If you looking for an interesting day out then you might want to check out the Tropical Extravaganza festival being held at Kew Gardens. The festival in being help in the Princess Wales Conservatory and runs for a month. It features hundreds of varieties of orchids, bromeliads and anthuriums and has taken around a year to prepare. It runs from Saturday 6 February to Sunday 7 March.

Heavy snow across the UK is currently causing delays to mail in many areas. Customers should expect mail deliveries to take longer during the adverse weather conditions. Rural areas are particularly affected.

Any mail sent after 4pm on Thursday the 24th of December will be sent on the available working day Tuesday the 29th of December. Christmas Day and Monday the 28th of December are public holidays and there is no postal service available on these days. Any mail sent after close of business will be queued in our system and processed on the next available working day. PC2Paper would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers a happy Christmas and best wishes for the new year.

The postal strikes which were planned for Friday 6th and next Monday have now been called off. Although no details have yet been released it appears that a period of calm has been agreed upon in which no further industrial action will take place. Whilst this is only an interim deal it is hoped that further talks will be successful in resolving the long running dispute. A statement with more information is due to released later.

A further two postal strikes look likely to ahead causing further delays to mail sent within the UK. The strikes will go ahead on Friday the 6th and Monday the 9th of November. Rather than continuing the practice of rolling strikes where different staff strike on different days the next wave of strikes will see all workers walking out. If the strikes go ahead there will be no mail collections or deliveries on these days. This will mean that mail sent via PC2Paper after 4pm on Thursday the 5th of November will not enter the postal system until the service returns to normal on Tuesday the 10th of November. Customers should also expect delays to mail after this date as Royal Mail work to clear the backlog caused by the strikes action. Our other printing stations remain unaffected.

Unless talks between Royal Mail and the CWU are successful there will be further strike action later this week. If no agreement is reached three days of strike action are planned starting on Thursday. On Thursday 43,700 staff in mail centres, delivery units in mail centres, drivers and garage staff will begin strike action at 4am. On Friday 400 workers at three sites in Plymouth, Stockport and Stoke who read and enter mail addresses will walk out. On Saturday 77,000 delivery and collection staff across the UK will strike. During strike action customers should be aware that all mail deliveries sent from the UK will be subject to delays.

According to this article the recent postal strikes have delayed around 30 million letters that's about 40% of a normal days post. The situation could become worse as further strikes are planned for next week and will go ahead on Thursday, Friday and Saturday unless an agreement is reached. Although Royal Mail hopes to clear the backlog of letters and parcels before further strike action takes place, customers should expect further delays to mail and during this time we regret that we are unable to guarantee any delivery times.

We are currently experiencing nationwide postal strikes within the UK. This will mean that mail sent from our UK based station on Thursday the 22nd of October and Friday 23rd of October will not enter the postal system until Monday the 26th of October when the strikes end. Mail sent after these dates is also likely to be subject to delays as postal staff work to clear the backlog caused by strike action. Customers should be aware that all mail sent from the UK is likely to be subject to severe delays during this time. Mail sent from our other printing stations will remain unaffected.

The Communication Workers Union have confirmed that a nationwide strike will go ahead. There will be two 24 hours strikes starting on Thursday the 22nd of October. On the first day mail centre staff and drivers will strike and on the second delivery and collection staff will walk out. The union says that it has no choice but to go ahead with the strike action after Royal Mail rejected its latest set of proposals. Talks are still continuing and it is hoped that strike action could still be avoided. PC2Paper will continue to update customers on the latest news regarding any strike action. Customers should be aware that if action does ahead as planned it will cause delays to all post sent from our UK based printing station.

The Communication Workers Union has said that postal strikes could begin on the 22nd of October if an agreement is not reached. The union has called on Royal Mail to agree a last minute peace plan otherwise strike action will be announce. The CWU will announce the proposed strike dates on Thursday the 15th of October if talks to avert the strikes are not successful.

Royal Mail workers have voted for national strike action in a long running dispute over jobs and pay. Over 76 per cent of workers balloted voted for the action which will mean a series of national strikes. The move is likely to mean that millions of letters and parcels will not be delivered in the run up to Christmas. Strike dates have not yet been announced but the union is required to give seven days notice of any strike action. PC2Paper will continue to update our customers on the progress of the dispute, however, customers should be aware that during strike action there will be considerable delays to all mail sent from the UK printing station.

According to this article the recent postal strikes are still causing several delays in some areas. London, in particular is one area that is suffering delays with some mail taking more than a month to arrive. It is estimated that 25 million pieces of mail are stuck in the system somewhere. Although most of the strikes have been fairly short they are none the least causing a huge backlog. PC2Paper are still sending letters as usual during this time but customers should be aware that mail is subject to severe delays especially in the London area and that we are unable to guarantee delivery times for any mail sent since the start of the strikes in August 2009.

