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A Thought for Today
Love is an act of giving. Giving is an act of love.
Good grief, didn't we do this
end-of-the-year thing just a few days ago? How can a year possibly go by
so quickly? And just what did happen at "A
Safe Place to Land" during the course of the year 2000?
On the
surface, not a whole lot. We spoke quite a bit about the new web site,
"Stanyan House", but couldn't get it on-line before year
end. Rod and I have promised each other that 2001 is the year - we've set
a date and we'll make it this time around, I promise you.
Most of the site activity this
year has been under the hood, so to speak. Earlier in the year we had a
major data loss which resulted in having to restore almost a year's worth
of Flight Plans to the archive section of the site. Boring and time
consuming work, but something that just had to be done.
Thanks to the generosity of
Melinda Smith we launched a mirror site, based in the USA, which hopefully
has provided faster access to all our stateside readers. No small
undertaking this - every single file on the original ASPTL site had to be
edited to allow for the eccentricities of the UNIX operating system. Both
servers have behaved beautifully over the past few months so our technical
difficulties are a thing of the past - until the next time!
Highlight of the year?
Without doubt the mail I received from Rod last week:
Dear Ken,
Finally 2 concerts to announce.
R
OK, so maybe
it wasn't the chattiest letter I've ever received but who cares? I now know it's possible to laugh
and cry at the same time because that's exactly what I did when I heard
the news. And what wouldn't I give to be in Chicago in March, 2001? I hope
those of you lucky enough to be able to get there have already bought your tickets
because I have a feeling they're going to be in short supply pretty soon.
On a personal
note my daughters 21st birthday was definitely the highlight of my year
and to celebrate the occasion I've posted below a photo taken at their
party. I'm enormously proud of all three of my girls; without their
support and understanding nothing much would ever get done around here so
thanks to them for putting up with me during the course of the
year.
Megan, Priscilla, Ken & Nicola Blackie - 30th September, 2000
Thanks to all of you who
continue to write in to both Rod and I - your letters and submissions to
the various columns are always interesting and contribute immeasurably to
the success of this site. Thanks also those who pitch in so willingly to
help with the odd task that needs an additional pair of hands.
Finally, thanks to Rod for
giving of himself so selflessly over the past couple of years. I've
visited quite a few celebrity sites recently and I can assure you no-one
puts more time and effort into ensuring fresh and topical content than
does Rod. Thank you, my friend, it's much appreciated by all who visit
here.
So, onwards
into 2001 and may it be a good year for all of you. Let's see,
we have the concerts to look forward to, at least one new book and
probably some CD's as well. Yup, it's going to be a good one!
I'll see you
then.
- Ken, Johannesburg, December 27 |
