Royal Mail will be increasing the postage prices coming into effect on the 30th March. There will be a large letter size for international mail. Also, losing some weight bands.

Selected 2014 prices. 

Letter, up to and including 100g. 1st 62p, 2nd 53p
Large letter,up to and including 100g. 1st 93p, 2nd 73p.

up to and including 10g letter / postcard worldwide. "Airmail" 97p
up to and including 20g letter Europe. "Airmail" 97p
up to and including 20g worldwide letter. "Airmail" £1.28
up to and including 60g Europe letter. "Airmail" £1.47
up to and including 60g worldwide letter. "Airmail" £2.15

up to and including 20g worldwide letter. "Surface mail" 81p

Selected new prices from 30th March 2015:

Letter, up to and including 100g. 1st 63p, 2nd 54p
Large letter,up to and including 100g. 1st 95p, 2nd 74p.

up to and including 10g letter / postcard worldwide. "Airmail" £1.00
up to and including 20g letter Europe. "Airmail" £1.00
up to and including 20g worldwide letter. "Airmail" £1.33
up to and including 100g letter Europe. "Airmail" £1.52

up to and including 100g large letter. Europe. "Airmail" £2.15 (new)
up to and including 100g large letter. Worldwide, "Airmail" £3.15 or £3.30 depending on zone. (new)

up to and including 20g worldwide letter. "Surface mail" 85p

up to and including 100g worldwide large letter. "Surface mail" £2.38 (new)

Disclaimer - I hope the information I have provided is correct, but I am human and unfortunately I do make mistakes. There should be a price leaflet out soon at a post office, Also, the prices should be available on the websites of Royal Mail and the Post Office.

A selection of outgoing post for InCoWriMo

Just a few photos of outgoing post this month for InCoWriMo. Some of them have already been received.

Old Bailey, in London. I haven't read Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl.

I didn't read comics much either. I wasn't into Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends.

I much preferred Ivor the Engine (hmm, the spell-check suggests Ivor should be Igor).

I still have a few of the Doctor Who stamps left, but not of every Doctor now.

Post offices and prints

Last week, a new issue of stamps was released. I went to buy these from a little sub post office a few miles out of town. I spoke to the elderly gentleman behind the counter and was told he was retiring next month, but I will be able to buy the next issue of stamps from him. The post office is closing and moving across the road to a convenience store (Spar I think), but I doubt that they will be able to supply all my postal needs. Today, I came to another little post office where I bought the Paralympic stamps, thinking I could see if I will be able to get my postal needs in April from there, but no, that post office is also closing next month and will be relocated into Spar. The post office in the town I live in does not order enough stamps for my needs. So, where can I try next? Maybe the branch in a WHS in the nearby university town would be able to sell me the amount of stamps I need. If that fails, I guess I could resort to ringing up Royal Mail and placing my order direct (the postage would be cheaper than the bus fare to my lovely sub post office).

Today, I heard on the radio about an exhibition on at the Tate: Salt prints, photographs taken between 1840-1860. This has me thinking about another photographic format - digital images. Will our descendants be able to open and see all these images in full glory in 170 years time? Possibly the majority of salt prints created in the 19th century may well have been lost, but those remaining are "visible" but maybe the software and technology for today's digital photos, stored on hard drives or other media, may not be available for future generations.

Thinking then of correspondence, will our descendants be visiting a museum containing emails written by famous people? Many museums have letters in already, but there may be a generation now unable to read them because they are unfamiliar with cursive handwriting. I love the flow of "handwriting" as opposed to block letters written in ballpoint, in fact, usually I find the former easier to read (although it may take me a while to get used to a particular writing style). 

latest pen acquisition

Look what I picked up earlier this month:

A beautiful glass pen, with a heart-shaped bottle of J. Herbin ink. I now have two glass pens.

On an incoming letter, I found this lovely snail on the envelope.

One recent lettter was enclosed in this, in an envelope.

On a sombre note, this stamp was used on a condolence letter my mother sent. She didn't want to use a jollier stamp such as Alice in Wonderland, or even an Elephant (never forgets). 

Progress, address book

I feel that 2015 InCoWriMo will be better than 2014 InCoWriMo. I've gotten over a certain amount of shyness writing and responding to people I might not have considered to be correspondents for me via penpalling sites. I only surprised 5 FPGeeky people last year, but including in yesterday's outgoing post I have written to 8 new InCoWriMo/FPGeeky people and intend to write more surprises. I have started receiving them and I responded to all the surprises I received last year so I intend to do the same this year.

Should new correspondence be successful I will be writing address is in my address book. However, how many letters exchanged with someone are there in a correspondence considered to be success?

I heard back from my penpal with a "Vincent van Gogh" or "Vincent Van Gogh" type name. She would file it under V because she considers the "Van" starts with a capital V, although her musical instrument (I forget which instrument) tutor came from Europe and she would file her name under "G". In conclusion, she said to file it under whatever is easier. I will have an address book writing session before mid-March I guess. I still haven't started using the Simon Drew address book given to me for my birthday 2 years ago. I wonder what I want for my birthday in April this year when i will be 42 years old

InCoWriMo, pens, postcards....

Last week, I received my first correspondence for InCoWriMo

One postcard and 2 letters (USA and NL).

  Today, the postie brought 6  letters to me, all from people taking part in InCoWriMo. The content of a couple of these letters were quite funny. I know what ROFL means, but I need one for laughing because of something funny written in a letter while drinking tea and getting some of the beverage up the nose. 

 2 of the 3 letters with postage I posted today. 

 Recent pen acquisitions. The Lamy was bought last year (for 20p) but I bought a broad nib at the weekend and only yesterday, changed it. The 2 other fountain pens are Jinhao. I also bought a glass pen.

This came in a set with a heart-shaped bottle (I had opened it breaking the wax seals) of J. Herbin ink, and some notecards. 

The light from my desk lamp and the surface of my writing desk do not quite do the pens justice in the photo. 

As well as the Lamy nib (medium shown here), I do have some dip pen nibs but I am not sure how I came to buy 2 of the same type. The nib bottom right is a Post Office pen. 

I also have some postcard books. The Everything is Connected (Keri Smith), has had a number of postcards from it sent. What magic powers should a postcard have? The other postcard books shown are: My Wonderful World of Fashion Postcards [although I am not a fashion addict]; National Trust Gardens postcard book; and, Altair Design postcard book No. 2. I loved doing the Altair designs as a child but haven't coloured one in for years, maybe for at least 25 years.

InCoWriMo progress

Just a quick update for the first week of InCoWriMo. 

 3 letters posted on Wednesday. 

 Another letter, I had enclosed this postcard. I had a go doing a paragraph following the instructions. Advice though, go for a small dictionary (not an A5 sized one),

One InCoWriMo participant reported receiving some Spam, that is, a tin of spam, along with a letter. It was the recipient's own fault having requested spam to fill his postbox! Please do not send me Spam however!