I knew it was asking for trouble watching an emotive programme like that (Not Forgotten: Shot at Dawn) – now I’m all sniffly. I have never had much time for the Second World War as a historical topic but the First World War always catches at me with its little sadnesses and its idiotic bravery. I put it down to watching Testament of Youth at a deeply impressionable age.

But oh how quickly we slip back into the inanity of a later century and the telecrap ads.

And moving from vomitous ads to the equally vomitous ‘round-robin’. We always get one around this time from some friends in NZ.

I will share some of it with you, removing names of course lest you wish to hunt them down and destroy them.

***’s year went from sickness and despair to amazing recovery. Despite losing a full term of work she topped her year in the July Cambridge History exam and caught up with everything else. She lead her school house in the annual house music competition – with far more dancing than singing and came 4th out of 11 houses, completed her DOE Gold award, came 2nd in the NZ secondary schools and 2nd in the National team aerobics champs. Somewhere in between she played for her school no2 netball team. How she flew through her contemporary dance exam having had 3 lessons we’ll never know………

And so it continues. Clearly she would have been 1st in all these things if she had not had her bout of glandular fever but as it is she is lumbered with being always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I shouted up to the girlie earlier on ‘for f**k’s sake, have you not come top in anything in the last year that we can brag about?’ but answer came there none. Actually this yearly epistle does one thing for me (apart from jiggling my upchuck reflex) and that is that it makes me for a moment appreciate how good a ‘mom’ I am. I don’t need awards to prove it and when I handed the letter to the girlie just now she just tossed it aside with a dismissive laugh and said ‘who cares!’

That’s my girl.