Diary week ending 24th December

[rosie99]

Royal Mail workers will strike on Friday, December 9, Sunday, December 11, Wednesday, December 14, Thursday, December 15, Friday, December 23 and Saturday, December 24. The strikes will affect workers who collect, sort, and deliver parcels and letters.

Those dates are not right for 2023, December 9th was a Saturday 

[arthurk]

Royal Mail workers will strike on Friday, December 9, Sunday, December 11, Wednesday, December 14, Thursday, December 15, Friday, December 23 and Saturday, December 24. The strikes will affect workers who collect, sort, and deliver parcels and letters.

Those dates are not right for 2023, December 9th was a Saturday 

I was about to say the same - those are last year's dates, and I thought they'd settled the dispute now, or at least suspended the strikes.

[louisa maud]

This week is flying past, why do visitors leave it till this week to " pop in" well I am prepared with tea and cakes but last time they did this to me they said as they left " we will  get fish and chips on the way home" they could have had that here.

I have just blown tbe kettle and half the house it seems, OH  at gym, will  have to confess when he comes back

Beautiful day,  it started off with very strong sun, dangerously  strong for drivers, looks as if it is clouding over now but welcome , no rain.

Hope everyone who is away has a happy Christmas

LM

[candleflame]

Well I think the post has been listening to our conversation , as today we got a stash of Christmas cards with postmarks from the 13th up to the 19th, so they’ve been sitting somewhere in a sorting office! But they say they’re not prioritising parcels……. Hmmmm.

[Roobarb]

Sorry to rant but this carry on with the Royal Mail makes me so angry. We don't have any choice in which company to use for posting letters and cards and the Royal Mail is severely lacking in its duty to the British public by prioritising parcels. There's no doubt that they're doing this, I have a friend whose daughter has worked as a postie for a number of years, it's more than a year since she said the Royal Mail wanted to compete with the likes of Amazon in delivering parcels. Dream on! When I'm expecting a parcel from Amazon I'm given a time slot and when it gets nearer the time
I'm notified when the driver is eight stops away. I can track the parcel and be waiting at my front door if I feel so inclined, knowing exactly when the parcel is going to arrive.

Compare that with the Royal Mail  - a four hour slot is given but we're told that's not a guarantee. It's just chance then whether you receive it within the slot. No tracking is provided beyond it leaving the local depot. They should do what they're good at and deliver our vital and not so vital post and leave the big boys to concentrate on the parcels.

Rant over, sorry about that! Happy Christmas and I hope everyone gets their post. 

[BumbleB]

Sorry about this, BUT I totally support the Royal Mail workers.  The postmen/women work all hours, have to negotiate dreadful traffic and then have to trudge the streets in every kind of weather.  AND  they have their superiors and bosses to contend with, who possibly couldn't give "two hoots" about them.   

[Viktoria]

My eldest son came today and said he would be here whilst we were away, as he could get on with a lot of stuff next door for his brother.
He can sleep here and be in and out next door.
His wife is helping her two older sisters,one recently bereaved and the other with a very ill husband so she will not be at home so they decided we would celebrate when my youngest son and I are back.
I think number one son prefers to get on alone whilst number two,overthinks things .
Thank goodness I cleaned the skirting boards ,I can’t believe anyone can live  in their house! Pristine isn’t the word!
So as I have nearly run down the fridge —- no , he said he’d be O.K.
I really do not have time to shop for him now .
He lives five minutes from a Morrisons and can do basic cooking .
My daughter in law is the youngest of the family but she is the capable.          “ Rock”.

What a strange Christmas it is turning out to be.
.
Well must get on, so much still to do and now more - ,

Cheerio. I hope you all have a peaceful Christmas , that us something to be valued.
Viktoria.

[arthurk]

[Royal Mail] should do what they're good at and deliver our vital and not so vital post and leave the big boys to concentrate on the parcels.

If that happened, I suspect the cost of posting a letter would go up to around £2 or more. With banks encouraging us to go paperless, family historians writing to each other by email rather than on paper, and people on holiday posting on social media rather than sending postcards, the volume of letters has fallen considerably - while the rise of internet shopping has led to a growth in the parcels business.

If Royal Mail were to opt out of parcels, I doubt the letters business could survive in its current form, even with a large price increase. Instead we'd be looking at things like only 2-3 deliveries a week (officially), or having to collect mail from the sorting office.

[louisa maud]

Enjoy Viktoria,   go safely.

LM