I will have mentioned that we invested many years ago in the Holiday Property Bond. It has places throughout the UK and further afield and we have always enjoyed our stays
HPB has properties at Barnham Broom which is just a few miles down the road from us. A lady put a simple request on the Facebook page about a coming visit. She simply wanted to know whether the property she was hiring would be empty on their day of arrival so she could access it earlier than advertised. It was just a polite if somewhat cheeky request (her words and not mine). Back came the vitriolic messages asking her how dare she make such a request and how rude was she being.
Sometimes I despair. I waded into the debate asking why people can't be kinder to each other and pointing out that if I was in the apartment I would get out early in order to let the lady in earlier and even leave her a glass of wine as it is her birthday.
* *
News yesterday of another service being dumbed down. This time the Royal Mail. They are thinking of going down to three deliveries a week now that so much less mail comes via the snail mail route.
An official told us that unless steps are taken the price of stamps would have to rise. Sadly the price of stamps will inevitably rise irrespective of whether the so called steps are taken or not.
On the national news bulletin we had a very grainy film of a postman delivering mail in what looked like the 1950s. A random householder then told us that years ago everyone knew their postman or post lady but now the post seems to be delivered by a different person every day.
We used to have a post lady by the name of Christine. We often see her. She always stopped for a chat with everyone which made her very popular with those receiving mail but not with her bosses. She used to deliver either on foot or with a bike. Now mail is delivered from vans and they often drive just a few yards along a road before stopping again. This cannot be cost effective.
*. *. *
Thoroughly enjoyed two events yesterday. Firstly I was interviewed by Anne Cockburn for the Wymondham Talking Newspaper For the Blind. I often get in a muddle with this title and call it the Talking Newspaper For the Deaf, which obviously doesn't make much sense.
It was all about the 100th edition of Hethersett Herald. Last night granddaughter Poppy recorded her story of the Zebbit for the Talking Newspaper. She read it really well.
Doesn't a bit of sunshine and warmer temperatures make everything feel better?
Just remember according to an advert for holidays currently doing the rounds "Ditching your technology and taking it easy let's you stay much less dead for much longer". It's a shame the woman delivering this nonsensical comment does so in angry tones and we all know that getting angry is not good for you and can raise the old blood pressure.
In the afternoon myself and John H spoke to the RiNG about Le Paradis Massacre and our coming book on the subject. John did the talking while I drove the occasional slide on the projector.
We were very pleased with the response and will be returning in the future to relate some of the personal stories we have come across during our research. Oh and RiNG stands for Rheumatoid in Norfolk Group.