The Magic Numbers

I don’t know when people first started making notes of dates that were a bit distinctive – such as twelve minutes past noon yesterday, other wise known as 12:12 at 12/12/12. The first I heard of it was two years ago. I suspect the rise of camera phones and posting timestamped pictures to Facebook   probably fuelled this craze. Anyway, for the last 3 years, my wife and I have taken a picture to mark the moment, and each time, it has been just a bit special. The picture on the bottom of the triptych was taken on Sunday morning on Inishbofin island – at 10:10 on the 10/10/10 on the lawn of the Inishbofin House Hotel – and it was on that weekend that we decided to get married there the following year. The middle picture – taken at 11:11 on the 11/11/11 last year – marked the date that we moved into the house that we had just bought. This year, we wondered how we would mark the occasion.  My wife had bought me a present of a half-day cookery course in Cava as part of my Xmas present last year, so we decided during the summer that we would  mark the 12/12/12 by doing the course. I’ve been looking forward to the course for months (and I will write about it in more details later), but suffice to say for now that it was probably the most enjoyable day I’ve had this year. (In the photo, that’s J.P. from Cava in the middle between his two very well-fed students).

Out of curiosity, I went back through my archive to see I had taken pictures on previous ‘special’ dates – e.g. 09:09am on 09/09/09 – and while I have taken some pictures on the day, I had not taken any near the actual time.In 2009, I took this picture on the 9th of September, but in the evening time (I didn’t get a chance to put it online until a month later), in 2008, I didn’t take any pictures on August 8th at all – I had been to the Omey Island races on the 4th which was as close as I got to the date. In 2007, I did take some pictures on the 7th of July but only in the evening – including some infrared pictures of a round tower. In 2006, I didn’t take any pictures on the 6th of June, but I had been at a country fair in Co. Laois the day before (it was the June bank holiday Monday). It was an absolute scorcher of a day – so hot that it is the only time we put the top up on the car because of the heat. The fair was great fun and the Duck Master was probably the highlight.I had bought my first digital SLR a month before the fair. In 2004, I didn’t take any pictures on 04/04/04 but the day before, I had one of my many visits to Ross Errilly friary near Headford. That was the first year I had a proper digital camera of any sort – I had purchased a Canon G3 the previous November (the camera still works though I don’t use it much now).