I'm going to cry...

This morning, I was monitoring a Royal Mail webpage. Before 8am, they had announced business and retail postal/service rate changes... but no mention about personal customers... was I lulled into a false sense of security?

I had a letter to affix postage to, so while I ummed and arred about which stamps to use, Royal Mail had updated the webpage announcing postage rate changes for personal customers. I noticed around midday. The postage rate changes come into force on 7th April 2026 

• Ist class to rise 10p to £1.80

• 2nd class to rise 4p to 91p

• Airmail up 20p, to £3.60, still 2 x 1st class.

I still have 1st class stamps, some bought when released at less than 60p. I have tried to somewhat futureproof my snail mail hobby, and am lucky I have been able to do this. For those who try to get by financially on a day-to-day basis, they may need to limit how much joy they can mail into the world... 

I'm off to cry in my cup of tea after I make it. Maybe I should use one of the many teabags penpals have enclosed in letters to me! 

Royal Mail, and, Post Office.

My beloved Royal Mail has increased postage rates for international mail this month, the second time this year. At this rate, it'll spell doom for UK-based Postcrossers. It is £3.40 to send a postcard to France. What can I get for that? £3.20 for a J2O in a village pub, £3.00 for half a pint of cider from another pub, a dozen free range eggs, large, £3.25 from a supermarket. £3.40 postcard covers up to 100g letters up to C5 envelope size, not too thick. I think the heaviest letters I have written have been around the 30g mark. There used to be lower weight limits, and Christmas cards would take a letter over the 20g "cheap" limit. 

Hay-on-Wye postbox with topper. Paralympic Gold - Josie Pearson 

Royal Mail are also vandalising postboxes, to make them accept parcels. It appears Royal Mail doesn't give a XXXX about the post office, nor the community. The first postbox conversion I saw was outside a small village post office. And if conversion is outside a post office, according to a comment on Norvic's blog, RM want the PO to install lighting for the solar panels, so the box can be used in the dark when the PO is closed.

Postbox being converted. Wrapped in plastic ahead of an adapted door to be installed.

I know RM is a business, one wanting to cream off profits for its shareholders, but there was a time the postie was a valued asset in the community, especially in rural areas. The regular postie would get to know the people on the round, and maybe wold be the first to pick up on something wrong, such as the milk not taken in, lights left on, ... at the home of someone living on their own. Now, the postie works to a stricter schedule, no time for a quick minute chat. 

As for the Post Office, they've had their problems - Horizon (reached p183 of The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis); the franchising out of the remaining direct-run PO (interrupting receiving commemorative stamps such as Ducks, and not receiving this month's new postage rate leaflets); and then there's some counter workers with little clue (one Postcrosser was erroneously told that it would cost £4.50 to send a postcard to the US because of tariffs). 

I do want to support this vital community service. The PO has lost services - I remember buying Premium Bonds with bonus money for doing well in my school exams umm, I'm not saying how many years ago! Could also do National Savings & Investments at the PO counter too. I'm lucky the one I go to is run by lovely people. They also have a great selection of cards, and I have bought a few to start letters in. If only it was bigger, and with a tea room! I do like writing letters in cafes and pubs... 

Well, yesterday wasn’t a quite so happy St. David’s Day. Royal Mail had chosen that date to announce postage rate rises to come into force on the 2nd April 2024. Knew in advance that the details were coming then. The rise is not just a penny here and there. Both 1st and 2nd class goes up 10p apiece.

International standard is up 30p. International economy up 20p. First + second still adds up to the first international economy/surface mail rate and can be used for post outside Europe. Some postcrossers have been using this economy rate and haven’t noticed longer delivery times. 

I haven’t watched the BBC Panorama programme on Royal Mail, about deliveries, lack of them coming daily for some, letters coming bundled up once or twice a week, or less frequently. I must be lucky my regular postie makes it to me mostly daily. He is a great postie, and would have been the only person some people saw during the pandemic. I don’t live that remotely, but I can imagine living up a country lane, neighbours out of sight, a postie delivering mail and making sure I’m OK. A regular postie is a wonderful thing; almost a community service, a Postman Pat!, a community “warden” of sorts. 

I managed to speak to my postie this week. He had so many parcels to deliver first, before doing the letters. I’ve noticed he can deliver about 1100-1130 if he doesn’t have much in the way of parcels to do first, otherwise anytime after 12 to about 1pm. 

Royal Mail have said that most don’t spend more than £7 a year on stamped mail. I think some of my relatives are among those who don’t even spend that much… as they prefer to wish Happy Birthday to relatives on Facebook whether or not the birthday person is on Facebook. “Happy Birthday to my great-grandson who is 11” and even those relatives who live nearby don’t even get a physical card. Christmas cards are all e-cards and I can’t stand these. An in-law prefers to phone and chat for a while instead of a card (the cards don’t say much, no words of news/encouragement/stories). 

I also haven’t finished watching the Horizon Post Office scandal docu-drama. Llandudno is up near me!

2024 starts with no Old Spice!

