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even the Queen has given up!

Posted in Interesting articles, tagged DHL, Fedex, http://www.royal.gov.uk/, postal strike, Queen, Royal Mail, Sunday Times, twitter (notjustagranny) on November 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

how ironic, that the Queen has given up on the ‘Royal’ Mail. reading an article in the Sunday Times on sunday 01.11.09 I was highly amused to read that ‘one is not amused’.

according to the article as the postal strike really starts to bite, it seems even the Royals have lost faith in the ‘Royal’ Mail. For anything that’s urgent, the Queen has been using DHL.

DHL, which is owned by the GERMAN (?) postal service Deutsche Post, has a warrant to deliver express parcels for the Queen, even though Royal Mail offers a same-day service. “DHL are used a very great deal by the Royal household,” says Pippa Dutton from the Royal Warrant Holders Association. “They use them like you and I do. If it’s something that’s got to get there quickly and you want to guarantee delivery, who else?” (Well the title ‘Royal Mail’ would be the clue there.)

A Royal Mail spokesman sighs: “The sector is particularly competitive. Obviously ours offers the best value for money and the best service.”

And if you are a particularly valued customer, they’ll even put your face on their stamps. 🙂

so there you have it, become a regular user of the Royal Mail and you could get your ‘head on the block’, so to speak. However in the meanwhile the Queen has lost faith in her royal postal service and we her loyal subjects have too! I wonder why she doesn’t do Fedex?

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Halloween

Posted in Fun Stuff, Holidays, Interesting articles, Travel, tagged 31October, Abney-Park, ancient graveyards, autumn watch bbc2, bbc2, Britians TopTen haunted castles, halloween, happy halloween, Highgate Cemetery, Holidays, jack o'the-lantern, midnight, nightmares, notjustagranny, spooky stuff, Twitter, twitter (notjustagranny), Victorian Cemetery, wikipedia, will-o'the-wisp, witching hour on October 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Hello dear readers,

not just a pumpkin!

Here we are almost at the witching hour of Halloween (ok, so for some of us the witching hour has already come and gone and it is now 1st November……whatever!!! 🙂 🙂 Wherever you are I hope you joined in the fun and got some real great treats.

As for us here in the UK and for our Americans cousins on the other side of the water, midnight is on the way and our trick or treating is yet to come.

And as it approaches do you ever stop to wonder about the what, why or how of Halloween. Personally I love the idea, I also love the US of A for introducing us to the idea. Any excuse for a bit of fun is good with me 🙂

I decided to do a bit of research this year, not having stopped to answer the above questions myself in the past and this is what I found:

Wikipedia:

Halloween (also spelled Hallowe’en) is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones.

The colours black and orange have become associated with the celebrations, perhaps because of the darkness of night and the colour of fire or of pumpkins, and maybe because of the vivid contrast this presents for merchandising. Another association is with the jack-o’-lantern (named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o’-lantern). Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.”

I am totally into things that go bump in the night, scary movies, ghost stories, haunted castles, being scared witless and having fun watching other people being scared witless; so this type of event is right up my alley.

I was watching ‘Autumn Watch‘ on BBC2 last night and they showed Simon in Abney-Park Hackney Cemetery wandering about at night, which is so cool. Abney-Park became the first non-denominational Victorian Cemetery.

so if you are into being scared witless, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night 🙂 why not venture into your local cemetery tonight, the UK certainly has plenty of really ancient graveyards that should fulfil your wildest nightmares 🙂 then drop by later and leave us a comment on what you got up to!

My thanks to our American cousins for introducing us to this marvellous event. HAPPY HALLOWEEN

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