5. Par Avion

Thoughts.....

So Rex took my airline and made it into a paper plane....... which is something I never considered. For my response I knew exactly what I wanted to do but not overly sure on the execution so here goes.

The Idea 

So I took the two words and looked up the definitions:

paper |ˈpeɪpə|noun1 [ mass noun ] material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on, or as wrapping material: a sheet of paper | [ as modifier ] : a paper napkin | [ count noun ] : toffee papers. 

plane 2 |pleɪn|nounan aeroplane.

          [ no obj., with adverbial of direction. to travel in an aeroplane. 

- So paper is used for writing letters! 
- Planes help people travel and produce amazing stories 

    I seem to get hundreds of emails a week (half of which are junk) and then in the post I seem to only get bills.

    So letters, can you remember what they are? they sort of look like an email, but it's printed on paper, then neatly folded and put into an envelope.

    I believe writing a letter to someone is the next best thing to seeing them in person. I read a really good quote the other day from Catherine Field from the New York Times

"A good handwritten letter is a creative act, and not just because it is a visual and tactile pleasure. It is a deliberate act of exposure, a form of vulnerability, because handwriting opens a window on the soul in a way that cyber communication can never do. You savor their arrival and later take care to place them in a box for safe keeping."

So the idea is to write a series of letters to complete strangers telling them a little bit about my journey in life so far and getting them to add to the letter and forward it on to someone else.

The Tools

Paper

I visited my Nan a few days ago and mentioned what I was planing, my nan is a very well travelled lady and I always remember when I was younger receiving post cards from the far ends of the world. My nan then let me have some vintage airmail writing paper. Although she did think it was a bit odd when I said I was writing to a complete stranger, but as normal she smiled and gave me a biscuit. 

The Ink Pen

I love writing in ink and you need a good pen to get the job done! 

My pen of choice is the Lamy Safari. I've had about 4 of these in the past and they last forever, my most resent purchase is the Safari aquamarine. It's made from sturdy ABS plastic and sports a chrome - plated stainless steel clip and the coolest part its designed by a guy called Wolfgang Fabian.

The Execution 

So I've decided to write to six people to increase my chances of getting a response. I spent about ten minutes hunting around for the yellow pages (the only time you need one its not around). I typed in random address generator and it came out with this address generator site.

So my letters are being sent to the follow places (I did have to look some up)

• Munlochy
• Prescot
• Pwllheli
• Matock
• Westminster
• Whitchurch

So what did I say in the letters, I introduced myself, and explained my idea of sharing journeys. I then wrote down the link to the address generator and asked them to add their story to the letter and send it on. Finally when the letter reaches 20 people it gets posted back to me. 

I'm not sure how Rex will react to this post, or if i'll ever get anything back. Its something i've always wanted to do so fingers crossed something will turn up in my mailbox