Just being ME




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06/12/2007



the christmas morning post ...

Mr Robin the Postman
Is waiting at your door
With my Christmas greetings
And wishes quite a store!

The Christmas Morning Post 1934 - Printed by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd

Well, after work today, I finally got around to stopping off at my very handy local sub Post Office, nearly didn't as it was tipping down with rain, yet again, and there wasn't a car parking space in sight, after having cursed everyone who wanted to be out at that very second and not relishing getting drenched, I decided to give up on the idea and just get straight home. Then I thought, do I really want to go back out again in the deluge later on, so with that in mind and with one quick turn of the steering wheel, I decided just to go round the block one more time in hope of finding someone pulling out from a space, bingo, a prime spot had just become available right outside the front door, finally my luck was in.

Anyway the main purpose of going was first and foremost to get a card posted off to my Grandpa, my only surviving grandparent, he is in his nineties and lives in Majorca, secondly to buy stamps for the cards which have to go through the post for friends and family, second class I hasten to add, and last but not least to check whether some of the fancy cards with embellishments I wanted to send would need the new large stamp tariff, after poking them through the gap several times, I found two of them did! Just a warning to everyone, make sure to check yours if you are not sure, as recently I sent a fancy birthday card to a friend and she later told me she had to go and pick it up from her Post Office and pay a fee of about £2.00 to be able to bring it home, luckily she is a good friend and we had a laugh about it, although at the time I was very annoyed with the postal system, it seems to me that every direction you turn nowadays there is invariably someone out to rob you?

Talk about spoilt for choice, we have two local Post Offices, the larger one is situated in the main part of the village and a much smaller sub Post Office which is just on the outskirts. Unfortunately the smaller one of the two is constantly being threatened with closure, why I don't know, as when I pass by there is always a steady stream of customers going in and coming out. I hope it doesn't, it would be a great shame and the very personal service it provides, something which is severely lacking in this day and age, would be greatly missed by me and the others who choose to use it.Please help to save your local Post Office by supporting them with your custom.

As Jane put it so well, this post has started a national debate! I must say though all of you support your local post office which is great, I would so miss the personal service which my little one provides, not that I am completely putting down the main post office, it is handy for car tax etc, although I always try and avoid it, one because quite often there is a queue snaking right outside the door and two there is a patronising figure of a man who works behind the counter, one Christmas I was in the queue and he refused a lady Christmas stamps, just because she wanted a bulk lot, I did ask myself at the time can he do this, what sort of customer service is he giving? Talking of Christmas stamps, Jane wants biggers stamps with more value for money! Joanna's life is made more difficult with this sizing business, can they make it any harder for people who need to use the parcel service for one reason or another and my dad would join you in saying, such a shame to lose the night train. Leslie, I hope they can find a counter in one of your shops, so that you still have the use of a local post office and as Catherine says they are a lifeline out in the country, my dad lives out in the sticks and his village post office closed years back and the village shop took over a counter, and now they have had to close, due to lack of custom, such a shame. How are the elderly or young people come to that, who don't have transport, supposed to get to the larger post offices, where my dad lives there is about one bus a day, and you have to walk about two miles to the bus stop, Jane would have to catch a ferry! I do love England but living here is becoming more difficult day by day.

12 comments:

Carol said...

I get so annoyed by this new postal charging system. As if we need to make it even more complicated. Madness.
Anyway, I am with you in supporting the local 'anything'!
I have just started to have my milk delivered....I would rather buy form the supermarket as I worry about the milk being left on the doorstep in Summer. Anyway, I wanted to help this young lad who was hoping to get his own milk round so I agreed to have his deliveries and I prefer the glass bottles too. Sorry Louise, I have gone off the mark a bit.
Have a lovely Friday........
Carol xx

RG said...

Yoou have a pretty page there!

So just get a nice bunny at the local rescue and dive right in!!! Plenty of help about what to do!

Then we could all see pictures!

kari and kijsa said...

We do support our local post office...(more and more lately)! Hope you have a wonderful day!

smiles, kari and kijsa

Joanna said...

Don't get me started on the postal system, its a huge mess and national embarisment. I'm appaled by the customer service at main postoffices, I go out of my way to go to friendly sub post offices, which are threatened with closure.

I find this size thing so stupid it means I have to have more trips to the post office and you post the same size thing at different post offices and they charge you different amounts, that can't be right. If I pack something of the same weight side by side and not on top it halfs the postage cost, its just made posting anything enormously complicated and I wish there was an alternative to the royal mail which is so sad.

The goverment even uses tnt for there eternal mail. Surely they should suport the Royal Mail, if no one else. They can both loose stuff.

We came back from the lakes late on a monday night and the main amount of traffic on the road was courier firms and a few royal mail lorries. It was such a shame to loose the night post train.

Ragged Roses said...

Our local post office is a godsend, the queues are long but the trek into town would be longer, we need to save them!!! Just wanted to thank you for the get well message and also for posting a while back with the link to the postal museum, we've just ordered a couple of great posters from them as pressies! A BIG THANK YOU FOR THAT!!
Kim x
Just starting to rain here now!

Lesley Todd said...

That's a sweet picture. It's such a shame about so many post offices closing. Ours is up for sale. I think the village is hoping to find room for a counter in one of the shops instead. The man who runs the post office has been there since I was a little girl and is such a lovely gentleman. He always asks how you are and has a bit of a conversation if there's no queue. You can't beat the personal touch can you?

Alchamillamolly said...

We have 42 rural post offices closing here in North Yorkshire and that is only the first list after Xmas there will be more and they will be in the Yorkshire Dales - it is atrocious they are a lifieline out in the country and the Gov't forget that its them who stopped the PO's offering the services and giving them to everyone and then wondered why people stopped using them. It was a cool and calculated move on their part to reduce the services and they knew they were hammering nails in the coffin. Pure tactics! Sorry the closures are my bugbear we work with lots of rural communities and they are imperative as a community resource.

Country Cottage Chic said...

I always use my local sub-post office - it's close by, hardly ever a queue, friendly postmaster who knows me, I can buy things I need as it's also a shop & no problems about parking.

Cowboys and Custard Mercantile said...

Oh dear.. bit worried now.. just posted out Christmas cards to my clients and customers.. it would be pretty awful if they had to pay extra postage because I have a badge on the cards!!! Must check that one out!
I am a daily visitor to my local post office and would be so upset if they were to close.. we always have a chat and a laugh over the counter and it brings our local community together in some way..
Michelex

Jane said...

Ooh Lousie you have started a national debate about the Post Office. The village post office is right next door to us and is a godsend but they still talk about closing some of the smaller ones on the island! Sometime over the next few months I will photgrpah as many of them on the island as I can - some of them are so small and in unusual buildings you'll laugh!

Has anyone else noticed this one - not only do they charge us more with this new system but they have made this years Christmas stamps exceedingly SMALL! I wouldn't mind paying for the 1st class stamps but I'd like to think I'm getting value for money!

This weekend I shall be writing out my cards and popping in the ususal round robin letter to everyone.

Bev and Ollie "O" said...

Thanks for the message, I think you are right, cakes do taste better the next day. I normally make a cake in the evening and ice/fill the next day.
I didn't have enough ground almonds so I used a mixture of almonds and ground hazelnuts, worked fine.

I have never made a bakewell tart but I LOVE them, now you've got me thinking.......

Bev x

OhSoVintage said...

Fifty weeks of the year our postman leaves parcels outside the door but come Christmas he leaves cards for us to collect them 4 miles away. On Saturday I joined a queue outside in the pouring rain to collect 2 parcels and it took me half an hour, I was drenched!