THINKING ALLOWED

A number of older people I know now take advantage of the Australia Post concession stamps.  They cost 60¢ each compared with normal letter post of 70¢ which is a nice little saving.  As they say "every penny counts."

As we in Australia know, Australia Post is running at a loss when it comes to 'snail mail' as so many people these days have chosen to go 'paperless' when it comes to bills, bank statements etc., and of course emails and mobile 'phone text messages have become the order of the day. as a means of keeping in touch with others.  Consequently, many less letters are being sent than many years ago when it was often our own means of communication with others.

Australia Post have come up with a way of lessening their losses on snail mail and from 4 January next year stamps for normal letter are going up quite considerably, possibly to as much as $1 each.   This would mean that concession stamps at 60¢ would indeed be a bargain.  But wait!!  There's more.

In the mail this past week we received a letter from Australia Post telling us that as of 4 January next year all letters carrying concession stamps could take up to two days longer than 'normal' mail to reach their destination.  "Whoops" thought I "if anyone is having a birthday we must remember to send the card a few days earlier."

Then I read on to find that if a person using a concession 60¢ stamp wanted their mail to be delivered in 'normal' time then they could add a priority sticker to their envelope.  The only catch there.....the priority sticker would cost 50¢!!  That would mean if we used our concession stamp and wanted the letter/card to arrive in 'normal' time it would cost us $1.10....10¢ more than normal mail (that is if stamps from 1 January are going to cost $1).

My reaction to this ....  we will continue using our 60¢ concession stamps always bearing in mind we must be on our toes and post letters/cards several days sooner than we would have done in the past.

P.S.  This year to post Christmas cards within Australia it costs 65¢ so using concession stamps does save us 5¢.  One can't help wondering though how long it will be before concession stamps go up and how much our Christmas cards are going to cost to post come December, 2016.

I AM GETTING REALLY BEHIND WITH MY POSTS

I am becoming a real laggard of late with posting on my blog.  One reason is the ring finger on my left hand has decided to rebel and my typing is suffering because of it.  It doesn't appear to be a case of trigger finger 'cos it doesn't click but it is painful when I type and on occasion will suddenly go stiff and there is no way I can bend it until it is ready to do so itself.   It does hurt so I have to be patient with it.   My left hand also tends to get pins and needles in if I type for too long.  I'm afraid the old grey mare definitely ain't what she used to be but she's not given up completely....not yet anyway.

The above has of course delayed me with the continuing story my mother told about her life and even about the A-Z of vegetables.  Please bear with me and I'll try to get on with it all ASAP.  In the meantime (although I showed this before) do share a laugh with me over this very wise and pretty picture:

I'm smiling as I sent hugs to all my friends.   (I remember who sent me these pretty cacti pics.  I wonder does she remember sending them to me?)

NOT BACK INTO WRITING MODE AS YET

I thought I'd be back here much sooner than this but the shoulder is still far from right and having to have 12 drops in my eye each day....well it's sort of tiring so the old thought processes are a little slow.

Yesterday was Father's Day in Oz and also our eldest great-granddaughter turned 15 so a double celebration.  Family all met at the Hog's Breath Cafe in Rockingham where we all enjoyed a lovely meal and each other's company as well.

CT at 15 is a delightful lass and I feel she really did enjoy her birthday yesterday and received some lovely gifts, including money so she can go on a spending spree and buy things she would like to have.  I now kakka has talked a lot about her eldest granddaughter so I don't need to go into details about the accident and all that.  CT looked very attractive last night and still has the most beautiful smile.

I asked CT what her work experience job is this term and apparently she is at a cafe/restaurant where she does some of the cooking, takes payments for meals and of course the one job that is interminable in a cafe....washing dishes.  She seems to be enjoying it which is the main thing.  All this work experience is good for her as she learns different tasks and has a lot of contact with people in the 'outside' world.

Youngest great-granddaughter was also there with her folks and she had lots of fun with her grandma playing electronic games on the iPad and having the story about Green Eggs and Ham read to her a couple of times.  She had brought with her a little pull along dog which had to be taken outside for a walk a couple of times.  She really is a trick and she looked lovely with her curly hair and pretty clothes.

MOH has had a nasty persistent cough of late so I waited until he was out on Friday and rang and made an appointment with out GP and I hope when MOH sees the doctor he will tell him he's been feeling poorly and not try and make out all is well, which it isn't.  It's great to greet a doctor which a big smile and all that but sometimes I think we have to let them know that things are not quite right or otherwise how are they supposed to know.

I hope everyone out there in blogging land is keeping well and happy.  I am sorry I've not visited many blogs of late but I do think of all of you and when I get this shoulder right and the second cataract done on the 15th of this month (followed by lots more drops) I hope all will be back to some sort of normality.
Just keeping loving each other and all hopefully will be well with everyone.