Any good Round Robins yet?

[UnquietDad]

aka Boast By Post.

I'm sure they will start to arrive in the next couple of weeks. All those Tamaras doing Grade 8 violin, Jocastas going to work on kibbutzim (look, I know the proper plural!) while passing their advanced scuba diving exams, and Tarquins passing the entrance exam for St Nob's.

The funniest thing is that the friend who unfailingly does the best one and has us (unintentionally) snorting with laughter has just had an affair, split up with hubby and moved out. So theirs should be a great one this year.

OOh I love them!! We don't get so many since Simon Hoggart did his books, sadly. I have to reread those instead... I genuinely like getting the news from some people, but the boastful, badly written ones are my favourite. Such a wonderful opportunity to scoff, and you know it's all bollocks so you can't be intimidated. My parents get the best one in our family, from America - fancy font, illustrations, lots of religious bits, unintentionally HILARIOUS.
fwink fwink (So loving the fwink. It's now my favourite word)

Highlight of Christmas is the one that my parents receive from son of people that used to live opposite my grandparents when my mother was a child...The minutiae of the details is quite overwhelming: the restructuring of the local authority planning department; the exact route from their rental flat in Paris to the nearest Metro station. Just gloriously Pooterish.

I love the RRs. Highlight of our year is one my parents get one from my mother's ultra-religious cousin, which we have a family rendition of on Christmas Day, and which almost slays us with mirth. I look forward to the one from an old colleague, who went insane a few years back and started sending 8 page letters in 6-point font detailing her karate prowess.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2652&threadid=434859#8811677

UQD You need to look at this thread

Every year without fail, I receive a boast by post from a family I swear I don't know. I receive one or two from families I wish I didn't know.

We get one where they write it in the 3rd person..makes very strange reading..they call themselves "the intrepid duo" as they are recalling their 'hilarious' antics of the year. e.g. "The intrepid duo then noticed some strange noises in their house aha yes!...the boiler needed servicing, would you believe it was overdue by 9 days?".

They are the least intrepid people I have ever met.

I have to say, I love receiving them - not the ones from friends in the UK but ones from friends abroad who I perhaps don't have regular contact with, in which case I love to hear the minutiae of their life, see photos of their kids and all of that. I love 'em, bring 'em on!

That said, I won't be doing one this year as I would hate to be accused of being tacky - I will however be sending a long e-mail individually to those friends far and wide who I don't see very often, and although I will personalise them I am sure I will be copying and pasting a lot as well - why type the same thing out ten times?

Snataslittletf - Do you think either half of the intrepid duo might be mumsnetters?

There was one on James O'Brien on LBC this morning - was a long list of brags from a family with kids who lived on Jersey - about how their son did excellently at fencing, coming 10th out of 29 (which, as JO'B pointed out, was pretty average, in fact, rubbish), how they'd had several holidays, one where it rained - just a long, long list of very dull things. The author went on about how she had 11 voluntary jobs, they were all in and out of the house all evening and clocked up the mileage on their car going to all these different groups and clubs.

Then she said "And what with easyJet's new low cost flights starting next year and the bmibaby service as well, there's really no excuse not to come and see us!" to which the woman who had received the RR quipped, "I beg to differ!".

So perhaps it was a cunning ploy to get everybody to stay the fuck off their island?

SLTF - pmsl at "intrepid duo" - bet they think of themselves as "crazy" and "madcap" as well...

lol santaslittle, at the intrepid duo!

I like some, hate others. We gt a few that are naught but a catalogue of woes and illnesses, but a few that are funny and interesting, especially from far flung friends.

I send an email one, with pics, to save printing, posting etc, but try to keep it brief and hopefully interesting.

My Parents send one about us to all theor friends, and it seems to get longer every year, although my brothers and I are not getting any more interesting or any cuter!

Swedes2Turnips1 - why do you ask! Do you think you may know who they are??

We get one every year from an American friend. It always starts by saying how wonderful the wife (the writer)is and how she ran the marathon (again), was fab in the local pantomime group etc, Of course, the children are so clever/sporty/gorgeous. Obviously following in their mothers footsteps.
Photos are dotted throughout.

The other one we get is from a German relative who tells us how well her childen can write their names and how well she is doing at work.

Gives us a laugh anyway.

Never knew what they were called before .

Rumbled. It's me. I am half of that intrepid duo.

One of my mum & dad's friends once used 'super' 19 times!

I get one from an old school friend who last year devoted the whole of the first paragraph to the joys of their new car: x likes it because it has so much legroom, y because of the electric wing mirrors...get the picture? Then there's the globetrotting, with teenage daughter going on 3 separate holidays and teenage son with a little extra holiday more expensive than our main one, & that a reward to him for getting 25 A*'s at GCSE. Not forgetting the 6 musical instruments they each play and prowess at half-a-dozen sports. Boy, how it makes me realise that we've gone our separate ways!

We get them from distant Canadian relatives so it's a catalogue of Tab graduating from his Magician's course, lots of self-improvement and holidays in Hawaii; very scary in its relentless positivity! But interesting - like a letter from an alien! Maybe I'm too cynical!?