So, Royal Mail have finally announced their 2024 stamp programme, although images of the Spice Girls stamps appeared on ebay last month. 

11 Jan - Spice Girls

1 Feb - Weather Forecasting (170th anniversary of the Meteorological Office, and also the centenary of the Shipping Forecast)

20 Feb - Viking Britain (Jorvik Centre in York opened 40 years ago this year)

12 March - Age of the Dinosaurs

16 April - 100 Years of Commemorative Stamps

16 May - Peppa Pig (20 years of Peppa Pig!)

6 June - Dogs

20 June - Red Arrows-60th anniversary.

25 July - Dungeons & Dragons (wonder which will be better, RM's stamps or USPS's)

13 Aug - Tower of London

3 Sep - Porridge (the TV series, first aired in 1974)

26 Sep - Spiders

17 Oct - The Who

5 Nov - Christmas 2024

30 Nov - Winston Churchill

A mix of themes, but missing is a stamp set commemorating 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI), but other postal authorities are.

It is also the 200th anniversary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), so wonder if that can be bundled in with the Dogs. 

Another 200th anniversary that could be celebrated is one for The National Gallery. 

I hoped there would be a nature/environmental theme, but hadn't expected Spiders. Also, the Europa theme this year is Underwater Flora & Fauna, so nothing here (though there is a diving bell spider).

I was hoping for Bagpuss, first aired in 1974. 

2023 almost at an end

Incowrimo - someone wrote in their address post about wanting long-term penpals, but although received a fair few letters, and replied, however none of the replies were responded to. The Feb projects do seem to have more participants only wanting a one-off letters. OK, there’s no contract to continue correspondence, nor to respond by the next day. Life/events do happen, and snail mail is a hobby, not a full time job with wages based on how many letters get written. This month, I received a letter in reply to an incowrimo missive I sent this February. Although it may be nice to receive letters sooner rather than later, late is better than even later/never!

I did throw my hat in the ring for the Feb letter projects but haven’t decided if I will participate in 2024. Early days. I am possibly at my limit of penfriendships I can manage in a timely manner (yes, I know what I wrote above, but I still would prefer to get replies out within a month of receipt). 

There were 2 postage rate rises. 1st class was 95p, then up to £1.10 and has finished the year on £1.25. 2nd class was 68p, now 75p but there’s rumours of it increasing more than by a few pennies next time. I am sending domestic post mostly by 2nd class post. International rates also increased, from £1.85 to £2.20 for airmail, and economy from £1.60 to £2 for letters outside of Europe. Royal Mail say that it is still offers good value, but putting £1.25 into a currency exchange, brings it out as more than the price of a global forever stamp from the USPS. 

On the stamps front, Royal Mail changed the silhouettes over in March for the Flowers issue. QEII’s last silhouette was on The Flying Scotsman issue. I like the flowers, and am finding it psychologically difficult to use them for postage, and same also for Discworld. There have been some curious values of stamps issued. £2 is OK, as that is the international surface mail rate, but £1… what is that? Half-way between 2nd and 1st class! The stamps celebrating the coronation were uninspiring. I don’t really know what Royal Mail is playing at. 

We approach the end of the year and we are none the wiser for next year’s stamp calendar. Deutsche Post’s was up by the end of May. USPS end of October with more issues announced later. Stamp dealers get advanced news but they can’t say have agreements with embargo dates perhaps lifted just under a week before the stamps’ issue. Less than a week, well, how can I plan which stamps I want to buy? As a stamp user, I need to know what values the stamps are, as well as the themes. 

Then there’s been the debacle over non-barcoded ordinary stamps. Those just with the Queen’s head, or country icons for the country definitives. Stamps Royal Mail have supplied in their exchange scheme, when used, some have been marked as counterfeit/fake, and others that are fake/counterfeit/used have been let through as OK. A right Royal (!) Fail. 

September round-up

Tomorrow is World Postcard Day, a celebration for the anniversary of the postcard. This year’s theme from Postcrossing for it is Postal Hugs. A lovely thought as a postcard can feel like a hug from a stranger. I am a Postcrosser but due to postage costs, am not as active as I used to be. Postage then was 50p to Europe but now that rate is £2.20. I will still send a few postcards now and again, and will write some tomorrow. 

Postcard designed by Christina Liew Jia Hui

Nowadays, I prefer to send letters, and getting to know strangers around the world. I am generally not looking for new penpals but sometimes it is hard to say no to a quality letter. A letter I am partway through replying to was written in August but for InCoWriMo (life got in the way sometime during February for the correspondent). 

3 stamp combination for postage from 2nd October

For the first rate of international postage, Monday will feel somewhat like a postage rate decrease, because the domestic first class stamp price will increase from £1,10 to £1.25. I have used mostly first class stamps, the current rate of airmail being 2 x 1st, but that will overpay on Monday. Domestic mail, what with all the woes Royal Mail have, especially overwhelmed with parcels they neglect to deliver letters daily quite often, I will be using 2nd class mostly - this remains at 75p (for now!). I know that Covid is doing the rounds again, and some posties call in sick, but there’s no cover available to do those rounds. 

