It's Tuesday so a bit of history

Good morning world, it is going to be another bloody hot day here although at the moment it is nice I, however, have woken up feeling like shit, I ache all over and I have a terrible headache so I went for a small walk this morning it was bad enough walking from the bedroom to the lounge room. I walk out to the lounge room and Natasha isn't here she isn't in her room or in Tim's office in fact she is no where to be seen so I am guessing she has gone for her walk this morning.

I am sitting here thinking and looking at the Christmas Cards on the wall in front of me and thinking I really should take them down and toss them in the bin but not right now as I can't be bothered to do anything with them, it just seems to be to much work to do so that is how terrible I am feeling.

You know I am wearing shorts at the moment and it is cool but I guess that will change soon enough.

Today I want to answer the small pile of letters I have here there is 9 letters to answer so that is on the to do list for today.

Did you know that the first recorded handwritten letter was by the Persian Queen Atossa around 500BC, and the stamped letter we know today came about during the time of Queen Victoria around the year of 1840. I think we all know that before that letters didn't have stamps or even envelopes, letters were folded and sealed by wax and usually the receiver had to pay for it when it arrived.

Of course letters are usually thought of as a more personal form of communication than emails or text messaging. Although there are many different types of letters there are personal letters which include not only letters but Christmas cards and letters which can be in a relaxed chatting type tone. Then there are business letters and for a long time bills, often for many people they would feel the only “person” to write to them would be “Bill” asking for money.

Now of course we usually get bills via email, in fact many companies will charge you extra if they send a paper bill in the mail, this I think is wrong as there are people who do not have email. My parents fall into this category even though both of them have email accounts, dad will check his emails but often he will delete stuff without bothering to read it and mum she doesn't check hers as she doesn't have a computer or tablet and doesn't know how to check her email she would like to be able to check her emails. So I think a company shouldn't charge extra to send a paper bill if the receiver doesn't have email.

Now did you know that in the 1800's it was believed that excellent letter writing was a sign of good breeding, and strict rules had to be observed when writing a letter, these include the following.

• Have neat handwriting
• Use elegant words
• Know how to fold a letter
• Sign your name to every letter
• Use an acceptable ink colour (not sure what that colour would be)

Of course there were no no's when writing a letter such as

• Including a postscript
• Crossed out or erased misspelled words, you were expected to start over again
• Underlined or abbreviate words

So how would you go following those rules I don't think I would do ok at all as I am not sure what elegant words are and what the hell are acceptable ink colours, would the purple or pink that I often use be considered acceptable I don't think so.

Now let's move onto the cost of sending a letter, did you know that the first prepaid stamp for a nationwide postal service was introduced by Great Britain in May 1940 with the Penny Black stamp for letters under half an ounce and the Twopenny Blue for stamps for heavier letters.

The United States introduced a limited postal service in August 1942 followed by a uniformed 5 cents charge in 1845 and standardised stamps in 1847.

In Australia, we have used postmarks from as early as 1812 but it wasn't till around 1850 that a system was introduced where the person sending the letter paid for the postage, this is how postage stamps began, by around 1860 every state or colony in Australia had stamps.