Just been chatting on the blower with one of my brothers to arrange the usual meet-up, and he told me about how excited they were to be summoned to the post office to collect an item. And imagine the disappointment when they discovered it was merely the Christmas card I'd sent them. Apparently, the stamp I had used, which was red, with 1st class written on it, and decorated in the usual manner with the Queen's head, had 'expired'.
It cost him around £2.50 to liberate said item.
I call that a knavish trick by the post office, but if you find yourself receiving eye-rolls and eyebrow gymnastics from family this Christmas, think back to whether your stamps were fresh from the office of the grinches who want to ruin Christmas, or came out of the back of your dusty wallet.
It isn't just the money, it is imagining the whole heart-breaking experience of the excitement followed by what amounts to a small fine for the temerity of having a letter box and being the recipient of rogue mail.
My other brother is invited to Christmas dinner this year, it, in addition to Christmas, being the occasion of his 60th. If he turns up at all, I expect the atmos to be frosty.
It cost him around £2.50 to liberate said item.
I call that a knavish trick by the post office, but if you find yourself receiving eye-rolls and eyebrow gymnastics from family this Christmas, think back to whether your stamps were fresh from the office of the grinches who want to ruin Christmas, or came out of the back of your dusty wallet.
It isn't just the money, it is imagining the whole heart-breaking experience of the excitement followed by what amounts to a small fine for the temerity of having a letter box and being the recipient of rogue mail.
My other brother is invited to Christmas dinner this year, it, in addition to Christmas, being the occasion of his 60th. If he turns up at all, I expect the atmos to be frosty.
