Novocastrian

Several years ago when my mother had to move out of her sheltered apartment into an old folks home with full healthcare facilities, my sisters filled a large carton with "photos they thought we'd like to have", and gave it to us when we were over that summer.

I had no time to look through it and it was far too heavy to bring back with us in luggage so I went to a post office in Newcastle and mailed it to myself. Airmail was out of the question so it went surface for the princely sum of 80 quid.

Months later, it arrived in Toronto (I'd completely forgotten about it in the meantime) in very poor condition.

When I opened it I found it was full of photos that we'd taken ourselves and sent to my Mum over the decades.

Duplicate photos of which we already had the originals.