I’ve just had a nice email from Rachel to thank me for her prize for blog comments. A few days ago Rachel also sent me a thank you email for the Funky Flute book I sent her. Why am I telling you this? The reason is because it is so unusual for people to thank me for things I send them. Are you surprised at that? I am, even after all these years.

In the early days of Flutewise I used to spend a great deal of time trying to encourage individuals and firms to give prizes for our members. I often managed to get splendid flutes as prizes. Sadly, they caused more problems than anything else I did. On several occasions a flute would be won by a member and instead of me answering the phone to a happy, grateful parent, it would be an irate mother on the end of the phone telling me that the flute her daughter had just won had a dirty mark on the headjoint (it just needed rubbing off with a soft cloth), or her daughter couldn’t possibly attend a presentation, or her son didn’t want the flute, he wanted a saxophone instead! Honestly, I’ve had countless complaints.

Mums often ring as soon as a magazine is published to say their son/daughter has won a prize and it hasn’t arrived. I get quite a number of those calls, but rarely thank yous. I also get people asking for different colours of things or different recordings if they’ve been sent a CD.

I think it is quite sad, I always write a thank you card if I’m given a present. Is that an old fashioned or weird thing to do?

I do get quite a number of thank you letters and emails after courses. They are always more than welcome, but then again only a few people actually bother.

Oh well…. I suppose that is life.

Thank you for reading this.