General Chat

I decided as I cant get out to go online to a shop called Card Factory and order all cards I need for Birthday Anniversaries etc up til Jan next year.

Today the package arrived and...wow!
The cards are huge and most were only £1.49. They really are lovely cards and worth every penny. Even with the delivery charge they are still very good value.

I have a shop in town and to buy the size and style of cards there, each one would have been at least £4-5...
So have a look at the site. you can personalise cards too at no extra cost.

Florence in the hebrides :-D

Our postie numbers have been reduced too, Sylvia.

Comments from postal workers early in lockdown:

'But, because the Royal Mail see Mothers' Day cards as essential work, apparently we all have to risk our lives and the safety of the country now.'

'The CWU decided we could be an emergency service but we don't even have the ability to clean our hands.'

They knew the state of their business.

They wanted to deter letter volumes and concentrate on parcel volumes with no junk mail, prioritising parcels such as groceries, medical supplies, toiletries, cv testing kits - in other words things to keep people alive.

There were calls for more PPE and hand-sanitiser facilities and hand sanitisers for posties themselves - under threat of walk-outs in sorting offices.

A more recent (May) recent statement from Royal Mail quoted

'..... we are currently experiencing increased levels of employee absence due to illness and self-isolation. Absence rates are currently significantly higher than what we normally expect this time of year.

Our delivery operation is key part of keeping the country moving. So we have chosen not to avail ourselves of the U.K. government's furlough scheme except in some very limited circumstances. In fact, we have put ever more resources in to keep delivering. This includes additional overtime provision and a very significant investment in protective equipment for our colleagues.'

We have lost postal workers to the virus, as one would expect. It hits anywhere and everywhere.

Recent good news for Royal Mail is that Rico Back has stepped down and share prices have risen.

Couldn't have happened at a better time for Royal Mail. :-D

I fear that both Royal Mail and Canada Post will lose positions, and maybe we will even lose them entirely.

Canada Post is not the same as it was say 15 years ago before email became so popular ........... it's down to about half its size, we get one delivery a day, but sometimes only on 3 days a week. That is, it is not that there is no mail for us on Tuesday and Thursday (often our case), but that there is no postie on the route.

CP obviously denies that this is happening, but it is curious that no-one on our street gets any mail, not even free flyers, on Tuesday and Thursday!

We no longer have the postie walking his/her route, they all now drive small vans, which means that they can carry much more mail, including small-ish parcels and cover more ground. I see our postie parking her van in the middle of the block next to us, she delivers on both sides of the street for two blocks, then drives the van to the next stop. She's often carrying only a smal bag of mail.

Posties here in Vancouver have been reduced to about half the number because of this.

There used to be green boxes at regular intervals on a postie's route where mail had been deposited for pick-up by him or her, all gone now.

It has been suggested several times here that the letter-carrying arm of Canada Post be dispensed with. Then the PO will be fighting with the delivery companies for carrying parcels .............. Canada Post already owns one of the big companies in Canada, Purolator, but their opposition of course is UPS and FedEx.

Think what it would be like not to get ANY mail through your door .............. no cards, no letters, not even catalogues!

Some may have been furloughed, Kathleen, so still get 80% of their income up to a max of £2500 per month. I know of at least one employer who is making up the 20% too, which means the lower paid are not missing out on that 20% which they may be desperate for - a good thing. I haven't heard or read of any posties actually losing their jobs but, admittedly, I don't know what's going on around the country.

I do know that any catalogues, mailshots etc are only being delivered to households if there is 'real mail' to be delivered too.

Sadly, I think Rishi Sunak is going to have a hard time when things ease because I think some people forget too easily what's gone on before.

I do actually send lots of cards but the free ecard site is handy if you have forgotten an event or if you just want to send a "hug" card to someone

Florence in the hebrides

Joy - I fully agree with your comments about Rishi Sunak. I don't agree with his politics but I think he's one of the few politicians who have come out of this crisis looking good. He seems to be completely on top of his game and I would think that even though he is relatively new to the cabinet he could easily be a future prime minister.

As for birthday cards, I don't think the postmen will mind delivering them as quite a few postmen and women lost their jobs when people started sending fewer letters and cards and that could happen again if we stop using the post again.

Kath. x

Everyone must do what he or she feels but, for me, apart from the card point you picked up on Sylvia, the main point I tried to make above is the one about the postie's unnecessary burden.

No one in our close family is sending cards at the moment - we are all of a like mind. We have decided a phone call, Skype, Zoom or Factime chat is good enough.

My best memory box is in my brain but among the items in the box I call my keepsakes box I only keep the previous year's birthday cards from very close family - when the new card arrives, the previous card gets ditched.

