Send real letters from the Internet to anywhere in the world.
# Wednesday, January 30, 2008
If you want to fly naked then you are in luck. A German travel agent has started a charter flight for passengers who prefer to fly as nature intended (unfortunately wings are not included). The German company OssiUrlaub has decided to launch naturist flights because naturist holidays are particularly popular in Germany. The flight will initially fly from the city of Erfurt to the Baltic island of Usedom returning on the same day. All passengers will travel naked but they will only be allowed to undress once they board the flight, although cabin crew will remain clothed for security reasons.

posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:27:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Post Office has named 41 branches that it wants to close in Sussex. The closures are part of nationwide plans to shut 2,500 branches.

The 41 branches which will close under the Sussex Area Plan are:

•  Bowness Avenue, 8 Seadown Parade, Lancing
•  Church Road, 137 Lower Church Road, Burgess Hill
•  Claremont Road, 23 Claremont Road, Seaford
•  Copthorne, Common Road, Copthorne, Crawley
•  Crowhurst, Crowhurst, Battle
•  Downlands, 1 Downlands Parade, Worthing
•  Durgates, Durgates, Wadhurst
•  Elm Grove, 150 Elm Grove, Brighton
•  Etchingham Road, Etchingham Road, Eastbourne
•  Fairways Estate, 4 Newick Close, Seaford
•  Framfield, The Street, Framfield, Uckfield
•  Franklands Village, Franklands Village, Haywards Heath
•  Hailsham Road, Hailsham Road, Heathfield
•  Heene Road, 62-66 Heene Road, Worthing
•  London Road, 91 London Road, Bexhill-On-Sea
•  Mount Pleasant, 2 Avis Parade Shops, Newhaven
•  New England Road, 42-44 America Lane, Haywards Heath
•  North Chailey, Haywards Heath Road, Lewes
•  North Lancing, Mill Road, North Lancing
•  Old Shoreham, Upper Shoreham Road, Shoreham-By-Sea
•  Preston, 221 Preston Road, Brighton
•  Preston Road, 13 Preston Road, Brighton
•  Richardson Road, Richardson Road, Hove
•  Slindon, Slindon Top Road, Slindon, Arundel
•  South Lancing, 83 South Street, South Lancing
•  Southern Cross, 86 Trafalgar Road, Portslade, Brighton
•  St Johns Common, 95 London Road, Burgess Hill
•  St Leonards Green, 45 Springfield Road, St Leonards
•  The Broadway, 1/2 The Broadway, Eastbourne
•  The Parade, 40 Broadwater Road, Worthing
•  The Strand, The Strand, Worthing
•  Tilling Green, Tilling Green News, 45 Lea Avenue, Rye
•  Town Row, Yew Tree Lane - Town Row, Crowborough
•  Trafalgar Street, 8 Trafalgar Street, Brighton
•  Upper Dicker, Coldharbour Road, Upper Dicker, Hailsham
•  Wannock, 41 Farmlands Way, Polegate
•  Warnham, 3 Church Street, Warnham, Horsham
•  WashingtonThe Frankland Arms, London Road, Pulborough
•  West Beach, 132 Beach Green, Shoreham-By-Sea
•  White Rock, 32-33 White Rock, Hastings
•  Willingdon, 116 Wish Hill, Willingdon, Eastbourne

Barns Green post office in Horsham, and Plaistow in Billingshurst will be replaced by an outreach service.

The future of the following eight branches is still under consideration:

•  Marine Parade, 15/17 Seaside, Eastbourne
•  Old Town Hastings, 70 George Street, Hastings
•  Collington, 2 Collington Mansions, Bexhill-On-Sea
•  Landport, 34 Lee Road, Lewes
•  Station Road, 12-14 Station Road, Horsham
•  Queen Street, 70 Queen Street, Horsham
•  St Leonards Road, 15 St Leonards Road, Horsham
•  North Parade, 24 North Parade, Horsham

posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:37:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Sunday, January 27, 2008

blogoftheweek_thumb This weeks Travel Blog of the week is Family Travel - See the World with your Kids. As the name suggests the blog is all about travelling with your children and includes lots of useful tips on places to go and things to do to keep them entertained. One recent article is about children and skiing. The first part of the article discusses the best age to start skiing lessons with children. It also details how to cut down on the expenses involved when taking the family skiing and has useful tips such as renting your ski equipment away from the ski resort to help cut costs.

