For the last couple of months we have been urging Marta to send us some information for a "Meet Marta Sandberg" piece. However, she was taking some university courses, and was pressed for time. Now she’s finished the courses. and sent us enough material for a half dozen issues! In case you think you’d like to visit Marta, you’d better pack some supplies and buy the latest GPS unit available.

Here’s the directions to her farm that she gave one of her correspondents:

To find me you have to get a world atlas - a very large world atlas. First find Australia. That should be easy. It is about the same size as USA, but we only have 19 million people living here.

Sparsest populated continent in the world (unless you become pedantic and count Antarctica). We are in fact so small that we are often lumped together with the Pacific islands in UN statistics under 'Oceania'. What industry, and population, we have is generally speaking concentrated on the east coast.

That's not where I live. Go west, young man, go west. Find Perth, the capital city of Western Australia (this is little known fact about Australia, we tend to be very literal in our geographic names).

Perth wouldn't be a bad place for cryonics. It has almost a million people, quite a lot of industry and an overabundance of universities. Four, by last count. But I don't live in Perth.

Follow the coastline southwards (as we are in the Southern Hemisphere that means you get closer to the South Pole) for about 130 miles until you come to a city called Bunbury. It is a city more by courtesy than fact. No universities, no mentionable industry and absolutely no fun. I am glad that I don't live in Bunbury.

The next bit gets tricky and you need a good map to do it. Go inland about 50 miles. Find a little dot called Bridgetown. This is a town in the same way that Bunbury is a city. A couple of thousand people, no airport, no railway station, a lot of unemployment (in lieu of industry) but it is still a great unspoilt place to live. If I actually was living there. I'm not......but you are getting close. I don't think you can find a map that that shows you the last bit. To get to the farm I live on you travel 10 miles on the highway and then a further 10 miles on a dirt road. In case you are wondering the dirt road has the grandiose name of Forest Park Avenue and it feels good to be able to give my address as (mumble) Park Avenue.

It is not exactly the centre of the universe.

If I feel confident in making my cryonic arrangements from here then anyone can do it.

The university exams are over. If I am very lucky I will get three high distinctions and a credit, but I will be happy with one high distinction, one distinction, one credit and one pass.

Right now there is only minor mopping up to do and trying to catch up with everything that was placed on hold for the exam. I dared to briefly peek in my e-mail letterbox and there are over 400 unopened e-mails. That should keep me happy for a while.

Over the years I have written to quite a few wanna-be cryonicists Some questions were asked time and time again, so I saved the answers. I am attaching those to this e-mail as it will give you a starting point. Just skim through it as there is a lot.

Now for quick answers to your questions

What do your friends, family think of your interest in cryonics?

In general, they all think I am balmy. Some think I am embarrassing (especially when there is media attention) and at least one of my nieces thinks it is ‘cool’. I find the word ‘cool’ to be very appropriate in the circumstances, and I am old enough to think of this as recycled slang.

What in particular interests you about the future?

It is different. It is a continuation of today. I want to see it.

Are you a member of CI? I understand your husband has been cryopreserved. Is he at CI or Alcor?

Both me and Helmer (my husband) are members of CI. The big decision was to be frozen or not to be frozen. Once I had made my mind up, it was a rather small decision to choose cryonic organization. Both Alcor and CI have a lot to recommend them. In the end it was the slow-and-steady approach of CI that won me over. As I have to trust my cryonic organization to keep me safe for a century or so, I want something slow and cautious.

By the way, I actually faced the head-only or whole-body choice before I chose cryonic organization. In the end I decided I didn’t mind neurosuspension – and then I blew it by going CI (sigh!)

Have you ever visited the CI facility?

Yes, I was there as CI was just moving from the old to the new facility. Helmer wanted to see the facility before he died. As it turned out he was too ill to be able to travel back to Australia, so he died in Detroit. Robert Ettinger and his brother Allan were incredibly helpful, as was the hospice. They managed to make me feel comfortable about having Helmer die in an apartment we had rented.

I haven't done the math, but I think there are more Australian cryonicist per capita, than in any other country. Why do you think this is?

A: I doubt that there is anything in the Australian psyche that makes us Aussies more susceptible. I have always felt that it takes a long time to hatch a cryonicist and every active and ‘media visible’ person will attract people like themselves to cryonics.

That is probably the main reason why so many male. white libertarian computer aficionados belong to cryonics. However, the cryonic meme is slowly spreading out into the general population I have been interviewed by just about every woman’s magazine in Australia as they see me as ‘the love story of the century’.

I always have intense discussions with the journalists over how many times they are allowed to use the word ‘tearfully’ in their story, but I know it is doing cryonics good to widen its appeal. One of the Australians frozen was partially prompted by one of those articles.

Then you come down to the time factor. I had heard about cryonics for decades before I actually did something about it. But I needed the time. The meme had lodged itself like a hook in my brain and slowly the idea grew to something that might-just-possible-be-remotly-possible-if-there-was-n-other-alternatives.

Of course, for Helmer there wasn’t any other way. All of this is a long way of saying I don’t know. I think that Thomas Donaldson has something to do with attracting so many people to cryonics.

He started the movement here a long time ago. I also think that the fact that cryonics has had mainly good publicity here has something to do with it

What do you like and dislike about THE IMMORTALIST?

A: It is there!

When I first heard about cryonics I stayed away from other cryonicists by choice. I was very skeptical and wanted to investigate it by myself without being influenced by a bunch of true believers. Later I stayed away from other cryonicists by geography.

Bridgetown is about as isolated as you can get in cryonics terms. I have very rarely met any fellow cryonauts face-to-face. THE IMMORTALIST and Alcor’s magazine were my only link to other cryonicists for a long while. Once a month a magazine dropped into my post box whose very existence told me I wasn’t the only lunatic on the planet.

Today, the ‘net has largely usurped that function. I am part of both Cryonet and CI chat-line, but THE IMMORTALIST still provides me with news (as opposed to chat), I can store the back issues for reference and it is much easier to read in bed than a computer.

The main problem with THE IMMORTALIST is that a lot of the stuff in it has already been covered on the ‘net. I know there has been another suspension and that Robert will resign. We still need both.

A: My first degree was in Mathematics. Interesting stuff, but a tad less useful than a degree in Fine Arts. To take fifteen years off being a carer did not help the relevance and usefulness of my uni studies.

This time I decided to study accountancy. I can’t say I feel any particular fondness for the subject, but I doubt if anyone becomes an accountant because it is a calling. For the last fifteen years I have only lived on savings and the very meager income from the farm.

Right now my economic situation can best be described as ‘financially insecure’ Unfortunately, I didn’t research my new career well enough. I have already studied three years and have one left to go. But that’s not the end. To become a proper accountant I then have to do a further course as a CPA (Certified Practicing Accountant) or a CA (Chartered Accountant). That’s another three to five years - at least I will work whilst I do that.

The main problem is that I have already completed my first half-century and by the time I finally get my qualifications I will probably be in a Zimmer frame. But that’s tomorrow’s problem.

Oh, and I am also doing a simple certificate in databases and spreadsheets at my local technical college. There are two reasons for that. To begin with, the university studies are far too academic and I need this top-up of my data skills.

The other reason is far more practical. I live on a farm outside a very small country town, so I take the bus every morning to Bunbury where the nearest university is, and then I am stuck there until the evening bus home.

The university and technical college are right next door and the technical college has a much nicer library to spend the day in. Not to mention lots of computers with internet access. Guess where I am right now? I do most of my studies (and messing about) at the technical college.