Postal Services

Firstly I must thank all of you who sent us Christmas cards and e-cards. However.....do you feel a rant coming on? As we opened our cards in December I couldn't help noticing how expensive it was for you to send us the cards and commented how generous it was of you to think of us. Also we noticed when the card had been posted often very early in December. (I can assure you that we did eventually open the envelopes and read the cards!!) As Christmas Day approached we thought we haven't heard from so and so this year, "hope they are OK". However into the New Year we began to receive a batch of cards every day, and to our relief "so and so" was OK. But each delivery stoked my anger, culminating a couple of days ago when we received a card which was posted at the main Post Office in Peterborough on the 8th December, OVER A MONTH previous. We are used to getting letters from HMRC which take a month to get to us and tell us that we should have paid our tax by last week, but not Christmas cards. No wonder most of us communicate by email these days.

I don't know which postal service is to blame (although we have had a word with our lovely postman, who just gave a gallic shrug) and I expect it cost us the same to send cards to the UK but we weren't counting. Anyway I feel better for getting this off my chest.

PS Nature Note

We got up this morning to pouring rain and a very dark dismal day but to our astonishment heard a kestrel calling for a mate. We are used to hearing him in early Spring but doesn't he know that it is only 12th January!! The crocuses have also started to bloom early so perhaps the warmer weather since Christmas has confused all parts of the natural world.