a long-term personal friend of mine
I love this phrase for being such a great example of redundancy in spoken language. After all, aren't friends usually personal? And can't the 'of mine' be inferred from the context? And why say 'long-term friend' when 'old friend' will do? In fact, you could replace the whole phrase with 'old friend' and be done with it.
Not that I did, of course.
PS Sorry there was no 'Friday roundup' last week but I was enjoying a long weekend at the seaside...