Some stamps issued September 2023

September saw 2 stamp issues, one celebrating Paddington, and the other Dame Shirley Bassey. I wasn’t intending to buy that many Paddington stamps, but in the end, I bought a few, ahead of the price rise. Next up will be a stamp issue celebrating Harry Potter (yet again). All first class stamps. I will buy a few stamps, but not as many, perhaps, due to the price rise. The stamps are all 1st class. 

Today is also the last day of Stampex, a stamp exhibition in London. I have never attended, but have seen pictures and heard stories. I’ve imagined it to have been a grand affair, with stamp dealers selling old stamps, auction houses promoting upcoming sales, and Royal Mail selling modern stamps. However, the latter hasn’t happened this year because Royal Mail, in their wisdom (or lack of it), have not attended this year. A shame, not only because there are still some people collecting modern Royal Mail offerings, but also because there was a Postcrossing meet up with many postcards being written & signed needing postage to be sent on their way. 

Elsewhere, I find it a little sad someone with a stamp collection has never actually used a stamp, and has no interest at all in correcting that. Still, there are some people out there who will use stamps. I guess many of the postal authorities will have stamps for sale on their websites, and offer a decent choice of stamps available to use for postage. Surely there is at least one “adequate” issue they would be happy to use for postage… I know I buy more stamps from the issues I really like, and not so many of issues I’m not keen on. 

Has the snail mail revival failed?

I wonder, has the attempted revival of snail mail come to an end? At least one penpal mourns the closure of the Letter Writers Alliance, but other societies have sprung up on the web, and then there's groups on various social media platforms. The more the merrier perhaps, but maybe also is a disadvantage, with enthusiasm/effort being fractured all over the place. I live somewhere it is not feasible to have monthly meetups like at least a couple of societies in the US have. 

Due to history/circumstance, I do not want to put my face out there, and I also dislike my accent; the sound of my voice. I have my own little snail mail forum, and has been up for over 8 years now, but maybe it is a lost cause. Someone commented before I started the forum that for a forum to do well, it needs at least 100 very active members, but sadly, my forum doesn't get a fifth of that visiting daily, and not even 50 members have logged on in the last month. I know... snail mail is an offline hobby. However, those I do postally know who have logged in, I could describe as lovely. I can't use that word for some people on reddit as various groups there seem cliquey and at times, downright unpleasant, but that was a while ago. I've heard about others being bullied there too.

I'm still having problems with Instagram on my computer. It only shows my 9 top posts for a hashtag, and I'm missing out on what my friends post unless I grab my mobile. The mobile screen's keyboard is not as nice as my computer's keyboard. 

And then there's Royal Fail Mail who refuse to go to the Stampex this autumn. They seem to have no clue what stamps are valid for postage and what is fake/reused. 

Then, there's the post offices where it is an inconvenience to them for you to buy stamps, and most won't have the commemorative stamps plus can't be arsed to order even though you could become a regular customer. However, one lovely little post office I visit is bothered, and on a couple of occasions they've not had the miniature sheet on day of issue when I arrive (within 30 minutes of opening), they have ordered them in for me to buy on my next visit. I usually spend in exess of £50* on a stamp issue I (or even my penfriends) like. It might only be a few pennies a post office makes from their sale, but it all adds up.

*If I want stamps for letter postage, it costs the same to use commemorative nice one(s) as ordinary one(s).

A bit late as we are coming to the end of the summer holiday season, but if you do go away for even a short break, do consider sending postcards. Be careful though of stamps offered by tourist shops/attractions, as they might be ones supplied by Universal Mail - their International Postcard stamps, and will only be valid to use for postcards going abroad (and they'll go the long way). I have no idea how much they are charging for them, maybe even more than Royal Mail's. They are not valid for domestic postage, although I did see some postcards with them on in a London postbox, but their destinations were somewhere in England. 

Blackadder stamps..

Today, Royal Mail issued stamps celebrating the TV series Blackadder. So, forth I went to a little post office to buy the stamps and the miniature sheet. There was however a problem - they didn't have any of the Blackadder miniature sheets for me to buy, so I will have to be patient, and wait until next month as the post office will order in the miniature sheet for me to buy when I go for the next issue of stamps. Fine! 

But what about the other stamps?  I bought 8 first class stamps, and 8 £2.20 stamps, although there were also 2nd class stamps, and £2.00 which is the current international surface mail rate for letters/postcards outside Europe, but didn't buy these values. I can't see many people using the £2.00 rate. Before the postage rate change in April, airmail first rate was £1.85 but that covered 20g worldwide, whereas the surface mail/international economy rate was £1.60 for 100g. 100g airmail was £2.55 so quite a difference.

What did surprise me was that they still had 6 miniature sheets of A New Reign issue. My local main post office was only sent 2 miniature sheets and they sold out within the first hour. The little post office had been sent over a dozen. So, I bought 2 sheets. Maybe I'll buy the rest if they have any left next month when Warhammer comes out. 