The Communication Workers Union has announced that further postal strikes will be held next week. More than 15,000 workers are due to walk out over a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions. Postal workers will be go on strike for 24 hours. Areas of London, Cambridge, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Glasgow and Coventry will all be affected. During the strike PC2Paper will still continue to send mail as usual, however, customers should expect delays.

Customers should expect delays to post in the Cambridgeshire area after a 24 hour postal strike. Workers have been striking in a dispute with Royal Mail over national agreements. Staff at delivery office in Ely, Cambridge, Haddeham, Iselham and Soham have been on strike. Mail to these areas is likely to be subject to delays.

Postal workers are to be balloted on a full scale national strike in a dispute over pay and modernisation. There have already been several unofficial regional strikes across the country which have delayed an estimated 20 million letters. Royal Mail managers and unions have been holding talks to try and resolve these but with no solution in sight the Communication Workers Union has now announced an official strike ballot which will be held next Wednesday. The result of the ballot will be announced later this month.

Monday the 31st of May is a Bank Holiday in the UK meaning there are no deliveries or collections on this day. Any mail sent after close of business (5pm) on Friday 28th of August will be sent on the next available working day Tuesday 1st of September.

Royal Mail workers have started further strikes over a disagreement regarding job cuts. The strikes will run from the 17th to the 24th of August and have already began in Coventry, London, Leamington Spa, Nottingham and Stoke on Trent. We are expecting mail to the affected areas to be delayed and customers should be aware that mail delivery will take longer than usual. During this time PC2Paper collections are unaffected and we will still mail letters as normal, however, delivery times will be affected. The Strikes take place in London, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Stoke on Trent, Birmingham, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Leeds, Kings Lynn, Boston, Carrickfergus, Skegness and Huntington.

Further postal strikes are likely to cause delays to some UK mail. The strikes will take place between Friday 7th of August and Tuesday the 11th of August. Affected areas include The Midlands, East Anglia, the West Country, London and Edinburgh. During this time PC2Paper will continue to process and send all mail as usual. However, customers should be aware that mail to the affected areas and surrounding areas is likely to be subject to delays.

More than 12,000 postal workers are to walk out on Friday in action to protest against cuts at Royal Mail. The action is the latest in a series of strikes and threatens the worst destruction to deliveries in years according to this article. The Communication Workers Union has said that more than 12,000 of its members will walk out for 24 hours. The action is expected to affect deliveries in many areas including London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Plymouth although other areas may also be affected. During this time PC2Paper will still process and post mail as usual but customers should be aware that letters are likely to take longer to arrive than usual.

PC2Paper are currently relocating our UK office. We regret that during this busy time it has been necessary to remove the Recorded Delivery, Special Delivery and International Signed For options. All our services are still available as usual. We hope to have completed our office move by Monday the 21st of July and expect all services to be running normally again at this time. All mail sent from our other printing stations during this period will be unaffected.

Due to public holidays in the UK there are no mail deliveries or collections on Friday the 10th of April and Monday 14th of April. Any mail sent after close of business (5pm UK time) on Thursday the 9th of April will be processed on the next available working day Tuesday 15th of April. Any Recorded/Signed For and Special Delivery Mail received after 1pm on Thursday the 9th of April will also be processed on the next available working day Tuesday the 15th of April.

There are no postage collections on Wednesday the 31st of December and Thursday the 1st of January. Any mail sent after close of business on Tuesday 30th of December will be processed on the next available working day Friday 2nd of December.

If you were hoping to get tickets for next years T in the park festival then you may already be too late. The first batch of tickets sold out in less than 10 hours as music fans rushed to snap them up. For those you missed them there will be another chance to get a ticket when the line up is announced early next year.

Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland is hosting its clash of the champion;s event this weekend. The champions will go head to head at archery, quarterstaff, wrestling, spear catching and swordplay. There will also be some bird of prey demonstrations and a medieval village where you can try your hand at archery and other crafts.

The Royal International Air Tattoo 2007 is taking place in Gloucestershire this weekend. The event is held each year at RAF Fairford. Aircraft featured in this years show include the B-52, C-17 and B-1B bombers as well as F-15's and the P-51 Mustang. The highlights of the show are expected to be appearances by the F-117A stealth fighter and the USAF Thunderbirds aerobatics display team who have never appeared at the event before. The Red Arrows are also scheduled to appear, so it should be an exciting event.

The Tour de France is due to open in London this weekend. Around 189 riders will compete in the race. The opening ceremony starts at 18:00 today in Trafalgar Square. The riders will race past Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and through Hyde Park. The route goes through Greenwich, Woolwich and Erith before heading towards Kent. It will then go through Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells before finishing in Canterbury on the 8th July. Afterwards it crosses to Belgium and then France.

PC2Paper has finally caught the blogging bug and over the years we will be blogging about

• Travel
• Methods of keeping touch with loved ones
• Reviews of some travel gem websites we have found out there
• Warnings and reviews by our customers of places they have been and what to look out for.
• Penpal social websites
• Scams we and our customers have detected and believe you should avoid 

If you would like to contribute please let us know.