Dear All,
We sincerely apologize for being late in our current issue of the newsletter. We are convinced you may understand that the reasons for this delay were out of our control. We understand that you have suspected us to have taken our annual leave. Knowing that most Europeans go on their leave in July, of course we could be at the beach of a Greek Island or somewhere in Italy to recover from our trip through Africa. Unfortunately, the political situation – or instability in these 2 countries does not really allow such an undertaking. There would be too much risk of economic or financial uprise in these 2 poor victims of their own speculations. Therefore, we decided to refrain from taking our annual leave and to continue our trip thru Africa – currently we are just at an odd beach in the North of Zanzibar trying to edit the latest edition of “Be Jealous”.
On the other hand, Monika would like to apologize to all colleges in Maputo for not having visited them as promised. Coming out of southern Malawi we made some tough calculations on the mileage we would have to cover and decided to give it a chance next time – should we drive back from Europe. Sorry for that, but it is more than 2000 km one way.
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Many thanx to all the reactions and comments to our last newsletter. We always highly appreciate feedback. Some thanked Monika for the work, others claimed Martin responsible, some where not to specific. In this context we think a little clarification may help you to address the right person on the correct issues. We are 3 involved in this newsletter:
Monika is mainly responsible for pictures (if she is not on them) and the nice passages of text. E. g. “the beach is beautiful, all fishes are very nice to us and just wait for being caught and eaten”.
Martin as usual is fully responsible for whatever is politically incorrect, for explaining negative aspects of live in a positive manner by changing the angle of view and for all nasty remarks on everybody in the world. E. g. “we postponed our suicide because of the large advance payment we had to realize”.
So far everything clarified. Remains the question of the final editing of our newsletter and the third person involved. Of course an absolute must. During our preparation we were convinced that we need a real English person for this purpose. We searched everywhere in the UK – unfortunately nobody was available during the requested period because they were all in China, teaching some basic English to Chinese willing to migrate to Africa. Nevertheless, they proposed an alternative: Some 200 years ago Great Britain expelled quite a number of its citizens to a place called America (unfortunately for us, they were expelled because of their insufficient knowledge of the English language, hence in the 18th century they were considered a danger for the Nation). We contacted some of these guys in the US. Their English was a little strange but somehow acceptable. And they were much cheaper than their English counterparts. So everything ok, we would be 3 for the newsletter.
Shortly before we left Maseru, we had to pack our car. Of course all the luggage fitted somehow in. The exception was a lonely gas bottle – one of this kind you buy in any South African shop and which is essential to make coffee in the morning. To solve this problem we repacked the whole car, still the gas bottle remained outside the car. Now it was time to come to a heroic decision: Either our gas bottle or the American editor. As you may suspect, the gas bottle made it. So we had to inform the poor US citizen that he was replaced by an odd bottle of gas. Since then, we have this bottle on our back seat and use it regularly to prepare coffee in the morning.
Our US guy fully understood our desperate situation. He even made a very constructive proposal. He knew about another of these US guys working on this electronic stuff. Even if his speciality was to confuse everybody and by doing so he earned a lot of money, he also developed a electronic editor – red underlining = wrong spelling, green underlining = grammar rubbish. Maybe not as strong as a real one, nevertheless a compromise with our gas bottle. We installed this wonder of modern innovation – and since then, we use it regularly.
In conclusion:
If something is described in a very nice way, but you may not agree to it – blame Monika;
If you think it’s rubbish, but you like it – congratulate Martin;
If English is your concern, kindly directly contact Bill at his private address billyboyforever@microsoft.com. Kindly no copy to Monika or Martin.
As you might suggest, above paragraphs are purely Martin – blame him!
All the best
Monika & Martin
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