Size matters. Thickness.

Last week, I received a To Pay card in the post, for underpaid postage. The front of the card has the local delivery office address and space stamps to be affixed to pay what was due. The fee can be paid online, but I wanted to see who sent it/what it was, so I visited the delivery office one morning (hours are shorter than they used to be, as I'm pretty sure I headed there one afternoon a few years back to collect a parcel that did not fit through the letterbox) and found a polite RM person. He showed me what came, and demonstrated that it would not fit through the 5mm slot (the size thickness for standard letters). I knew who it was from and paid with 2 second class stamps (as they are now 75p each).

Bilingual Welsh/English "Fee To Pay" card from Royal Mail 

I got the item home and tried my own letter template ruler. The letter did get through it, but then I noticed the slot has rounded corners and that takes the gap to almost 6mm. I had not noticed that my 5mm measuring slot was just a fraction bigger than it should have been. I do hope any mail for overseas I have sent, has not fallen foul of the thickness. 

Inco 2023 round up.

Well, April has come marking the end of March, the month informally named InCoReMo - International Correspondence Replying Month coming after February which was International Correspondence Writing Month. For this year, I put my address up on the exchange page alone with 5 not-all-that-serious questions to give the letter writers something to write about if they were stuck. It can be difficult to know what to write especially for InCoWriMo where long-term correspondence may not be a participant's aim from the challenge, so no need for a letter intro CV. I know I can't write to everyone, but am a little disappointed in myself because I did not surprise as many people this year as I thought I would. I drew up a shortlist but ended up concentrating on replying to existing penfriends where many of the connections started due to earlier InCoWriMos. It is a little disappointing also that not every letter gets replied to. I reckon I've sent over 50 letters in the last 10 years of InCoWriMo that have not yielded a response. Even though in theory, I have intended to reply to all the InCo mail I've received over the years, some items do not warrant nor deserve responses. However, all those that do deserve a reply, I do write and send. I still have a few surprise letters received in March to respond to.

Tomorrow sees a postage rate rise. Although I can afford it, I wish RM would encourage letter writing and card sending rather than totally neglecting delivering letters which is part of their 6-day a week service obligation, though the CEO has said on record that they do not prioritise parcels instead. 

I do hope a satisfactory conclusion will be forthcoming, and RM will be able to be great again.

Another Royal Mail betrayal

Well, it appears Royal Fail do not want people to send letters, yet, Royal Mail have the Universal Service Obligation to deliver mail 6 days a week to every address in the UK for the same cost (1st class to arrive next working day, 2nd class within 3 working days). However, there have been days that letters have not been delivered, and a penfriend reported that she hadn't had a postal delivery for over 2 weeks in January, which is no good for her weekly subscription to a television listings magazine with delivery days after the start of the listings. 

There have been postal strikes affecting Royal Mail. I have been supporting these strikes as Royal Mail seems to want to dehumanise the posties, to track them, to perhaps rank them. Royal Mail has the technology to know how long a postie has been in the same place, to see where the postie goes... 

There have been select committee meetings with Royal Mail's CEO. First impression, answers to the questions put to the CEO was akin to trying to get blood out of a stone. From the first meeting in January, it appears RM wants to cut sick pay to the postie, RM has introduced owner-driver posties (are they self-employed? and on insecure contracts), they deny prioritising parcels over letters (b*llocks). From the second meeting in February, there was evidence presented that there was a list of postal workers at a delivery office ranked in terms of speed of their deliveries. The CEO claimed that the PDAs the posties have do not track in real time and claim the PDA data is not being used to discipline staff (but a message from a delivery office manager submitted to the committee disputes this). The Chair of the committee is wonderful! Shame not all politicians are as well-spoken/well-meaning/etc. as him. Below is quoted from the transcript for the February meeting, and links to both meetings can be found at https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7176/royal-mail-and-the-post-office

Q197 Chair: I have to say that I’m not particularly persuaded. There’s a theme to your answers today, gentlemen, which is that we have rogue posters, we have rogue managers, we have isolated incidences, we have got a global pandemic, we have industrial action—it’s everyone else’s fault that there are all of these problems. “Nothing to do with me, guv!” Can you see, based on all of the information we’ve had, why it’s difficult for me to agree with the way you’re presenting your cases today?

So, Royal Fail needs to increase postage prices. Well, the rise is due on the 3rd April 2023. I shall cry, as will other UK-based snailmailers.

1st class. 95p now, will cost £1.10

2nd class. 68p now, will cost 75p

International Standard, aka airmail, first rate is £1.85 but will cost £2.20 (though the weight allowance for worldwide goes up from 20g to 100g, but the 20g-100g rate currently is £2.55, so silver lining perhaps).

International Economy, aka surface mail £1.60 now, goes up to a whopping £2, and all for letters outside of Europe. 

I don't send large letters, but there are large letter rates for domestic mail, and for international mail (both tariffs). 

Silver lining, perhaps, is that international airmail will be again 2 x 1st class. So, less of a need to faff around trying to make up from first class to the international postage rate. 

