I have just received my first Christmas card from the UK, needless to say I do not anticipate many more!! It cost £1.90 ($3.05) to send it here and exactly the same size card to go to the UK costs $1.05! THREE times LESS!
You have no doubt seen all the hoohaa about legalising the smoking of pot in WA? Yeah, well, they legalised the smoking but you aren’t allowed to buy, grow or deal in it! I am awaiting the falling of pot as manna from heaven! I swear these people are as daft as they come! Last year they voted to privatise the sale of liquor and the prices roughly doubled, vaguely reminiscent of turkeys voting for Christmas!
Re global warming- Mt Baker has beaten the world record (again) for snowfall. It already has a base of 13’3″ of snow this early in the season of which 7′ has fallen within the last week. Another couple of feet are expected today. Will someone please turn off the rain/snow tap over the UK and the Pacific NW? It is also peeing with rain in California and has been for weeks! I know the answer, build more windmills!
The Canadians are having conniptions that an enquiry has revealed that VIPs jump the queues for medical treatment- Fancy that!!!
I gather in the UK that the wogs are reinfecting all and sundry with TB! My dogs, as clean and disease free as humanly possible with complete medical passports. are subjected to 6 months quarantine and endless carry on at Heathrow and the bloody disease ridden wogs are allowed to swan in without a word said. I think they are quarantining the wrong species!
I see that weirdo Cameron has U turned once again, this time on the subject of queers marrying in Churches. I confidently expect churchgoers to be tripping over them in the aisles. No doubt being queer will soon become mandatory if Cleggover/Cameron have his/her/their way! Isn’t it about time Cameron lived on a roundabout? It would save us all the ennui and tedium of having to read about his bloody U turns, with any luck the SOB would run round and sodomise himself in due course! We have had the same problem in WA, queers can now ‘marry’. They were queuing knee deep in Seattle yesterday to get their ‘marriage’ licenses. I await with bated breath the procreation of children from sodomy! Marriage, my arse, pun intended!
I don’t know about y’all, but I await the 21st of Dec with increasing relish. If we could have a clear out of some of the above it would be the best Christmas present ever! I regret to say that I think I am going to be disappointed but it is great fun deciding what you would get to dispose of in ‘file 13’. Meanwhile rather than saying don’t hold your breath, with the TB and the queers it would be much better to treat yourself to to full breathing gear and avoid Seattle/London and the like!
Boadicea's Chariot 
1. Washington State makes California look almost good — almost. At least California can say they didn’t have an example of what happens when the lunatics take over the asylum lurking in their general vicinity…
2. The German post had been dear for as long as I can remember. Strangely small packages are not that expensive. Try sending any package from the USA overseas. The hamper I send my friends in Denmark yearly now costs over $60.00 just to post.
3. Minnesota is bloody cold. A few of these “scientists” should try having a conference in the north woods of the state next month…
4. I was once in a lift with a Nigerian exchange student who began coughing on me. A few weeks later he was taken into quarantine for TB. So far I’ve had no sign of having contracted it. Thank God, or should I say Allah now?
5. Perhaps Cameron has this obsession because he wants to hurry up and marry Clegg? The two seem to be overly fond of each other…
6. My theory is that the products of such unions are politicians.
Chris, just love no 6! I don’t think we had better go there!
Christopher, just a small food parcel would be most acceptable. Thank you. 🙂
Christina, a stamp for a Yulecard from here to EU countires is 12 kroner – about £1.10 or $1.75-ish. Add the card at 24 kroner and a simple greeting becomes a serious drain!!
Don’t forget that if you send a ‘gift’ to the UK these days the recipient might get charged customs duty. My mother had to pay £30 on her birthday present from my daughter earlier this year. The declared value of the goods were around £40 and it had cost my daughter some £10 in postage.
Boadicea: the US government will soon implement a $10.00 surcharge on packages posted to the United States that weigh in excess of 4 kilogrammes to offset the cost of inspecting them for potential “terrorist activity”.
