Christmas wind down.

A week now until Christmas Day, and as a snail-mailer, I am starting to wind down. I still have a few domestic letters and cards to send out, so will try to get those out in the next day or two, via second class. A headline in today’s Sunday Times newspaper reads, “Undercover footage shows Royal Mail leaving letters on the shelf” and this includes letters marked NHS, various governmental post, bills; so there is no point in using first class stamps domestically. A first class stamp costs £1.25, and a second class stamp is only (!) 75p. Maybe I will use a combination of older but still valid stamps to make up that second class postage rate.

After the mad rush, I expect by Tuesday, I’ll have finished all my festive mail. I may still write a letter or two especially if able to post by Friday afternoon. Although there should be a postal collection on the Saturday: the collection time is early morning from my local postboxes (no earlier than 7am says one), I think it is better to assume nothing will be collected until Wednesday, the next postal day.

5 days seems a long time then to be able to post a letter (I don’t like leaving post for long periods all alone and cold in the box), or receive any. Perhaps for the letter writer who communicates with friends mostly through snailmail, it could feel quite lonely. There’s nothing wrong with writing a letter and holding onto it for days before posting, but then, maybe I’d change my mind about what I wrote, or maybe a cup of tea will get spilled across.. I had been about to start a Christmas card when my hot cup of tea spilled across, drowning the card, the cover of a notebook I had the card on, some loose stickers, stamp sheet selvage, and the tail end of a roll of washi. Desk tidy still in progress.

I have a few localish friends I see in town who travel by bus, who live alone. Their villages might as well be in the middle of nowhere;  there’s no social gathering place nor shop. No or poor Sunday bus service, and again same for bank holidays. A long time to be isolated. At least I will have some family with me. 

I shall still be thinking about letters. I am planning to reorganise my stored letters. Maybe even those where correspondence has not continued. I can’t remember the names of everyone I have corresponded with since I restarted snailmailing in 2007. 16+ years of letters, some stored in fancy “shoe” boxes. 

I will finish tidying my desks, and drawers/boxes of stationery. I have become a bit of a stationery hoarder (also books too). 

I do have a used stamp collection I could organise some into a new stockbook. Stamp hinges are horrid things!  No idea how many of those I licked and affixed stamps to my worldbuilder album over 35 years ago! However, most of the more recently acquired stamps have brought letters to me and remain on the envelopes. 

Christmas cards

It is early December, a time when many a Christmas decoration has appeared in the home; trees bought and transported on the car roof or even by bus; lights adorn the outside walls of some houses, and illuminated net curtains in the windows. It is also a time Christmas card lists are drawn up and acted upon. I am an atheist but I still like sending/receiving Christmas cards at this  time of year; my preferred pre-printed sentiment inside being either Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, or, Season’s Greetings. The latter perhaps being more apt, with the delays/mishaps in the postal system delivering some cards well after the event. 

To my blog readers

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From CorrespondenceFan 

However, cards with to/from and nothing much more may not mean as much as, say, a phone call wishing you the same sentiments, and then going on to chat about life, the universe, everything. Most of my cards will be going to penpals, so they’ll get the life, universe, everything throughout the year. But for those not going to regular correspondents, maybe I should write a little more than wishing you all the best over the holidays and the new year. Perhaps I could do a printed round robin letter, with a summary of my year. I do receive a few of these, even from penpals, and they do make a nice little reminder of their year. 

For those who aren’t postal… is the postage worth it, especially when you can send a text message, email, or e-card? For 75p, 2nd class domestic postage within the UK, maybe, especially if you make it memorable, a keepsake. I have family connected through Facebook, and they only seem to wish each other happy birthday, etc, on Facebook, even for the younger members of the family who aren’t on FB, or living in the same house. Digital greetings and maybe even then only reminded by FB. Sad, considering grandparents may have exchanged love letters, and kept letters & postcards from family; current history, the connections will be lost. E-messages don’t have the same romance.

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. 

Enthusiasm

It is one of those things, the lull in enthusiasm for hobbies. I know it is silly, but if feels somewhat like a competition with a primary school football team against a premiership team. My passion for allotment gardening is starting to return, and while there are competitions such as for the biggest pumpkin, longest leek, I'm not interested in showing produce as it seems such a waste - I've been to garden shows and the vegetables exhibited are not stored in optimal conditions (keep cool). For me, the killer of enthusiasm was a combination of weather and various critters/diseases attacking my plants.

But, it is my passion for snail mail that is at risk. One small aspect of this I put squarely on Royal Mail: the incompetence at the helm, the bullying of the posties… If I lived on the Isle of Mull, I'd barely get any post the last couple of months because the vans RM use don't seem to be all that roadworthy and this then puts the lives of the posties who drive them at risk. Postage has gone up, more than quadrupled for international postage since I started Postcrossing. Postage is the main reason I'm a lapsed postcrosser, but I do send postcards occasionally. Postage is the last straw for many UK postcrossers. For the current postage rate, I do prefer quality letters. Comparatively though, it is still quite reasonable. For £2.20, I can send a postcard or letter up to 100g all over the world, and this is far less than a coffee at the chain coffee shops. While the postage rate has diminished the number of postcards I send during the year, it isn't directly affecting the number of letters I send.

How do I explain the main reason? There's an element of one-upmanship on/via social media, e.g. "look how many letters/postcards I'm sending!" or showing off the mail-art or extras enclosed. I do like mail-art, but I have zero talent for it. Art soothes the soul, helps with mental health, but for me, words do a better job. I get the feeling I'm not good enough; I can't do more to promote snail mail correspondence. The more someone shows off, the more someone begs, the more someone drones on about something, the more I'm put off. For reasons I will not go into, I do not want to put my face out there, nor my voice. Even though I do manage a small snail mail discussion board, I can't be an ambassador for the hobby (and I think that realisation is also affecting me). Am I writing enough letters? I see via social media a few others writing gazillion letters each evening and showing off. It somewhat detracts from the specialness I feel about snail mail, quantity diluting quality. There was an element of quantity over quality in some previous Incowrimo/LetterMo years. Then, there's those who see no problem about revealing other people's addresses without permission and would they be the type of person to reveal secrets, break confidences? One such person a couple of years ago got into my head during an Incowrimo and slightly spoiled that year's writing madness for me. I feel a little lost; I have so much invested in letters. I don't want to give up penfriendships; I must not give up; where I live would be a much lonelier place without penfriends. 

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. 

My Postcrossing anniversary

Earlier this month, I celebrated my Postcrossing anniversary. I hadn't sent any Postcrossing postcards out this year, so thought I should request a few addresses on my anniversary. I was not disappointed with who the system paired me up with. I went down a rabbit hole of looking up the writres mentioned on a couple of the profiles, out of curiosity leaving me with books to add to my wish-list. At least one of the writers is one I hope to mention in a future blog post. 

I had somewhat forgotten how much space (or lack of space) there is on a postcard for the postage. Lucky that the postage rate for international airmail is also 2 x 1st class, so I have a wealth of choice for making up the postage. 

Where possible, I try to match the stamps to the interests mentioned on the profile. Sometimes, it takes me longer to choose the postage than it is to write the postcard. 

I am still very fond of Postcrossing, but the postage rate to send just a mere postcard overseas does seem to be a bit on the extortionate side. What else can I get for that price? A cup of dishwater one coffee chain purports to be tea costs more, and isn't as nice as the feeling you get when you get the Hurrah email from Postcrossing informing you a postcard has arrived, plus the recipient's message!