Usually I send cards to my friends, but the local card shop has closed, the post office closed and one of the post boxes has been removed.
I decided I would make a donation to the charity Parkinsons UK instead. They do work on trying to find and resolve the causes of Parkinsons disease. Hopefully I will be helping others in my circumstances.
Cards are a fun way to show you care about your friends and family. They were first sent by the Victorians in 1843. They became more popular in the 1860s and 70s. People used the penny post to send them to their loved ones. I do t really want to stop sending them, but digital life affects reality.
Post,…. A relative lives abroad with her partner. I need to remember to send a birthday card and an anniversary card together as the occasions are within a day of each other. Also I’m posting them early (it’s a month away), because it took three weeks to get her Christmas card delivered to her. I also won’t post her presents as she had to pay import tax on the one I sent at Christmas, which cost her more than the price of my gift! The reason for the late delivery of the card ? Her postman waits until he’s got enough letters together before he delivers them!
Many years ago I joined a stamp collecting club. I don’t know if it was Stanley Gibbons? But every month you got sent sets of stamps in the post to add to your stamp album. I remember the gummed paper that you used to stick them in the album with. Or you could get albums with cellophane over the top of the page to hold the stamps in place.
I remember Noytia CCCP, Greek stamps, ones from Australia, Magya Posta, some British and American ones. As someone with an artistic eye I used to admire them. I loved the colourful ones. Ones with interesting perforations, old ones and different languages printed on them.
Talking to another WordPresser has bought them back into my mind. I remember leaving home for college as a young woman and giving my collection to my sister who also had stamps. I don’t know what happened to them. They might still be somewhere?
I remember using tweezers to pick them up carefully. The enjoyment of looking through the album. The excitement of waiting for stamps that I had ordered. Oh what memories!
My friend always sends me a photo of cards or things we send him so we know he’s got them. But I was surprised when this popped onto my screen. My hubby had sent a card of a black cat that I had printed last year. I had been experimenting with lino cutting and I had forgotten that I had made them. It’s a surprise and nice to see one of the again!
Ugh! I got up really early to move the car. My parking pass has run out, so I can’t park in front of my house between 8am and 9pm so I’ve had to find a spot in another street.
The good news is that I have applied for the pass. I had to use the Internet as the council does not have an office open to the public anymore. Everything is via their website. What about people who are not computer literate, or don’t do online banking? Poor people are gradually being disenfranchised. They could use a library. But lots of them have been closed due to budget cuts.
So I have done the forms online and got a receipt to prove I’ve paid. But I still have to wait for the pass to be posted to me. The bad news is that post isn’t delivered as frequently as it used to be. At one time post was delivered on the next day all around the country. That includes most of Scotland, Wales and the far south west. Now, however, the royal mail is concentrating on parcel deliveries. It’s letter service is a lot less important (all those emails…) and to add insult to injury the price of a first class stamp is now £1.10 (at least depending on its size). I can remember when you could buy a stamp for 20 pence.
Worse still, the email says that due to high demand, it may take ten days for the pass to be posted out! That will be ten Working days, two weeks.
So at least I will be getting up early for a while. Although I can have a lie in on Sundays and bank holidays!
A friend has just posted here and the notes with it say the post is password protected. It says go directly to the post.. But when you click on the post it says ‘you are not authorised to view this post’
So how do I view it. I tried to link to his site but it wouldn’t work. Should I post to another of his posts to tell him? I hope he (I’m assuming it’s a he?) sees this and either changes it or posts how to open it?
Lots of questions. I sometimes see posts that you can read but that you cannot ‘like’ I suppose that is fair enough, except its like ghosting yourself? They won’t know if you would like to appreciate their writing.
So anyway, sorry to witter on, you know what it’s like, you just have to ask sometimes!
Another scam. If you send me an email with a link about a package, or my anti virus content don’t expect me to open it! I know which anti virus I use, so if you use a different company name I’m not randomly going to think ‘oh I might have a surprise package’ or ‘that looks like an interesting link’. If I do get called I won’t be going out and buying gift cards. I also have no interest in ordering things online, so the package I missed isn’t mine…if someone says they have accidentally put £500 in my account I will say thank you so much and hang up (it’s a scam, it’s not real).
Seriously, be careful, don’t let the scammers mess you about. If it sounds too good to be true it is.
Mallaband-Brown 