Bo, that has been in for years, 10 years ago spousal unit sent me a bracelet and I got stuffed with a bill for £150.00! He was mortified! That was about 50% tax!.
I expect it subsidised a free drink for an MP (Short for millipedal piss-ant in my book!)
CO, if he must send cheap gifts….. 🙂
Every gift I send abroad costs £10 or $10 or 10euro on the customs declaration and has done for years. This is ever since we lived in the States and I was introduced to the iniquitous customs duty declaration. I have explained to friends and relatives that the declared value bears no relationship to the actual value and thus to my esteem for them.
Random Lunacies indeed, several years back my German partner sent me a case of wine from his own vineyards, it entered the US at Elizabeth, New Jersey, I got a note in the mail telling me to go there to personally take delivery, after paying duty (of course) or the wine would be “destroyed” , as it was against NJ law to ship wine across state lines. Lacking a suitable armored vehicle to get to the docks in Elizabeth (yes it is that bad) I declined. I called my partner and said next time he was so inclined, if ever, he should ship to my mother in the UK, that worked well, for all parties.
I usually buy my brother and sister each a hamper from M&S for Christmas, it gets delivered free on the day I choose and no customs hassles, their website is happy to accept my US credit card.
LW, that’s exactly what I do.
Good idea re the hampers. I stopped the present business after the bracelet! Paying those SOBs that type of money was more than one could stomach!
Now I have stopped all present everywhere it no longer happens. I just send a UK cheque to the Dog shelter in Carms, the bloody taxman can have his due out of the other end of the dog!!!!! That would be a sight for sore eyes.
My God, I have just looked at M&S hampers, daylight robbery! Just a few grams of cheese etc, not enough to feed the mousetraps let alone any humans!
Absolutely ludicrous prices! Now there is a random lunacy if ever I saw one!
Mrs. O. Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses? It’s Christmas innit. Jacob Marley is dead, there is still time for you to reform before your chain gets too long.
I appreciate that getting a dripping, quivering boar carcass into Australia or NZ might be a bit tricky for quarantine reasons, but I can do a good deal to The States and Europe. Anyone know what the import duty is? I feel a nascent business in the offing. Got some great cheeses, hams, chouriço, veggies and vinho too once my health has recovered.
OZ
LW stopping actual christmas presents was and is one of the most liberating things I have ever done. You would not believe the lack of hassle no longer having to shop till you drop! I still do all the other xmas flummery just not presents.
Anyway I refuse to buy chink crap and most of it is chink crap! In my book everyone has far too many possessions anyway. I utterly refuse to partake of the giant marketing scam that the festive season has become.
(spousal unit thinks it is wonderful, a woman that doesn’t WANT anything?)
OZ: Just for reference large Jamones can be had here for a modest $260 each.
http://hamlovers.com/index.php?nogeo=1
Not bad considering the last one we enjoyed was personally imported by me sealed in four layers of plastic and wrapped in dirty laundry, had cost me 200 euros ($270?) in San Sebastian, I was lucky to get it past the ham sniffing beagle at Philly airport.
CO: “a woman who doesn’t WANT anything”. They all say that.
LW – There is no doubt that Iberican jamon is very good indeed.
Christina – You are my spirit of Christmas. 🙂
OZ
One good side effect of son’s wedding on 23rd is that he and the bride don’t want Christmas presents and my other daughter-in-law has agreed with me that we do “wee mindings” only. As you say, Christina, it is very liberating.
Ozinho: I can put you into contact with an old friend of mine in Tokyo who chases after every yen he can find. If there is money in importing Portuguese meats into Japan he is the one to do it.
Christopher – When I had a proper job we looked seriously at importing beef from Vanuatu (where the beef is better than that produced in Kobe) into the EC and into Japan. Neither worked because of trade protectionism. If your friend can really get around this I would be happy to talk to him.
OZ
Oz: okay. I will begin dropping hints — the Japanese way. It takes some times to get a “perhaps yes” or “maybe no” out of them.
OZ, a friend of mine is importing Iberico Pork into the UK. It is delicious stuff.He supplies some of the top butcheries and restaurants in London.