How an old friend made my red-letter day

WHAT joy – last week I received a letter in the post! A proper letter, that is, not a bill or bank statement or information about higher insurance premiums. Not a couple of sentences on the back of a pretty postcard but three pages of double-sided handwriting from an ex-colleague of mine.

It was an entirely different experience to getting an email and so much more pleasurable.

The opening of the envelope, the first glance to see that it was more than a few scrawled lines, the settling down to read the crisp, thick pages.

Emails are not the same. They are far too common rather than an event, and often read as we are on the move on our smartphone.

A long email immediately seems tedious and is horribly tempting to speed-read.

A long letter appears more caring and committed and, unlike emails, is less likely to have been sent as a late-night, ill-considered missive which you then regret.

THE message from the fashion tomtoms is that the midi’s day is over. That swirling hem paired with white trainers we’ve all taken refuge in is deemed completely passé. But what next?

The catwalks are filled with trousers, along with a fair number of shorter lengths, and although it takes months for catwalk ideas to filter through to the mainstream, it will be interesting to see whether such a popular look as the midi will be condemned by women to the style trash-can.

But it may. There was certainly life before it became a style staple.