Christmas cards

E-Christmas cards! Sent from people who have left it too late to send out Christmas cards on card? Sent by people who are concerned for the planets resources?

Stephen Adams from a UK Newspaper (The Telegraph), writes:

The number of festive e-cards being sent is growing by more than 200 per cent a year, according to one estimate, while the number of paper cards is static. An increasing number of companies are sending email-based cards as the recession bites, with the Royal Opera House even doing so this year.

Many people are also keen to shave a few pounds off their Christmas budgets this year said Sam Heaton, managing director of Britain's biggest electronic cards firm, ecards.co.uk
He said: "Last December we sent 1,362,000 e-cards and year-on-year we are probably increasing at about 200 to 250 per cent." He commented: "I think e-cards will have an impact on paper card sales. It's not cheap to send them. "I don't think people have got the money this year. People need to save money and this is a really easy way to do it."

The number his company sends is still dwarfed by the 750 million that the Royal Mail says it delivers every year. But Mr Heaton pointed out that his company was a "minnow" compared to American e-card firms. He estimated 123 Greetings - the biggest e-card firm in the world - could send out "10 or 20 million a day" during Christmas.

Often criticised for being tacky and impersonal, e-card companies are launching a raft of more sophisticated versions in which the sender can embed pictures of themselves or video content.
Mr Heaton said: "That will give them a new dimension." Ray Sangster of Flip Video, a mini-camcorder about the size of an iPhone, agreed with Mr Heaton's prediction that paper card sales would fall. He said: "Whilst it is still of course special to receive a Christmas card, the impact a personal video message from a granddaughter or grandson has on the recipient can't be underestimated."

La Rentrée

Yesterday was the big day and my son was leaving the petite sectionne to start moyens (4-6 years old).

Oh the worries you have when you are 4, what colour group will you be in, if you were a lapin in the petite section what are you in the moyens and most importantly can you sit next to your girlfriend?

After the first day we now know that he is in the red group, no animal/bird/insect has yet been assigned to each sectionne and no you cannot sit next to your girlfriend! The moyens sectionne is so big this year it has been split up into 2 classrooms.

Ah, the path of true love never did run smoothly.

Charming French rhyme

This morning I was telling one of my French friends about this miracle wrinkle cream - sorry got to keep it a secret otherwise the price may go up! After explaining all the "skin tightening" benefits this cream gives my friend told me a little French rhyme and it goes like this:

Les chameaux dans le désert
Ont la peau tellement tendue
Que - quand ils ferment les paupières -
Ils ouvrent le trou du cul

Camels in the desert
Have their skin so taut
That - when they close their eyelids -
They open their asshole

Transhumance - June 2008

It's moments like this ...!

Oops!

My son used to call out rather sweetly, "Mummy - Bob the builders are here". However, the other morning that changed to, "Mummy - the bloody builders are here"!

Now who did he get that from... Oops!