I hope readers like the Christmas Annual layout. The paper was a bit more expensive than the rather 'economical' newsprint quality that I use for the ordinary monthlies, but I think the result has been worth the extra money.

I confess that I forwarded the front page to a few of the girls for their approval. This is because I did not want a repeat of the infamous Great Strike of 1963. On that occasion I changed the layout of 'Kilts and Silks', an old petticoated.com publication, without consulting the staff first. I think that some of the girls were under the influence of the Miriam Karlin television show 'The Rag Trade', and they blew the whistle on me, leaving me without help for the best part of a week. Miss Gribble, who works in the canteen, is the only survivor (apart from myself) of those halcyon days, and was one of the more radical leaders of the strike. I only hope she isn't giving the younger girls too many ideas. Anyway, to have the approval of the typing pool will be a big help; after all these really are the girls who put the 'prim' in 'imprimatur'.

The staff have been putting in a fair bit of overtime to get this special annual ready before Christmas. Needless to say, they are all looking forward to the works Christmas outing, which will be held at the Millfields Hotel in Grimsby. I have told the jovial publican of that convivial establishment to lay in some extra stocks of cherry brandy, as it seems to be the girls' favourite Yuletide tipple.

They are already clamourously insisting that petticoated.com should host a Hogmanay celebration too, the following week. Julie Anne now lives in my old town, Aberdeen, but most of the girls have no Scotch connection, and so - even though it would be a lot more entertaining than watching Andy Stewart singing 'Donald, Where's Your Trousers' for the upteen hundredth time - I am standing firm on that one.

I am just praying that Miss Gribble doesn't foment another revolution!