Read and weep via https://www.royalmail.com/prices2023 where you can download the prices. 

Royal Mail hit by ransomware - international outgoing affected

 It has been a week since Royal Mail reported a cyber incident affecting their International Export Services. For me, I thought this would only mean parcels, as due to Brexit, all parcels heading out of the UK would need a CN22 or CN23 customs declaration form affixed, and postcards & letters don't require customs declarations. So, I posted a letter to a penpal in the US on 12th January bearing a new postage stamp celebrating Iron Maiden - sorry R.C., it'll be a while before my letter should arrive. International outgoing mail problems started on the 10th (and public notified on the 11th). So, everything is affected - no outgoing letters, postcards (bah humbug for UK-based Postcrossers), parcels... for the time being. The cause wasn't reported in their service updates, but elsewhere, it was announced as ransomware. It doesn't look like a ransom has been paid, but I wouldn't expect them to confirm if they've paid one if they decide to pay. 

Royal Mail's parcel competitors must be laughing and rubbing their hands with glee at all the extra business that could come their way.. So much is exported from the UK and quite a bit of that in small packages was sent via Royal Mail. Royal Mail's parent group rebranded themselves last year as International Distributions Services. How's that working out?!  L.O.L. !!! 

Royal Mail have no competition on the ordinary letter / postcard delivery front. They are required by law for 6 days delivery a week, and cover all UK addresses (I suppose weather/tide exceptions happen in the highlands, and islands). My hobby relies solely on Royal Mail being able to do their job. Without a postal service, this snail mail hobby of mine cannot survive. The only other choice is to quit snail mail and correspond directly with people only through electronic means - that is not a prospect I would relish: I love the texture and feel of paper; the flow of ink writing words across the page; the stickers & washi tape I use to decorate the missives; the postage stamps I use for postage and see on replies; the offline-ness of the hobby; a few moments of calm while I write.....

When that Icelandic volcano erupted a few years back bringing to a halt practically all air traffic in the northern part of the globe, Royal Mail sought other means to get post overseas. There's ferries from quite a few locations on the UK coast, and then there's the Channel Tunnel. Mail to continental Europe didn't seem to be delayed much. They made the effort to get capacity for shipping across the Atlantic. This time, with the cyber incident, they don't seem to be a in a particular hurry to sort it out (from what I can see).

I do hope post will be moving again abroad before February starts, when there are the letter postal projects of INternational COrrespondence WRIting MOnth (InCoWriMo), and A Month of Letters (LetterMo). I'm signed up and all on the latter, but am undecided about InCoWriMo as I write this. 

Mail is still making its way to the UK. This week, I've had letters from Canada, and from MN/USA. 

[edit 18th January 2023 - letters and postcards, those that don't need customs declarations, can be sent abroad, from 7pm today]

What are your first memories of letter writing?

I can't remember what age I was, but I remember my mother writing letters to her brother in Australia, sending them off in first day covers, and seeing the pretty stamps on the replies.

I remember writing postcards and/or letters home from camps I went on with The Woodcraft Folk (I was an elfin, and later, a pioneer, but didn't venture onwards due to homework and other things). There was an international camp in Loughborough and the elfins went on a trip to a lemonade factory, while the pioneers went down a coal mine. Then, the following year, just before I started secondary school, I went to France with The Woodcraft Folk, and stayed with the group who'd stayed with us at the international camp. I wrote home. 

Penpalling didn't start for me until 3rd year in secondary school. My German teacher was wunderbar. She organised a school exchange with a Gymnasium in Germany. I wanted to go, and those who also wanted to, were paired up with students from the Gymnasium beforehand so we could write letters (auf Deutsch). We had school trips both here and over there: Les Misérables was my favourite trip on this side, but over there, maybe Phantasialand! Weeeeee.

Sometime after the exchange, my French teacher passed round forms for the International Youth Service, for penpals. I ticked a few boxes and received letters. One was from Frédérick from near Toulouse, and another was from Singapore but I got her name wrong. I didn't know it was surname first, but then in public life, some people are referred to by their surnames (e.g. politicians). There were a couple of others, but with all of them, correspondence didn't last long as pressures of homework, and that... 

I moved around for a bit, and that isn't exactly conducive to penpalling, but I did manage to keep up a correspondence with one penpal made through an advertisement I had put in newspapers around the world. Correspondence however slowed down for a while as other things in life have a habit of taking over. That correspondence lasted on and off for almost 25 years before he passed away.

Living in a somewhat rural area, not connected that well with big cities through public transport (no proper railway), and being an outsider here even after 20 years, it feels a lonely place. I have made some friends here and it is nice to see them for a chat, but that isn't always possible/convenient. OK, that may be just an excuse. But penpals are always there for when I write, it doesn't matter if they are asleep, or working, or having fun, or busy... Emails - I could send them but perhaps nowadays, these can be intruding on screen time of some sort or another, and maybe we need to get away from the computer (or other connected screen device). There is still a place for email. I have tried email correspondence but found it demanding - the email impatiently waits to be replied to. One person demanded almost immediate responses to daily emails. 

