Gold!

Well, if you've been paying attention, the Olympics are happening now in London, United Kingdom. For every gold medal the UK team wins, Royal Mail will produce a miniature sheet with 6 first class stamps of the winner. Some post offices will be selling these the next day. However, others will receive them later, but there are some post offices that won't sell them. My nearest main post office received some today. I only bought a couple of sheets.

I am not sure if I will be buying any more from that post office. I do not know when they'll receive them next. Someone at the next counter was also buying a sheet so there is demand.

Also, Royal Mail will paint a post box in the gold medal winner's home town, gold! However, I doubt I will see them where I live.

Where do you write letters?

Sometimes, I start a letter in a cafe but if I do not finish it in one session, I will complete it at home. I also write letters at my desk (where my computer is), often listening to the radio, or watching a DVD I have already seen, on the computer.

However, this evening was a pleasant sunny one and we spent it down the beach. I laid on the rug and wrote a reply to a letter, using my bag, and a book to stop the letter and paper blowing away....

while this moat was being dug out (with a proper spade), with the sand placed on two piles. I finished my letter and then we played beach cricket (why can't this be an Olympic sport!?)... About 10 minutes later, the tide was coming close so our goodies were moved to higher ground...

and then continued playing for another 10 or so minutes, and then the tide washed over my little island. All that was left was the two mounds of sand...

then those began to sink in the rising tide....

Letters from the US

This week, I received a letter from one of my penpals in the US. I looked back at her envelopes to see the wide range of lovely stamps she has used.

Pixar stamps look great! The only films I have seen in the cinema in recent years have been Pixar movies! Stamps come in a wide variety of themes, and should appeal to most people. 

Another quiet mail week

I didn't receive much post this week, though I did get a few letters, 4 from the USA, 1 from the Netherlands and one from across the border in England!
I did post some Postcrossing postcards though, but due to a small threat of rain, decided to post them in an indoor postbox (we don't want our post to get wet!).

Most items of mail I post are posted in my hometown though they probably are not postmarked from here.

Map envelope, and reply

One of the letters I received last week was contained in a self-made envelope out of a map.

I haven't visited that part of Germany, though the letter comes from The Netherlands!

I was searching for something to send with the reply....

and came across some used stamps I had bought from an RNLI (lifeboats) charity shop. There was an Emmerdale stamp.

Here are some jolly or pretty stamps I like.

And these were some of the stamps issued for the Millennium (issued 1999/2000)

And these are some postal themed ones I found. Top Left- "Sir Rowland Hill was awarded the first RSA Albert Medal in 1864 for his postal reforms and the introduction of the Penny Post", next is a picture of him, then the stamp celebrating Royal Mail's 350 years of service (London), then Top Right is a stamp for the Postal Telegraph & Telephone International World Congress. Bottom Right is another picture with Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879). Are there any more stamps out there with Sir Rowland Hill?

One out

No letters came for me today, but I did post a letter!

One of these pillar boxes ate the letter!

Llandudno Head Post Office

At the weekend, I went out shopping in a little Victorian coastal town of Llandudno on the North Wales coast.

I didn't have any letters ready to post (it had been a quiet mail week), but I thought I would take a picture of this postbox I saw. It has seen better days though.

It stands in front of the main post office in the town, quite an impressive building. It was opened in 1904, and had Grade II listed status.

This is the plaque commemorating the architect.