the post 12 March 2008
I had my picture taken in a very windy London today posting a large St Patrick’s Day card to make people aware that it’s coming and also how to stamp and address such things properly. I think it is one of the nicer occasions to mark in such a way and, for some reason, I feel it’s less commercial than, say, Valentine’s Day. Anyhow I heard from the lovely Donald who was looking after me in the chill and the wind that each week 25,000 or so letters and cards are posted with merely a name on them – it’s usually because people think ‘I’ll put the address on that later’, then forget and pop it in the postbox nevertheless. There is a detective department in the Royal Mail devoted to getting these items back out there legitimately into the postal system and a surprising number of items are ‘repatriated’ when lost or sent on their way successfully – that must be one hell of a satisfying job.
