My odd topic today is not particulary odd as it is quite relevent for this time of year; Christmas and working at the Royal Mail during Christmas!
So I figure a lot of people these days have very mixed views about this time of year, you have those who are religious, those who are traditionalists and those who just love Christmas because it can be an awesome holiday.
I'm not going to get into a huge thing about which of the above is right I'm just gonna say how I feel about it. Sure the basis of Christmas is about the birth of Jesus but religion has very very mixed messages, in fact half the religions, sects and groups all believe he was born and even died on different days. I read something about him being born on the 25th of December though it was possible that he was born on the 6th of January which might explain where the idea for getting bad luck for not taking your decorations down by the end of the 6th comes from. So for myself I have no idea why I'd want to be apart of a religion that can't even stick with the facts.
In any case I am not an expert on these things and really was not bothered to read and do research, honestly religion and the reason why these things have been created and/or based on doesn't bother me. I'm not here to say religion is false or anything negative, I personally just prefere being myself and living my own life in my own way which is probably the best way for everyone to do.
Those who may not believe in religion (Similar to me though I'm agnostic not athiest) may just follow decorations, trees, presents and all that just because that is how it's always been, in other words just because it's traditional.
Really though do we need a reason to celebrate Christmas? Well to celebrate something you tend to usually need a reason but maybe 'celebrate' isn't the right word. It's more of a festival then a celebration in a way. Basically what I'm trying to say, putting aside reasons and religion, it should be just a day where we do the thing we've been doing for years and just enjoy it though if you're religious and want to put in more of a celebration to Jesus then more power to you.
I'll be happy this year just spending time with my friends and family, getting and giving gifts, the christmas decorations and such.
Top 3 things I enjoy about it is:
Starting with the least at number 3: Presents. Yes I admit it, I love the presents. Not just recieving but also giving. I can't wait to see my boyfriends look on his face when I give him his gift. I hear he's already got a gift for me so I am excited to see what he's gotten me. Now there are those who think giving and recieving gifts is pointless, I wouldn't care if I gave £10 and got £10 back. It's the thought that counts and it shows how much two people know and care about each other.
Number 2: Christmas Lights. I love lights, just turning the room lights off and sticking some fairy lights on makes me feel all peaceful. Something about lights and fires this time of year can make me just relax and stair at them for hours, especially with a hot chocholate or cup of tea.
Number 1: Friends and family. My only regret this year is that I won't get to spend Christmas with my Mums and Brothers though this year I will get to spend it with my Grandparents, friends and my boyfriend. I'm much happy to enjoy all the things I love about Christmas with those I love. How boring would it be to do presents and hot chocholate and christmas dinner alone?
So in short I feel you should love Christmas in whatever way you want, whether it's religiously, traditionaly OCD like, or just because you love Christmas that's up to you. I don't think I'll ever bother to talk about religion again, simply because I know nothing about it and would hate to offend anyone.
So one thing that's been on my...nay two things that have been on my mind recently, one of them being the use of the capital letter for words such as Mum, Grandparent, Brother, Boyfriend and Girlfriend. To pass English grammar would you use a capital letter for each of these words or not? I was always told to use capital letters for things that are important. Now family members are all very important to me but does that count towards English grammar? When I type stuff such as; "My Brother..." or "Just got off the phone with my Boyfriend..." and sometimes I look at the capital letter and it doesn't look right. So anyone able to clarify that for me?
Secondly, was anyone else taught as a kid to always walk on the left hand side of the staircase? I remember being taught to always walk on the left but these days it's always the right. Was that just me? Did my school have it wrong? Is it different for other cities such as Croydon and Plymouth or have things actually changed?
Two rather unimportant questions though in a way, rather interesting, if not for anyone else but for myself. One about grammar and the other about walking down the right side of a staircase. Not sure if I needed a shortened paragraph for only two paragraphs.
Oh thank goodness this saves automatically. Just closed down one window and it thought itself funny to close down the other windows. My Grandads browser seems to have a weak sense of humour.
Last thing that I would like to talk about this even which has bothered me for the past week is; England do not know how to write address' on letters.
I think Dan Naylor wrote something very similar about this on one of his blogs while he worked at the Royal Mail. I have been working at the Royal Mail for just over a week now and I'm up and live sorting out peoples mail and making sure they get to the right place. I have noticed that a lot of people do not know how to write a letter. Honestly half the time it's either address' that are so illegible you have to just move on to the next one making that letter take longer to go through, it's not just people with bad hand writing it's also people with very fancy cursive joined up writing; not everyone can read your oh so fancy shit writing. What is so wrong as to just simply use block capitals? What makes me laugh is that people are told not to use New Times Roman because not everyone can read it and use Arial because it is so plain that anyone can read it, but on the envelope they'll write it in Idunno
or 
font.It is not just the way people write, I mean it's not that huge of a deal, the biggest problem I find is people who write their address' in simply the wrong order. Have people forgotten or not been taught how to write an address the correct way?
I always understood it as:
Name
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Town/City
County
Country (If desired or written from another country)
Postcode
I find that half the time the post code is written inbetween the 2nd address line and town/city or that most of the time people have changed the order of county and town/city.
Not everyone knows that Merseyside is a county and that Herts stands for Hertfordshire which is also a county (Though all places ending in shire are) I mean if a first time employer who has just gone live for the first time gets an envelope saying
Blah Road
Blahblah Terrace
Herts
Watford
WD17 2ZZ
One knowing the county should come after the town would instantly think Herts is the town. Course I know that Herts is the county but England is a big place and I'm always finding new places where I'm not 100% sure which one is which. Some times it's just common sense and other times it's "Uhmmmmm, ah crap I'm wasting valuble seconds."
I actually think other countries do a better job at writing their mail though saying that I only have to key in their country and outcode and not their towns and cities.
I could go on for ages about why people can't write mail correctly (I get very OCD when I write mail, though I get like that with a lot of things) but I suppose it'd be to easy of a job if it wasn't a little bit difficult though I have been told I'm doing a good job.
One last thing about mail is I got this one letter and on the envelope it had a load of pictures and a poem that went something like "Come on mail don't be slow" something along those lines. Probably written by a child. All I could think of was "Well it'll be slow if I can't bloody read the address."
Still I guess it's peoples mail they should write it how they wish. The mail will always get to it's destination in the end and usually very quickley despite your crappy handwriting.
In short, a lot of people make it difficult at Royal Mail for writing address' on envelopes like complete idiots.
Name
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Town/City
County
Country (If desired or from another country)
Postcode
Do it right and your mail will get there a lot faster. Sure it usually always gets there on time anyways but it makes our job a little easier. Help us help you.
Well there you have it, my second blog. Can't say I enjoyed writing the first part cause I was talking about religion. It is very hard to talk about religeon while tiptoeing around... well toes in case you disregard other peoples feelings and faiths by accident. The fact I know hardly anything to do with religion is another point that makes it not fun to write about. Christmas itself though is my favourite time of the year. I love it apart from the expense and that it can be very cold.
Now I have other blogs to read and catch up on and shall probably write another blog in the not too distant future. I might do one about computer games or something, y'know a really fun-no-need-to-think-hard-about-things kind of blog.
Goodnight everybody!
