Friday - the end of a diverse and interesting week, (previous blogs will tell all) which has seen me send my final overseas Christmas parcel and one overseas greeting card.

The Post Office have turned in higher profits for handling less mail. There's been a streamlining of offices dealing with mail and linked services, (closures by any other name).

There's a hike in prices for mailing with a further hike in prices if your envelope doesn't fit into a pre-ordained template, which bears no relation to the size of a private mail box or letter box. If a small envelope doesn't slide easily through the thinnest of template slits, it becomes a LARGE LETTER! The price first or second class mail, raises, accordingly. And as was demonstrated to me today, "It's one of these big stamps with large letter on it that you use." An envelope larger in width than the thinnest slit becomes a large letter automatically. Get it!

It strikes me that all the counter clerks are being trained to make you feel mean, again to the financial advantage of the mail service. Each time I have mailed a package this week, clearly requesting surface mail, a clerk tells me the price of air mail first, adding there's not much difference in price between it and the service I want. Looking at it from my vantage point, I have saved about £1.50 on current price bands by sticking to my guns and posting early.