)
ReplyDeletejust googled the first line of your message and apparently a few people have found these. How weird and intriguing.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly a mystery.
ReplyDeleteThis sheds SOME light on it. Fascinating stuff, though.
http://www.isleofman.com/news/article.aspx?article=18431
oooh, some are underlined in red. I love a good mystery/assassin plot. I very enthusiastically bought the book about the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Unfortunately I was pregnant at the time, there were a lot of acronyms to remember and I kept falling asleep. Did not get passed chapter 3.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've stumbled upon a letter from a spy. Or maybe it's from Putin himself. Or maybe you've uncovered a massive political plot to overthrow the Russian government...
ReplyDeleteWell now you'll know what happened if I suddenly disappear without a trace...
ReplyDeleteNel - that is hilarious!
Look at this: http://www.beforeiforget.co.uk/2008/mystery-in-a-bottle/ What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWow! How strange and how exciting!! any luck working out what it means?
ReplyDeleteOK I'm not googling but my theory is that all those "messages" are when the bottle was last thrown out to sea and where it was thrown from
ReplyDeleteLA3 is the postcode for Heysham, near Lancaster in Lancashire.
However, I find it hard to believe that it's been so far (yet so near) and taking all that time in between "finds".
I don't think it's a child's prank but it could be something along the lines of someone testing out the "message in a bottle" theory and seeing how far it travels before someone blogs about it ;)
Oh wow! That's so cool! It's on my bucket list to send (and have someone receive) one of those!
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, be on the lookout, because clearly, some shit is going DOWN on June 4th.
how intriguing
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Kate we have this one covered. It's low key and and quite safe, but thanks for the tip off.
ReplyDeleteWow I love this! How intriguing....I want to find one now!!!
ReplyDeleteA fricking message in a bottle!! Awesome! And a real-life mystery! Bet the kids loved it. Tho I think I would have a preferred a message from a princess in a tower... :)
ReplyDeleteHow very exciting, no idea what it menas but so cool! Mich x
ReplyDeleteGoogle "Steadman Starnes Bates" and you'll find a raft of posts about this...
ReplyDeleteHonestly - I have no friggin idea!
ReplyDeleteOMG...How exciting! Such a super cool find! Love it! x
ReplyDelete