Royal Mail have issued new stamps on the 16th June 2009.
And they are gorgeous!
I am most definitely shocked at the imagery of them, because this is not the usual Royal Mail stamp collection. These are artistic, colorful, and just… wow.
 

"Mythical Creatures"
Stamp Set

Click the image to see a larger version.)

I have actually ordered several stamp books of them, as well as the postcards they produce of them.
Of course, I’m going to use them, but I might just hang on to one set (maybe get a first day cover?) because they are simply beautiful.

Tags: letters, Postage, Postcards, Royal Mail, Stamps

Once upon a time, when you went to the post office, you could buy stamps.
Pretty stamps.
You know, with pictures on them.
Royal Mail still do them — occasionally. Getting them… yeah. Right.
I asked at my local post office and was told I had to order them. They only do the boring 1st Class stamps.
So I ended up ordering a bunch of stamps today, and not enough with having to order them, they are going to charge me £1.40 postage for them!!

Sick. The postoffice charging postage and packing for fricken STAMPS, because they can’t be bothered to supply them to the post offices around the country so you can buy them. Besides, why is the POST OFFICE charging for postage.

Not funny. Definite thumbs down for Royal Mail.

Tags: letters, Postage, Stamps

Today I found myself writing a letter to someone I’ve never met, to someone I don’t know.

The guys at FPN (The Fountain Pen Network) decided it’ll be a good idea to put our pens to work and write… postcards.
Not enough with the postcards keeping the postal service busy, it now progressed to letters.

When all this started, it got me to thinking.

When was the last time I wrote a letter?
By hand?
A personal letter, that is.

I struck a blank.

Then I realized the last real, proper letter I’ve written and sent… was to my other half.
Twenty years ago!
That’s just bloody scary.

Now, those letters… I dug them out over the weekend and read them.
They are love letters. Mine, and his, bundled together, with a ribbon around them.
Yup, we actually wrote proper love letters to each other.
He was in the UK, I was in Germany. For three months, we corresponded by postal mail. This was pre-internet, pre everyone having a computer, or mobile phones, or whatever else you could name.
We’d barely progressed beyond carrier pigeons!

So.
What about today?
People correspond by text messages and emails.
Not very enduring for memories, is it?
There is something about seeing your loved one’s handwriting, knowing he or she took the time to put pen to paper and compose their thoughts, hopes, worries so you can read them. And seeing those letters twenty years later… wow. Amazing. I’m glad, very glad indeed, that my dad kept yelling "Write a postcard" the second I picked up the phone.
Do you think the lovers today, who keep texting back and forth, will still have those text messages in twenty years time? I doubt it.

So lets all just realize something.
The letter you write today is more than just a letter to a friend or a loved one. The letter you write today is a memory in the making, a record of your life, a snapshot in time which would otherwise be lost forever.

Get writing those letters, so my postman doesn’t have to knock on the door and hand deliver a letter with the words "You’re the only person on my round who still gets personal letters, hand written and hand addressed. I just wanted to see who they go to."
That’s the really scary part.
The postman noticed!

Tags: letters, Mail, Memories, Pens, Postcards

My handwriting stinks.
No, I mean that. I used to have nice handwriting, but because these days we type everything, instead of handwriting it… my penmanship has suffered severely.
I thought a nice pen would help. It did, to some extent. Not enough, though.
Time to learn how to write again.
I keep a journal – sporadically. I should do it more, but you know how it goes. Good intentions and all that.

I’ve made up my mind. Yeah, emails are nice and fast, but the real joy comes from receiving a handwritten letter in the mail. Right? Who doesn’t like to get a letter? I’m not talking about a postcard, but a letter. In an envelope. On nice paper.
How about your handwriting? Has it suffered since you left school? Any good tips on how to improve it?
Also, if anyone out there would like to exchange some letters, I’m up for it.
Boy, am I ever! It would make a change from getting bills in the mail!
So if you want to do the penpal thing, drop a note on the blog and I’ll contact you. J By email, first. Don’t put your address here! LOL
(And that image up there is not my handwriting!)

Tags: handwriting, letters, Penmanship