xmas round robin plague

I've now had four people send me toe curling, sphincter clenching photocopied round robin family update letters with their Xmas cards. You know the stuff...little Johnny passed his grade 2 piano with merit and our four floor extension is slowly rising above the new Mercedes.. Based on this sample, there is a 100% correlation with bible bashing tendencies on the part of the senders - is this something they now tell people to do in church?. Am I just a grumpy git or is there something seriously irritating about this habit? Or both. :JPS:

 

Not in our church! And I have a 0% correlation. But then, I don't know any Mercedes owners... I am the recipient of quite a few annual letters and I send quite a few myself. They're a product of the computer age, and a very good one - it saves people having to decipher my scrawl. I have my set of standard paragraphs and I tailor them to the individuals, rather than write a "Dear friends and family" one to everyone. My wife still insists in writing hers all by hand!

 

maybe I'm being unfair about the Christian correlation . perhaps Osama also sends them out .....' moved into a considerably more spacious cave complex. little Abdul changed training camps and passed his grade 2 bazooka...' Bah, humbug.

 

wtf is a round robin family update letter..? :?

 

it's a standard, typed letter describing what happened to the family over the past year - on the assumption that people you couldn't be arsed to talk to for a whole year still give a toss. usually couched in jolly language and emphasising achievements.

the worst I ever received was written from the perspective of the family's seven year old daughter, but clearly penned by the mother ....

 

Difficult to talk to folk if they live in Australia, so we don't mind them.

 

For various different reasons, both public and private this has been my wife and mine's shittiest year ever, the sooner it ends and gets forgotten forever the better, it's been f***ing awful.
I certainly won't be writing to everybody we know to tell what a shit year we've had, roll on 2005 says I.

 

I've got a pair of old friends who send us the yearly round-robin(which we've just had)and I can't help but agree with much of what you've written,although they arent in any way religious.
It's impersonal,and really like getting a company newsletter,and perhaps about as much use.

 

Thus far this year the round robin has been conspicuous round here by its absence. I loathe the ****ing things and the self-indulgent ****ers who write them. It's the interminably chirpy and holier-than-thou tone I find objectionable. I really could not give a **** about their 'life affirming' encounters with the elephants while on holiday in ****ing Kenya. If only the elephants had sat on them.

Sid, while I'm sorry to hear of your woes I would urge you to do the robin thing. Write it as a pastiche and I guarantee you will spread seasonal cheer all around.

 

I had one from my sister FFS. She won't be doing that again in a hurry. I also have a pair of friends who send out one each printed on either side of a single sheet of paper.

But the best yet was a friend of my brothers who sent one out last year in which he explained how he & his partner wrote the European contribution to the Kyoto Agreement. He was deadly serious but it had us all in stitches. Pompous ass.

Happy Christmas - I've spent the year being mad. 'nuff said.

 

These things are the work of the odd squad for sure.

If you can't be arsed to type an email a few times through the year don't be sending me puke nasties at the end of it.

FFS I have been in contact with my long lost dad via email/ichat/and video conference, its all doable.

 

personally i have family and friends spread out all over the country (and world) so sometimes it is just not possible to keep in contact as much as i'd like. certainly saccharine witterings are not good but even if that's what i get i'll still read them just to make sure things are alright. christmas and new year should be a time of tolerance, family / friends and new beginnings so what's the problem. bunch of fecking grinches the lot of you - hope santa leaves you coal in your socks on the morning in question.
cheers


julian

 

Round robins are just so impersonal and a lzy copout. The perpetrator isn't saying anything to the individual, there is no communication, why bother sending it if you can't make the personal touch. If you can't find the time then it's better to be honest and say nothing.

Utter bollocks

 

i look at it more like.

cheers


julian

 

Whilst I agree that they are toe curlingly embarrassing after a few years I know look forward to them to see how people try to improve on last year. Just had one from an old friend darn sarf and it must have been a bad year. F'rinstance this year she couldn't repeat last year's victories in the Costa Del Sol tennis tounament or the Chamonix skiing.
I'm planning on sending one about how son no.1 has now completed his community service, son no.2 is hoping to get his ASBO electronic tag removed any day now and my daughter is hoping that her 3rd baby before the age of 17 will finally get her that council flat she craves. As for me, since coming out and running off with the window cleaner the wife and I have separated, but we are hoping for an amicable settlement. Ibiza last summer was a blast, as was Blackpool in Scots week. I'll try and visit everyone next year when I get my driving license back.
Should go down well don't you think?

Bob

 

Chaps

You are just a bunch of miserable sods.

If you like it then read it and if you don't just bin it.

Some of you could moan for England.

Regards

Mick

PS I went to Mexico in June and saw an armidillo which made me realise what a wonderful thing nature is...........or shall I drone on about spurs etc.