To all our dear friends:
It’s that time of year again!
Phoebe is now fifteen and studying for 15 GCSEs, we’re so proud!
Esmerelda is 7, and between Lifesaving, Ballet, Brownies and Backgammon
Has found time to write her first novel!
Little Joshua won first prize in his class (Higher Maths) -
We don’t know how he did it, the private tutor must have helped!
Somewhere a child dies, and another is born.
We’re still getting by on Keith’s salary (he’s just got promoted again),
Nannies are SOO expensive!
Last year we only managed three holidays, this year we’re up to four!
A gun goes off, an alarm rings,
A bell denotes the end of someone’s day.
Good news!
Sonia’s exhibition went off without a hitch
(Though nothing’s yet been sold),
It must be wonderful to have such talent!
And Mark and Angelina were married last week – a thousand people! -
SO many friends!
A plane bombs a lonely plain,
And a plume of smoke rises up into the night sky.
Next year we’re holding a family reunion,
All are welcome!
Our new home has room in the garden for two marquees,
So there’ll be no trouble fitting everyone in!
Some cloud was crop spraying,
Though the chemicals, they say, might have had other uses.
Have you heard about Rebecca and her new job?
She’s now Chief Global Analytics Engineer in a Multinational Corporation,
And her perks include a new car every year!
A scream in a village as a machette rises and falls.
Dominic has now sold his advertising agency,
And is looking for new business abroad!
Lined up before the pit they themselves had dug the men began to pray.
Chloe has married again, this time to the owner of a chain of restaurants -
Free meals for all!
A child steps on a mine, and her screams shatter the dawn.
So sorry we haven’t had time to write recently, we’re SOO busy!
But we’ve scribbled some notes in the margin!
2001
If you’ve ever been the lucky recipient of a mass-mailed round robin from someone who can barely remember your name and who can’t be bothered to write to you personally you’ll recognise the cringe-inducing, thinly-veiled boasting and the self-deprecatory exclamation marks!!
Meanwhile real life goes on away from the empty privilege of these unthinking no-hopers.
