Surface mail update, and an oops

The story so far...

Surface Mail was posted for the 5pm collection on Friday 7th March.

I have had reports back that 2 have already arrived - one went to Toronto in Canada... and the other went to Massachussetts.....  12th March.... However, in the one envelope, I had enclosed a letter to someone else in my surface mail experiment! Oops. Never done this before, although I have heard stories on a penpalling forum about this happening occasionally.... I wonder if it was just 2 letters getting mixed up or whether I wrote two letters to the same person..... Never write 13 short letters in one evening!

Surface Mail Experiment

With the impending price rise, the cost of sending a postcard abroad will go from 88p up to 97p for Europe and £1.28 to the rest of the world by "airmail" or International Standard. There has been talk amongst UK Postcrossers about sending postcards via surface mail (or, International Economy).  Current price for upto 20g to rest of the world is 78p and will rise to 81p.. a "considerable" saving. However, how long will the post take to reach the destination. Royal Mail, according to their website, aims to deliver surface mail to the USA within 28 days.... and I've had a look at other selected rest of the world countries and to them, RM's aim is within 56 days. So, I thought I would test it. On the 7th March, I posted in the postbox with 5 minutes to spare for the 5pm collection, letters (note, letters, not naked postcards), to people in: Canada - Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia; South Africa; USA - two people in TX, and one in MA, FL, IA, MI, and Hawaii; and one in Australia. 13 items in total. I didn't write "Surface Mail" on any.
May send another batch of surface mail stuff later in the month or next month and hopefully to other countries...

How was February?

I sent 5, and received 18 surprises (across LetterMo, InCoWriMo and SendSomething)

Replies to these surprises, I sent 9 replies and received 1.

With existing penpals, I sent 16 letters and received 16 letters. 

Other items, 1 package went out, 2 came in. I also received 3 other items of mail from existing contacts, and send a letter to someone new via another hobby.

I sent 66 Postcrossing postcards plus another postcard sent to Portugal for the "boss" and received 23 postcards.