However, I do also communicate with some penfriends outside of writing letters, be it through forums and discussion threads, or social media. Sometimes, a faster response is required, such as finding out how quickly letters are arriving, as events and circumstance can affect mail delivery (e.g. THAT Icelandic volcano a few years back halting most aviation in the more northern parts of the northern hemisphere, Covid, other natural events,...).

On that note, there is industrial action affecting Royal Mail. I'm on the side of the posties (could they end up on zero hour contracts, self-employed, earning less than current times...) but I do miss days without a delivery. There is quite a backlog of post (parcels prioritised over letters, but only Royal Mail have a monopoly for letter delivery), and there's warnings that Christmas Cards could arrive as late as February. I'm guessing that includes domestic, but hope my international post isn't that delayed - would Royal Mail like to pass on the international mail so it gets it out of their hands and away? However, they've brought forward the last recommended posting dates, with all the international ones passsed. They want us to allow almost 2 weeks for second class post to arrive, when it should take no more than 3 working days. I do have a couple of cards or so left to send overseas, so perhaps as wishing Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year, I should also wish them Happy Valentine's, Happy Birthday, Happy Unbirthday....  and ask them to apply as appropriate! 

Summer update

Summer weather has arrived in the UK, with sunshine and warm temperatures, I have been able to enjoy the outdoors, from walking well-trodden routes, to gardening closer to home. So much time taken away from letter writing, but I have written bits of letters in the outdoors; overlooking the Irish Sea, or the great Welsh countryside.

I've also been writing letters in cafes, while sipping lovely cups of tea. Something quite civilised in it, deep in conversation with a friend over drinks, even if that penfriend is asleep on the other side of the world. I may look to be sitting on my own, but I am in good company. However, I see people sitting together but they are looking at their smartphone screens rather than taking notice of each other: there's nothing more lonely than being alone in a crowd. 

Over the summer, there has been a lot of misinformation about Royal Mail stamps. 

Yet, not all stamps without the datamatrix code (barcode) will be invalidated. The special issue stamps are fine for the moment, as are Christmas stamps (though they had been for the chop). However, the country definitive stamps (small stamps with symbols/icons associated with the nation, e.g. for Wales, this is the leek, dragon, and daffodil) will go, but new ones with datamatrix codes have been issued to post offices.

Deutsche Post has datamatrix codes on some of their stamps, and I think they look rather good. Definitely not as intrusive/ugly as those Royal Mail have issued.

I'm especially liking the new definitive stamp series, Welt der Briefe, World of Letters. Wow, the ones I've seen so far look great. Perhaps this spells the end of the Flower series. 

More Musings on snail mail, partial repost

Postage - do not cheat/defraud the postal authorities by using insufficient or invalid postage. A postage stamp can only be used once of sending an item of mail. If it has been postally used but remained unmarked, it is still not valid for postage. Also, many of the stamps offered for sale on ebay are NOT valid for postage, and some may even be forgeries (and could this even fund organised crime?). 

Royal Mail does have a reasonably accessible postage price finder on their website. I expect other postal authorities do too... Facebook groups have so much misinformation.

Seeing photos of snail mail on social media can be good for inspiration, discovering new ideas, and show that letter writing is not dead. Please, please do hide/obscure/blur the other person's address. UK postcodes are very specific and with the house number, it is just revealing as leaving the rest of the address. 10 / SW1A 2AA is the minimum needed for one iconic London address with a black front door.  Please do NOT share someone's address without their permission. I know I have on occasion, not realised an address was visible in a post.... and when I do realise, I remove the post. I feel utterly mortified I have not been diligent. Addresses can be out there in the public domain, but that doesn't give you good grounds to share them. 

As for sharing the contents of letters, the writer of the letter has more leeway. Incoming letters, the juicy contents shouldn't really be shared without permission, but the odd word or phrase... e.g. the date, greetings/salutations... maybe could be - you want to show off someone else's gorgeous (or not so neat) handwriting, or the ink they've used, ... It is a judgement call. A few years ago, I planned to do a blogpost on handwriting (not calligraphy), on the different styles of handwriting the letters arrived in. I did start preparations, so have photographed some common words (Dear, the date, Thank you for your letter, United Kingdom), but have yet to complete a post on it. 

Today's date is 11/02. What? 2nd of November? Much better to avoid confusion and write out the month. 

It does not matter if the letter cannot be finished in one sitting. I don't worry about pausing letterwriting, even after a short time. I do hope to have finished the sentence I am writing if I have to pause. I have started letters while writing for a friend on a night out (oh how I miss this). I am usually able to finish a sentence/paragraph when she turns up. 

It does not matter if you do not reply to letters in order of receipt. The content of some letters may demand a speedier reply than usual, or you need to delay a reply because someone is moving address and wants to get settled. People have their own rhythm. Mine tends to be a reply within a month of receipt. Occasional letters are fine too. Penfriendship doesn't have a set timetable.

