14th December 2006
Dear All,
Another year sails by and it is again time for the Tyler missive to be sent in with the Christmas letters to tell you about the year we've had and the year we're looking forward to. There was no letter last year in case you wondered, I just couldn't be fagged and as usual sent out the Christmas cards so late I figured you wouldn't notice anyway. It also means that I may be able to sneak in some of 2005's news in the vain hope that it will make our lives more interesting.
So on to the summarised results for the year:
Births 0
Deaths 0
Near Death Experiences 2 (Harriet really wound me up around June time
and I rolled the car in November last year)
Birthdays 5….no only kidding…one each four
Overall a no score draw of a year…older but no scars.
I've been working for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on their XP roll-out for the last 14 months For some reason they won't give me access to any of the tax systems but I've been having fun telling them all about my dodgy friends….so expect a visit sometime in the New Year. I've also worked out that the family really doesn't understand the concept of me being self-employed as Sharon keeps telling people I'll be unemployed in January and Harriet keeps asking if I can 'get sacked' early so as to spend more time with them. Mind you, James is supportive and this morning pulled back the covers to get in to bed with mummy and told me to get up and go to work - I fear he's got a bit of an Oedipus complex developing there. Anyway, it's nice to know that I work all these hours and am so understood at home.
Sharon and the kids are continuing with the learning of the arcane arts of the Welsh language and now happily converse with a pint of phlegm in the throat. I'm waiting for the time that I'll be completely excluded/branded an English interloper. Mind you attending the kid's Christmas Concert last night I was amazed that 200 kids from Bangor singing in Welsh still sang 'BeFlehem' as well as 200 little Eastenders.
On the house front I've final succumbed to the paternal influences and like my old man have taken to slabbing as much of the garden as I can, ably egged on by Sharon. So we now have a completely new drive, path, rear courtyard and firepit. Next year's project will probably be to do the lawn in a nice green asphalt which will remove the need to mow the grass and allow Harriet and James to cycle/skate/scoot around unhindered by nature. Following on from this I've also proved, by trying to build a wooden greenhouse that I take after my maternal grandfather and can't do 'proper' woodwork for toffee, although it's close enough to the firepit that we might have an accident at some point that will remove the evidence.
This year we've also been more active travelling around to see people, if we didn't get to you, don't worry your turn for the pain will come. In August we finally met up with my old school friends in a damp field in Derbyshire. It was most enjoyable getting the chance to see all my old friend's families and fulfil a promise I made many years ago which was to introduce my daughter to all their sons and ban her from dating them.
Love RAT and family
