2006/2007 the number game!

There are periods in every year which are more agreeable than other.

Anyone who has been following the events on this site knows that the month of November is not a favourite in the Chateau de Mr le Marquis, to say the least! This year (2006) it appears that my message has converted many others, who up until now had no particular problems with November. At least I know I am not alone!

No - no, it's not really about those times of the year I want to talk about, but more about the times of year when goodwill and pleasure should be on the menu, and in fact........................

It all starts with the first seconds of the year, whe one has passed hours and hours listening to eternal bleatings about the dismerits of this family member, or that friend. Why this one, or that one had ever been invited and had "I known he/she was coming then I wouldn't be here!" etc. etc.......

All you can say is "pass the foi-gras, please" and do your best to ignore totally what is being flustered in your ear, try to concentrate on the dinner talk, which nowadays is very little, and in quality, non-existant. Verbal darts are exchanged, and looks (which proverbially cannot kill) are thrown in all directions. Children and adolescents are only present either because they are too young to be allowed out on their own, or because they are awaiting the "little envelope" after which they politely (or not - depending on the size of the envelope) disappear. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more predictable than the first few seconds of every New Year. Those same people who have not exchanged a word since the last occasion, will fall in each others arms, furiously intent upon being the first to wish "A happy and prosperous, particularly healthy, New Year".

Of course, one knows that should, by any mishap, the reciever of these wishes actually DOES have a happy and prosperous New Year, then the grinding and gnashing of teeth will be considerably increased!

Not having any teeth, this does not apply to myself, and my applied form of reply is simple -------- "And you too!" -----I find this response can be taken as wished, or simply left!

As the year advances, the occasions return - "Happy Valentine" (implied is "still on your own then, but what do you expect!")-----"Happy Easter" (implied is "you still alive then, and still getting yourself invited") --Summer Holiday time, blue skies, hot weather, barbecues, celebrations, village fetes, and all the rest. Family rendez-vous, but if he/she is coming then I'm not! Or, why did you invite them? They've got nothing to do with us! Why did they accept anyway? Have you heard, he/she is getting divorced, is dead, is gravely ill, "but then - I've expected that for a long time!"

New, or relatively new, is "Happy Halloween" another occasion (with birthdays, namedays, saints days, baptisms, weddings, births etc etc for those "envelopes" to make their reappearance, with the same effect.

It is interesting to note that according to statistics, the longer periods of inactivity (particularly if the holiday periods unexpectedly allow longer breaks than the normal weekend) are also the periods where such social things as wifebeating, family feuds, suicides, separations and divorces applied for are increased ten fold!

It appears that this sacred "time for the family" thing is amongst the greatest social killers which exist. Obviously the larger part of society gets on one hell of a lot better with work colleagues than within the arms of the family.

I don't have the problem any more. Having made the "sort out" of things, I now have few friends, even fewer family contacts, and considerably fewer problems! I'm sorry to say to those who wished me the New Years insincerities that I risk much less to kill myself, or get divorced!

There remain, of course, those occasions, which up till now I have felt "obliged" to either arrange or to accept invitations to, but I'm working on them as well!

In any case, so far as prosperous is concerned, I'm the epitomy of the highly endebted, ruined Aristocrat, in the health area, I haven't got any health, good - bad - indifferent.

No envelopes can - or would - come from me, a fact which automatically excludes me from the "oh so desirable company of children and adolescents!"

How awfully sad!

I do, however, still have a few friends, chosen carefully, whose well-wishes I think I can take as being sincere, and who I hope take my well-wishes also as such.

Such friends I will take care to nurture, in the hope that such frienships may continue. They know who they are, and if things change in 2007, then it's only because my system of "sorting-out" may force my dropping the one or other of "traditional" things from my list!

To those, who know who they are, I offer the following,

sincerely! You are all as precious to me as this beast (well, almost)!!

And to all the others:

Get the message?

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