Rainbow Kite

Lickey Hills, Birmingham, July 15th

Went to the Lickey Hills today, just south of Northfield. Shockingly it was the first time I’d gone as it’s not that far. Lots of people flying kites. Some photos.

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Yesterday I tidied my room, which might not seem a big deal but it’s a very small room with a lot of stuff in it. When I moved in I put the stuff I figured I’d need within easy access. A year later I’m not needing the small press comics or back issues of The Comics Journal so they’ve all gone up to the ceiling. I’ve also put some stuff on eBay for the first time in a while. Now I know I’m tediously old school but I remember when all eBay required was title, description, price, duration and image. By the gods they’ve got options overload! It’s a miracle anyone bothers with the low-price items, but obviously they do, and obviously I did, ploughing through the screens of display choices and listing variants, screwing up numerous times.

Related to this, does anyone know where I can get jade valued? Don’t ask. It’s a long story.

Was shocked, shocked I say, to discover that the post office now limit 2nd class post to 750 grammes. Time was you could send anything up to 2kg by second class post – now you have to use something called Standard Parcels which only goes up in 1kg increments. Still, it’s cheaper than Parcelforce, but that’s not saying much. That said, it’s all going to change again in August with pricing by size as well as weight. Speculation is that this is to cash in on eBay, or at least to normalise the service to the new reality where no-one sends letters anymore. Funny thing is, having spent my pre-internet zine life relying on the mail I find this stuff interesting even though I will very rarely have to use it.

Update: I realise I was talking out of my smelly old arse there and got my facts completely tits wongways. Second class always had a 750g limit which is why I used to have to send out BugPowder orders in multiple packages to keep the costs down. So nothing has changed. Yet. My apologies for gross memory-based ineptitude.