in and out

old box

I’ve been fairly writing up a storm of letters lately. From may 16, when I began this storm, to today, I’ve written 52 letters and 7 postcards. Not bad, eh?! When I write a letter I put it in a box for safe keeping until I can get to the post office. (I go twice a week, when I go to town as there are none nearer in easy reach. I could go to the one at South Gate, but the ‘bus fare would be just the same as to town, so I might as well just go all the way to Aber.)

The box is an old tea caddy that I, aha, appropriated from the derelict house. This house has been empty for more than forty years, thanks to two families being constantly in dispute about it. The window of the kitchen, at the back of the house, is broken and there are a tea pot, a few cups and saucers and so on. I saw the box one day and took a fancy to it. It was probably bad of me, but I coaxed my daughter to fetch the hen net (a very large fishing net which I used to use to catch naughty hens). And she used the net to knock the box off the shelf, and caught it.

I gave the box a good clean up; thankfully the lid was very tight so there was nothing nasty lurking inside. And now it sits in the living room and I put outgoing letters and cards into it. Well, better than it being forgotten and sitting on a shelf in a derelict house.

a nice post day

I received a letter from Celina in Poland today, and the Kate Bush cd I had ordered from play.com. It’s “Director’s Cut” and is lovely!

I have a batch of letters to post including postcards for postcrossing. But DH is adamant that we are not going to town on saturday. (I don’t blame him, it’s tourist season and the streets are chocka-block.) Hmmm, I thought. So what am I going to do about my post? I’ve decided to get off the ‘bus early, when I go shopping tomorrow. So I’ll get off at Southgate and go along to the Penparcau post office. Then walk down the steep hill to Morrisons. Ah well, I get a bit of a walk and post my letters at the same time. Can’t be bad! Just hope it doesn’t rain!

good deeds

The husband and I did our good postal deed of the day today! We were waiting for the ‘bus into town, when our postman turned up. He’d brought me my new fountain pen that I mentioned earlier. He went to the postbox that sits by the stile beside the right-of-way past our cottage and came back to us with an A4 envelope.

Was it ours? No it was not. But it only had an ordinary first class postage stamp on it, which meant it would be returned to the sender. (We have to use large sized stamps on large sized envelopes.) Luckily, husband and I remembered that we had four such stamps in the house. So I dashed in to get one while bloke watched out for the ‘bus. I scampered back out again, with said stamp and put it on the envelope that postie was holding. So, we saved some poor person in our hamlet from having their bit of post returned. Aren’t we nice?!

Well, I’d been given that kind of stamp by a different postman when I wasn’t sure if the birthday card I was going to send to my mother needed a large stamp. It did, I didn’t have one on me at the time, so he gave me one from his wallet. I reckon we’ve just paid that good deed back!

letter writing things

I’ve just put an order in at TigerPens for a Pilot Pluminix fountain pen. Ooooh, I love new pens!

Which brings me to the cartridge pen I bought yesterday. Not a new one this time though. I’d gone into “Craft” in Aber earlier that day and bought around 16 old girls annuals. (My wonderful daughter spotted them!) Craft, I should explain, is really just a glorified junk shop.

When I went back later to collect the books, I noticed something very interesting in one of their display cabinets. To whit: a pack of aerogrammes. And not just aerogrammes, but unused ones! There’s three from the Royal Mail trains issue and a plain blue one. I haven’t seen an aerogramme in donkey’s years! I remember using them to write to penpals back in the 1970’s, from the age of 11. I don’t know why RM don’t sell them anymore.

I will probably use them to write letters; I’m not really a collector. I’m also planning to use one to make a template, so that I can cut my own aerogrammes from scrapbooking paper. I think they’ll look rather nice. They cost £6 for the pack, which is not bad.

I also bought that cartridge pen I mentioned earlier. I don’t know what make it is, it’s just a generic cartridge pen, with a blue marble and an italic nib. But it was only £2.50 and it’s another pen to write with, and I have one on the way! Lovely!

write and go!

case

I’ve always wanted a letter-writing kit for writing on the go. Which is funny, when I tend to stay at home and don’t really go anywhere. Anyway, when I saw this in a shop in Portmeirion a few weeks ago, I had to buy it! It’s perfect for keeping paper and stuff in it. It’s meant to be a laptop cover for one of those little laptops. You know the kind; people take them on trains and tap, tap tap away at them all the blessed time. It’s airmail themed, which is just lovely! Now, all I have to do is actually go somewhere so I can write and go!

airmail stickers

airmail stickers

My daughter called in at the post office in Penparcau for me, to get me some airmail stickers. As you can see from the ‘photo, we’re now getting the new stickers in Wales, and I don’t like them at all. The old style stickers are on the left of the picture, in a nice, elegant serif font. We’re now being expected to use these horrible sans serif stickers that look cheap and ugly. I suppose the bods at the PO thought they were more modern. Well, I think I’ll have a go at making my own. Why do folks think that plain and ugly equal modern and progressive?