The writing medium does not really matter. Paper meant to be written on, be it lined or blank or dotty or wavy, or with punched holes down the side and used by students to take lecture notes on (a school friend penpal wrote to me during her lessons), or reporter's notebook with pages on a spiral, or even actual letter writing paper. 

Embellishments, including stickers, washi tape and whatnot are not vital for a good penpal letter. I do use them myself though, because embellishing brings me joy. I cannot draw so some of the stickers can illustrate for me instead.

It doesn't matter if the letter is written with a fountain pen, dip pen, or ballpoint. I admit I find it easier to use a fountain pen as the ink makes the words flow across the page. 

The words matter! The content matters.

If you do not keep the letters/envelopes, consider saving the used stamps for charities (as they can raise money from sales to dealers/stamp collectors). There are plenty of charities in the UK raise some funds this way.

Letter travelling times may be slower than usual... One letter from France to the UK took 2 days in January, but a letter from the same person posted in June, only arrived this week! I'm not one for asking, "Did my letter arrive?" after only a few weeks/months. I know life/events happen making snail mail not a priority. However, sometimes a short missive, either postal or electronic, can make a big difference.

You can't be penfriends with everybody. Personalities can clash, beliefs can collide, or you just don't click. Penfriendship, like friendship, can wane... How many of you are in close contact with your best friends from primary or secondary school, or the neighbourhood you grew up in?

With the February letter writing projects, where you may receive letters from strangers, you might not feel able to reply to some of the letters. I know years ago before the Internet was more widely accessible, you could place an advert in a newspaper or magazine. One letter I received was from someone in prison (death row), and I didn't feel able to reply to it (I was a youngish adult), so did not reply. Other letters you might want to reply with a thanks (either via electronic message of some sort, or via the snail mail) even though you may not want the correspondence to continue, and that is fine too.  Though sometimes perhaps, you don't know if you want to continue or otherwise. Perhaps there's hope. Maybe something happens, a word is said or a place is mentioned, reminding you of a letter you received a few months ago and spurs you on to reply. Perhaps an occasional correspondence. There is hope. Life happens, stuff happens. Time. Patience. 

A to Z of Snail Mail, part 2

 N is for Notecards, notelets for nice correspondence.

O is for Outgoing mail, missives sent on their way. Once they arrive, they'll need an object to open the envelope(s)

P is for Postbox, fed with Postcrossing Postcards with nice Postage stamps on perhaps bought from a Post Office, the missives written in pen or even pencil allowed. Paper, penpals, penfriends, post, postie perhaps a Postman Pat...

Q is for Quarto sized paper for writing quality missives to penfriends, written in Quink ink with a quill while having a quiet moment, before wrapping it up and standing in the queue at a post office counter (because you want to use the new issue of stamps out that day).

R is for Replies to letters, and for Royal Mail as I'm in the UK! 

S is for Stamps for postage making stationery not stationary. 

T is for Tape, decorative or otherwise. I use tape to help seal up letters.

U is for Universal Postal Union (UPU), and for those in the US, there's the USPS. 

V is for Valentine's cards, as some are sent in friendship.

W is for Wax seals

X is for letters sealed with a kiss. XXX

Y is for Yours in Friendship, as a way of signing off a letter. Yours, Your Friend.....

Z is for Zip code, without one, letters to the US wouldn't get there! 

Still writing

Snail mail life still continues. I can write to penpals around the world, postal services permitting. The lovely people at Postcrossing have come up with a Postal Monitor to keep track of service disruptions, and links to service updates on the various postal websites.

Some mail has been delayed, sailing across the oceans. For a while, I was sending most letters to the US via the international economy (surface mail) rate. Mail for continental Europe still had to go by Air Mail.

I haven't been able to buy any of the new issue stamps. The last issue I bought was the James Bond issue, but I wasn't able to get many. Years of buying stamps meant I didn't really need to buy stamps. I might try for the next issue celebrating the music group, Queen.

I have been receiving post. Some has come with slogan postmarks. This one, Let's Talk Loneliness is from this month.

Others have been able to buy the new stamps out in the US. I quite like the new global forever stamp, but it does look a little like something else, unintended.

I also like some of the stamps out of Germany. I wasn't a huge fan of Sesame Street but I did learn things from it.

I think I like most stamps. Look how small the stamp is from Canada!

However, it doesn't have the magic in some of the stamps Royal Mail has produced. There were a few issues for Star Wars but only 1 issue had the magic revealed via UV.

Stamps not only can take letters/parcels through the post, they can take people on a journey of knowledge. I really should read more about John Archer, a mayor in London. Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on him.

Thoughts on Stamps, postage stamps.

I am a member of a few penpalling groups and sites. Some opinions on a few topics are a little disappointing. Take the indication of payment to convey letters: the postage stamp. Postage is not cheap in some countries, so some people think it is OK to use insufficient postage but use at least one stamp especially on post going to another country as the foreign country's postal service may not charge the recipient to receive underpaid letters. One USPS forever stamp is not enough postage for a letter/postcard from the USA to the UK. 

