The family circle gather round from very far and near    To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year    The little girl you dangle on your knee without mishap   stirs something in your memory   and something in your lap    But it's a living    This is the life    For the world and his wife    The world and his wife       The kissing cousins slip outside to cuddle and confess    She says sweet nothing at all it's much more of a mess    The conversation melts like chocolate down their open jaws    As the juniper berry slips down just like last night's drawers       To tell the truth our Mum ran off with someone else's father   went for two weeks holiday in taramasalata    Daddy went out with the rubbish and he kept on walking    Between Mum and the walls    God only knows who does the talking       But later on in the evening through the tears and fol de rol    Come the sentimental feelings for the lure of vitriol    Longing thoughts go hankering for the old home overseas   with a blindfold and a national anthem   sung in different keys