Central Otago 2050
Which brings me nicely on to your next bit of homework.
I've been thinking quite a lot lately about Central Otago.
It's an area I would like to know better - being more a Christchurch person, I'm a lot more familiar with the Canterbury high country and the West Coast.
Anyway, I am worried about Central. And I'm wondering who else is.
Since I came here, it seems this newspaper has never stopped running stories about new and vast subdivisions, parking congestion, dairy conversions, airport expansions, environmental pollution and the like.
I have my own thoughts about all of that.
So I'm after your views of what Central might be like in say 20 or 50 years' time. Or, shall we say, in 2050?
Please have a think and drop me a line.
Tell the rest of us whether you are happy with the direction in which the region is heading, what you would like to see and what you would hate to see. And any other relevant thoughts.
Recollections of smells and how they convey you back in time continue to dribble in.
Atholea Shanks remembers an aromatic teacher.
''Your topic brings to mind my first high school year when the lady principal and one of the staff shared the same surname.
''Although politely referred to by their initials, as 'Miss JB' and 'Miss HC', the latter was popularly known as 'Little Sniff', because her perfume preceded her in every corner and corridor, her arrival reinforced by the clack of high heels.
''Hindsight suggests it was Chanel No 5. But whatever it was, it was liberally applied and saw off the chalk and stuffiness of the classroom.
''We missed her when we moved on to higher forms and odourless teachers.''
How disappointing to have a non-smelly teacher, Atholea.
Jennifer of South Dunedin rang with a potpourri of long-remembered whiffs.
''First of all, I believe nobody has such lovely fragrances in their homes now as they used to because just about everything is packaged - detergents, soaps and so on. Nothing can permeate the house, it can't escape the plastic.
''My first smell memory in Dunedin was probably the Gregg's factory, a spicy smell. And when I was very young and my parents had a copper, I can remember the smell of the Bluo, the thing you put in the wash to make everything white, and the soap suds too. I think they were Lux flakes. I was only about 8 or 9, but they were very distinctive smells.
''I followed her, a bit like a dog might, up towards the Octagon. Then I went back to Wardell's and wandered around and smelt everything I could. I was about 17. It was just utopia.
''I also remember my father drinking chicory coffee. It was in a bottle and it poured out with the consistency of, I suppose, tomato sauce - quite thick and very, very dark, like liquid Marmite. Before that he used to drink dandelion coffee. It was a distinctive smell, let me tell you.''
I think you can still get both kinds of coffee. But they wouldn't be my cup of tea, so to speak.