Entered on 2001-10-16 at 8:36 a.m..
Mail and Milk
People in Britian don't have mailboxes, at least not the kind of device that an American would describe as a mail box. Nope, they have letter slots in their doors or a box right outside their door. The device, however is only for receiving mail. To post mail you must take it to an official red post box. This, I am told, cuts down on the need for little red flags, which are in short supply on this side of the Atlantic.
The mail is delivered by a postal worker either on foot or bicycle twice a day, rain (one of many variety) or shine. The first round must begin at our house because every morning at about 10 past 8 a diligent mail man arrives at our door and shoves something in.
Normally, this would be a good thing (with the exception of bills), but in our case it is mostly junk mail and mail to former tenants. One day I made the mistake of trying to return the former tenant's mail to the mail man on his second round. Boy was I wrong, only the FBI have a greater sence of duty. His response was a very terse and firm, "got to deliver it anyway." So now we just collect it. When we get bored we mark through the address and write return to sender on it, and take it back to the post box on campus.
One of our more amusing pieces of mail are the random TV liscense letters that come through our door. The interesting thing about them is that the are addressed to certain rooms in the house. Now, I find it very amusing how they know which room is numbered which number, and where said room is located in the house. Lan and Flo both say that it is a random mailing that the TV Liscense Department does every October to scare the students into paying their TV liscense. For those of you who have read Harry Potter these letters remind me of the addresses on his letters.
The occupant
Room No. 2
1 Lanchester Rd
The other fun thing that is delivered to our door is fresh milk! My house mates and I have put in the enormous order of one pint of semi-skimmed milk to be delivered on Mondays and Thursdays. Sure enough on Monday morning was this little glass pint of milk. Now after drinking a glass of said milk, I know exactly why they call it semi-skimmed as there were cream reminants in the milk. Very good stuff.
OH, I forgot to mention. I have a mobile phone now. So because the room in my room is rather expensive, and you can only call me when I'm in my room (not often), it will be disconnected soon. So now please call me on my mobile (cell phone). The number is 0794-707-5297 fom in the UK and 011-44-794-707-5297 from outside the UK (Becca for you its 0011-44-797-707-5297 because the Swiss are wierd).