The Post.

I drifted slowly down to the Post Office the other day to obtain stamps for Christmas.  Quite why I know not as I still have plenty from last year, indeed the year before!  It is however untrue that I still possess and make use of tuppence halfpenny stamps bearing George VI' image upon them!    
Now it costs 65pence for a first class stamp, 56 for a second class and while this sounds expensive to the pennypinchers amongst us I think that sending a letter/card from one end of the country to the other for that price is well worth it.  92 per cent get there the next day and from my own Royal Mail experience I know that most of those that don't have address problems which the postie has to solve and the sender will never accept.  
There is no doubt that Royal Mail for all its problems, mostly bad management, Royal Mail offers a great service.  When postmen are regular one a round they can deal well with the folks they meet, and avoid one or two others, each 'walk' has one woman who it is best to avoid!  I enjoyed that job even though my knees didn't and wish I had begun the work many years before.

Not that I send much through the post these days, mostly birthday cards and the like, but I am happy to receive this way.  Much better to have books delivered by post than by Amazon's awful own company that delivers when and if!  Buying second had books through Amazon means the sender uses Royal Mail thus making it easier all round.  What a shame Amazon think their way is better.
I had one card to send this week, having nieces is difficult as if I forget one the others gloat, if I forget them they grumble, and you know what girls are like when grumbling!  So off the card went, with gift cards inside though why I bother as she earns more in a year than I earned in a long lifetime.  I suspect her Xmas will be spent in New York or on the Spanish Coast where she and her man will swill lots of cheap beer, well he will, and squander their cash which they could make better use of by giving it to me!
Good job I'm not one to complain!

Bad Royal Mail management has led to the feeble union taking a stand at long last and calling a strike on Oct 19th.  Had they stood their ground years ago there might have been better conditions then but they kept quiet feared the union might end up in court and they would lose their jobs.  Over 60,000 men have been lost to RM because of this.  This strike concerns the pension which as is common these days the company is fiddling.  I doubt this will make much difference in the long run.