However, a few others go even more extreme and use already postally used postage stamps for postage. Postally used stamps (cancelled or unmarked) are not valid to use again for postage. There is a woman in Northern Ireland who used Mr Men & Little Miss stamps already postmarked with Mr Tickle's arm from the special first day of issue cancellation mark and claimed it was brand new, on letters at least a year later.

Here's a postmarked potato, but she claims the mark is from a misplaced sticker. She, and other stamp re-users/thieves/fraudsters gives this hobby a bad name.

It is not just commemorative stamps, but also the ordinary 1st and 2nd class stamps. A couple who were selling used stamps on ebay for re-use were jailed earlier this year. It might not seem like stealing - the price of a genuine valid postage stamp may cost less than a packet of peanuts, but it is still theft and it is not fair on the postal services or those who use genuinely valid postage stamps for postage. 



On another spectrum, many postal authorities produce not only definitive (ordinary) stamps, they also produce commemorative (special issue) stamps and these are equally postally valid. Unfortunately, the majority of smaller post offices in the United Kingdom do not sell the commemorative stamps other than the Christmas 1st and 2nd class (and also large) stamps. The larger post offices should, at least on day of issue, have the special issue stamps although they may be a delay at the counter if they are still in the safe. Also. the special issue stamps can be bought from the postal service's website.

One opinion I came across was, "If they are special stamps, why use them on letters?" BECAUSE THEY ARE POSTAGE STAMPS, is what I wanted to reply. The postage rate is still the same for definitive (ordinary) stamps as it is for commemorative (special) stamps. This person goes on to say that she keeps the special stamps well away from the stamps she uses for penpal letters.


The stamps commemorative, remember or celebrate various themes. Why deny a penpal who is a Harry Potter or a Marvel fan of the joys of seeing these conveying letters to them?

Not into modern culture? Try history, monarchs and the royal family are common on many countries' postage stamps. There are many stamps depicting Queen Elizabeth II. The UK has had issues celebrating her significant birthdays and anniversaries of her accession.

Then, there are celebrations of places around the country. Here, I have R for Roman Baths, for a two-part issue, A to Z of The United Kingdom. I think I have visited 12 out of the 26 places depicted.


Stamps add to the whole penpalling experience. I enjoy going to the post office. I miss my retired sub-postmaster who almost always had a smile on his face and a story to tell. While waiting in the queue, there is chance for conversation with others. Stamps are about connecting with people.

'Tis the season

December has arrived, and Christmas cards have been coming in the mail. I have also been sending cards too, still more than a few yet to write and post. I am having some trouble finding Christmas cards I actually want to send. I still have some from previous years and I was able to buy more this year, but the problems I have are:

1) Many of the cards I come across are square. Not a problem for postage within the UK, but the smaller square cards suitable for posting domestically, fall foul of the minimum sizing for international mail.

I had posted in this blog in December 2016  about this, after I had sent a small square card out internationally.

The US has a non-machinable surcharge for square items of mail. I did wonder if Royal Mail would go down that route, but so far, they haven't....

2) Many cards also have glitter on. After the big fuss of Sir David Attenborough's nature series showing the amount of plastic in the ocean and killing off some creatures - even poisoning milk and killing little baby sea mammals.

Not all of the cards have glitter, and my camera hasn't made it easy for you to tell which cards here have glitter.

The designs look nice and I have bought glittery cards in the past before Blue Planet II. I still like the way glitter shines in the light and it would be very hard for me not to go Ooo about it. However, when buying new cards, I think I can restrain myself from getting glittery ones now.

3) Some of the sentiments inside are not what I want. I need both the wishes for Christmas and for the New Year. However, some just have Christmas wishes in. I do also like Season's Greetings as that can mean time-appropriate greetings. Although it can be a bit strange to send a winter scene to someone in the southern hemisphere. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. 

Royal Mail drops out of the FTSE100

With Royal Mail falling out of the FTSE100 index, I was reading an opinion on a stamp discussion board suggesting that if Royal Mail cancelled (postmarked) stamps used for postage properly, there would not be a trade in used but unmarked no gum/self-adhesive postage stamps. Perhaps eBay sells at least 10 million of these no gummed used but unmarked stamps in a year. First class is 65p. 10 million first class = £6,500,000.  

I had posted before about people reusing as postage used stamps but still see from public posts on Facebook that some people still do this illegal practice. It is fraud and these people who do it are con artists, in my book.  

Came across a news page on a stamp dealer's site :

Operation Gum-Gum. A new generation of people are now unaware of the seriousness of such fraud. In 1989 the police, in association with Royal Mail, started an investigation under the name of "Operation Gum Gum". They built up evidence against a number of people who were buying kiloware, extracting unfranked stamps (and in some cases even cleaning off light postmarks), and selling them on to others. Those who were targeted found it a surprising and scary ordeal. Some individuals were arrested, some of these tried and convicted, and some ended up with prison sentences. For a while this had the predictable effect of stopping commercial activity in stamps without postmarks.