Going Postal

As the holiday season rolls around, this is the time of year when Royal Mail (in the UK) is usually swamped and struggles to keep up (not that they do that brilliant a job for the rest of the year anyway). Well, firstly, let me offer an apology - i know that some of my friends back home are taking the trouble to send me Christmas cards but, unfortunately, i will not be able to this year. This is largely for two reasons - the first being that i have not had much time at all to even think about going out to buy Christmas cards (and the odd ones i have glimpsed in the shops look, to be frank, pretty tacky). The second reason is the simple fact that for me to post anything, it means i have to take a trip downtown to the Post office. Y'see, the price of sending things back to the UK varies and is rarely the same (at least it hasn't been so far!) so it's not really plausible for me to fix stamps and put letters in the mailbox (sorry, postbox!). Of course, it would help if they actually had post boxes here as well - but it seems they don't any more.

From talking to some of the older lab members here, it appears that there used to be post boxes all over the place (same with public telephones as well) - but, it seems, they decided to get rid of them. Now, i know what you're thinking - does that mean everyone has to go to the post office? Not so - if you have post to send, then you merely place your stamped letters on the back of/in your mailbox and the postman takes it when he comes to drop off your mail for the day. I guess it makes sense - if they're going to be around, they may as well take it with them, but then it doesn't really help me with the whole cost issue. Anyway, i shall likely be doing the whole e-card thing this year - remember to check ur mail!!