Think ahead, write instead

I am just sharing this image with you because I adore it. It is from the British Postal Museum & Archive on Flickr. In fact, all their photos are pretty damn cool. But you know I love this one especially because of the fountain pens.

Folks, it's my busy season, but on top of that, there have been some intense crises for me at work and with some family members. I'm fine, I'm okay, but there's just a lot of heavy stuff going on. Please pardon me if my letters are even slower than usual, or if I don't do blog posts... or I do mundane ones like this one that don't require photo editing. It's just a little nuts for me right now. Everybody gets times like this... and now is mine.

Maybe I need to start journaling again... then I can "think ahead, write instead."

Meta-marvelous from the UK

If you are anywhere near as much of a mail geek as I am, you would get very excited about pulling this fabulous envelope out of your mailbox. The writer made the envelope out of an old map, and added tags and collage elements and fun rubber stamps, not to mention exceedingly cool postage stamps. (Really, Lady Jane and James Bond? Swoon!)



At the request of a favorite blog reader, here's a closer look at those stamps. If you have a Flickr account, you can view large.



So this would be awesome already, no? I was careful to photograph the envelope before I opened it, to preserve its glory. (I will say for Royal Mail and US Postal service, this envelope arrived in beautiful, pristine condition.)



But that's not all, folks - we've only just begun! The letter itself was creatively typed on an old map, and included the grooviest polaroid photo.



Start here. HOW did he type on a curve and a diagonal like that? I don't know typewriters very well though I do appreciate their anachronistic charm, so this is quite a mystery. (I will insert an aside and say that I am generally not fond of computer-typed letters - I'd rather decipher even the most difficult handwriting, because there is such personality in handwriting - but somehow a typewriter is just different, and every bit as charming as handwriting.) And the typewriter ribbon/ink/what have you is BLOO. Another swoon! I left the typing intact here because I don't think they'll mind (this letter was signed from two people, though only one really did the typing), and it's just so cool.



So here is where he explained how they took a photo of the letter. The letter was typed and explained the plan before it was executed - I LOVE this planning!



They went on a bike trip in the countryside, found a fantastic old post box, took a polaroid of the letter about to go into said mailbox, put the polaroid in the letter and mailed it. So I get to see exactly where the letter was mailed!

I am kvelling, yes, but I am really delighted by this concept. What a fantastic idea, and it's not just all concept - the typed letter was witty, charming, and delicious, and I have a fantastic new correspondent in the UK now.

UK postal workers strike?

To my friends "across the pond" in the UK:

Perhaps I live under a rock (well, I don't have a TV) but I've only just learned, through reading a postal-related blog, that postal workers in the UK are having strikes all over the place that are affecting mail delivery. My sympathies! What a predicament. I am reading up on the whole backstory now.

I do hope folks in the UK have not experienced significant delays or difficulties, though it seems inevitable...