You have a lot more faith in your ministers than I have in ours, Sylvia. The only person I think is worthy of mention at the moment is our Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. He seems to have put compassion and health above economy. We all know the nation's debt is mounting and we will have to pay eventually but, somehow we have been lucky enough to have an actual human being as our Chamcellor, one without dollar signs in his eyes and one who has worked out a good rescue package for people when they need it most. His next task will be to work out an economic package so I hope our peoples don't forget what he has done for us during the hardest period in most people's living memories.

For what it's worth, OH and I know several people who have had the virus, three have died but others have recovered. My friend's daughter, an intensive care nurse who lives on her own, has just gone back to work this week and she was the final one out of seven sufferers to return to her ward. So, when I think of her in particular, I think we are not deprived when we do without cards.

Not going to end with that - here's a glass-half-full story: the wonderful news is that my neighbour, the sister in charge of the intensive care ward, has been baking for 'her charge' and leaving things on her doorstep while she is confined within her home. When I spoke with said ward sister last night she told me that almost half of those particular nurses tested were free of the virus.

The problem with e-cards is that one cannot save them in a "memory box" if one so desires, because printing them off on a sheet of paper is not the same.

I honestly think this being scared of things coming through the letter box is taking it too far ............. open the card, letter or parcel, throw out the envelope, wrapping paper or box, wash your hands thoroughly and TA DA ........ you have a letter to read, a card to put on the mantelpiece, or a book to enjoy.

I've seen this not touching things, or putting them away for 2 or 3 days, talked about over here online but never by the two people I really trust ............ our Provincial Minister of Health and Provincial Medical Officer.

Unless she tells us to do that, then it seems she thinks it unnecessary.

Florence, that's the site I've been using to send birthday ecards.

I don't like anything coming through my letterbox at the moment and cards are wholly inessential so I have decided not to send any through the post. I would not want to add to the postie's burden, no matter how small the risk may be, as some of them must start their daily shifts wondering whether this is the day they pick up the virus and pass it on to their families.

I have transferred money direct to the banks of two of my close relatives for their birthdays.

Everyone seems happy with those arrangements.

Well I have still been sending cards as normal as daughter walks a little every day and there is a post box just along the rd which is handy.

However I have used a site which is completely free and you can send e cards for all occasions.. 123.greetings.com

Quite handy if you have forgotten a birthday etc or if you just want to cheer someone up there are 100's to choose from.

Florence in the hebrides

I send cards through the mail, but I also use Jacqui Lawson email cards .......

sometimes the littlies get a real card with birthday cheque in it plus a funny JL card as well. I don't want to have access to their bank accounts via online accounts, so their parents have to deposit the cheques for them :-)

I send money to daughter and her family via a special account that we set up with OH, daughter and myself as joint account holders (with her husband's approval). I send the money to that account ..... in that way I have no access to any of their accounts.

I have sent b'day cards across Canada, and to the UK since January, with no apparent problems.

I've also received parcels from the UK and Canada, via Canada Post and delivery companies such as UPS.

I never thought about not sending letters and cards!

I have been sending them to people in the UK, because the post is still operating normally.

I haven't sent cards by post to relatives abroad for several years now, as the cost of postage is very high and in some cases the postal service is awful.

I send e-cards instead

https://www.jacquielawson.com/

You pay a subscription, which is quite low, and then can send as many cards as you want. At the moment, with no flights to a lot of places, it's a godsend.

I haven’t ventured out as self isolating
My step granddaughter was 18 recently and I tried to do a moonpig card but they weren’t doing cards only email online but then due to demand was 10-15 days for delivery

Soo I wished her happy birthday on Facebook and sent her money through online banking

My grandson is 40 today so it’s been a text and message on Facebook

He is a long distance lorry driver so away all week and is on the continent today but he knows we are all wishing him happy birthday :-D

That's interesting Kath.
We sent a card from a post office to New Zealand last week and no delay was mentioned.
The birthday is not until later this month, so I will just have to hope for the best.

I have sent out cards as usual. My son takes them to the post office when he does our shopping. He was told that one I sent to New Zealand may be delayed because they weren't sending post to New Zealand at the moment (that was a few weeks ago). However my sister in Florida had a birthday on Tuesday gone and she did get her card.

If you are worried about the virus just leave the cards or letters where they fall when they come through the letter box. After a few hours they will be o.k. although I must admit I just pick up the post straight away and then wash my hands.

Kath. x

No, sending ecards as very few flights leaving here.

The weekend before lockdown, I went out and bought birthday cards to last me until June and have sent several of them, so far.

Yes I do to relies & friends x

I’m still sending them including notelets. I even sent a mixed bunch of notelets to a very elderly relative to use as she had almost run out of them.

Yes I am sending them. I have sent four since the start of lockdown.