The second part of the article mentions the growing trend for parent/child skiing lessons which allow the parent not only to learn at the same time but also to spend more time with the children on the vacation. There are also recommendations for ski resorts that include options for family members who do not want to ski and would instead rather spend time in the spa or seeing the local sights. This is certainly a useful resource for anyone who is planning a vacation with their children. Some other sections that are worth a read are the Take the Kids to London section and the Family Travel in New York City section.

posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008 2:32:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, January 25, 2008
Ryanair have increased the cost of checking in luggage at the airport from £10 to £12 per item. They have also increased the online fee for placing luggage in the planes hold from £5 to £6 and passengers who check in online will now have to pay £3 rather than £2. Ryanair are trying to encourage their passengers to travel with carry on luggage only, to try and cut airport and handling costs.

posted on Friday, January 25, 2008 5:19:38 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Thursday, January 24, 2008
Britain’s worst performing train company, First Great Western has announced it will double the amount of compensation it gives to passengers affected by delays and disruption. The company carries around 60,000 people a day on its routes which link London, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and the West Country. The increased amount of compensation comes because FGW have recognised their customers are not receiving the service they deserve. Under the move season ticket holders will effectively receive their compensation when they renew their season ticket, as they will only pay last years prices. Up to 10 to 20% of the season ticket value will be refunded meaning a customer with a standard class season ticket from Bristol to Paddington will get £867 in compensation. Weekly season ticket holders and day ticket holders will also be able to claim compensation if there are significant delays to their journeys.

posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 4:05:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, January 23, 2008
British Airways pilots will vote on whether to strike over the airlines plans to launch a subsidiary business. The British Pilots Association (Balpa) believes that the launch of OpenSkies will mean a two tier system of quality. The union also believes that the launch which will offer luxury flights from continental Europe to America at lower operating costs than BA will lead to pay and conditions being challenged. Balpa say that the new company will have weaker safety standards and that pilots would be required to take further courses to transfer to BA. BA however, claims that safety standards would be the same across both airlines and that OpenSkies will not be detrimental to BA pilots.

posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 3:57:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Despite the crash landing at Heathrow a few days ago aviation experts still regard the Boeing 777 as one of the world’s safest jets. There are currently 667 of the jets in service carrying millions of passengers every year. To date there has only been one fatality involving a 777, in September 2001. This was caused by a hose leading to the aircraft becoming detached and an aircraft refueller being engulfed in flames. It is still not clear what caused the most recent incident.

posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 5:39:59 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Monday, January 21, 2008
British train passengers are now paying the most expensive rail fares in Europe according to new research from the Liberal Democrats. In fact British train passengers are charged up to 14 times more than passengers on the Continent. £10 would take a British passenger 27 miles compared with 58 miles in France and 383 miles in Latvia. The situation is likely to get worse with more fare increases planned for the future. As prices continue to rise I think a lot of people will return to the often cheaper option of using their own car, at least that way you know you will get a seat.

posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 5:45:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback

blogoftheweek This weeks PC2Paper travel blog of the week is Conor's Mildly Thrilling Tales. Its author Conor Grennan travel stories, have been featured in well known travel publications such as Traveler's Tales and  Lonely Planet. He is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Next Generation Nepal, setup to to reunite trafficked and conflict-displaced children with their families. Conor lives in Nepal where he started a home for trafficked children.cg-and-anga

Conor's blog focuses a lot on the great work he does helping these children in Nepal. My favourite article was "Searching for families in Nuwakot" a fascinating story on how Conor managed to find the parents of 17 out of 18 children on a trip through the mountains. How he went on the trip on a beaten up bus and was encouraged to try a local fruit which ended up giving him food poisoning. If that wasn't enough he was unable to sleep on the bumpy bus journey, the buses suspension so bad he had to sit on a fleece to protect his hind quarters. At times he and the other passengers had to get out of the bus to help guide it along steep cliff ledges. But in the end it was all worth it when they got to their destination finding the parents of these children. read the full article >>

posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 12:04:42 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, January 18, 2008
The manager of the City of Derry Airport has been removed from his post. He will return to work at the airport as an air traffic controller. He was demoted after an investigation into a four closure of the airport last May. The closure was due to a number of safety concerns including poor runway drainage and a lack of a bird control plan. A report later showed a number of shortfall in safety procedure which led to Seamus Devine being removed from his post.

posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 11:22:29 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Thursday, January 17, 2008
An international passenger plane crash landed at Heathrow Airport today. The plane took the runway too low on its approach before crashing just short of it. All 136 passengers were evacuated down the emergency chutes. There are reports that four people have suffered minor injuries as a result of the crash. The knock on effect is that the south runway has been closed and many flights from the airport have been delayed with some flights being diverted to Stansted and Luton.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 3:25:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
A planned strike by rail guards at First Great Western has been suspended. Guards had planned to strike for 48 hours from the 20th of January. However, talks between the company and the union have now resumed and the RMT have said that progress has been made. Negotiations are to continue on a number of other issues but there are hopes that the dispute can now be resolved.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 2:41:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, January 16, 2008
It has been announced that another 25 post offices will close across in Newport and Gwent Valley. The proposals will also establish three new outreach post offices two in Chepstow and one in Caldicot. The latest list of closures includes the following:

Abertillery: Cwm Celyn; Princess Street
Tredegar: Dukestown, Georgetown
Ebbw Vale: Rassau, Winchestown
Hengoed: Caerphilly Rd, Penpedairheol, Penybryn
Bargoed: Gilfach
Blackwood: Argoed, Wyllie
Newport: West End, Wattsville, Christchurch Road, Malpas Road, West Park
Abergavenny: Govilon, Llanellen
Chepstow: Mathern
Caldicot: Sudbrook
Pontypool: Pentwyn, Penygarn, Pontnewynydd, Penygraig Terrace

posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 5:53:49 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Its a new year and PC2Paper have just launched a range of new services. We have listened to our customers and added the services you have asked for. Sending a real letter from the Internet is still just as easy but now has lots of new options available.

Different Paper
We now offer different paper to print your letter on, from conqueror hi white premium laid paper to photo paper. You can choose how you want your letter printed from inkjet, black and white laser or colour laser printing.

Choose your envelope
You can now choose what envelope you send your letter in. If you don't want to fold your letter 3 times in a DL envelope then we now offer C5 envelopes (half of A4) for a single folded letter.

Special Delivery Options in the UK
We now offer Recorded Delivery and Special Next Day Delivery before 1pm in the UK.

International special delivery options and Certified Mail
We can now offer Airsure Signed for and International Signed For delivery for overseas mail sent from the UK. On sending your letter you will receive a tracking number so you can track the progress of your letter.
Certified mail is also available within the USA. This option also includes a tracking service so you can track the progress of your letter online.

Choose Your Printing Station
You can now choose which printing station you would like your mail to be sent from.

posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:03:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
A new iris recognition system for staff is being introduced at Manchester Airport. The system will be used to tighten up staff access to restricted zones and will be rolled out across all three of the airports terminal service yards. The system will be separate from the iris checking technology used by passengers and makes Manchester Airport the first UK airport to use the system for staff access.

posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:12:48 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Monday, January 14, 2008
Hundreds of guards at first Great Western are to stage a 48 hour rail strike starting on the 20th of January. The RMT have said that relations with the company have broken down over issues such as managers driving and guarding trains. First Great Western has said that they will ask the union to keep talking to try and avert the strikes.

posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 1:35:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Sunday, January 13, 2008

blogoftheweek_thumb This weeks Travel Blog of the Week is killing batteries written by Leif Pettersen. Leif is a freelance writer and is a regular contributor for Global Traveler magazine and Lonely Planet author for Romania and Moldova. Leif's blog contains a wealth of interesting article about his travels but what makes this blog special is his humorous style of writing. His most recent post is about a fly fishing trip whilst he was in Chile. The article charts Leif's first attempt at fly fishing and describes how he managed to learn the casting process without injuring either himself or his instructor Ricardo. Despite a disappointing start to the trip and secret thoughts about the trout attacking Ricardo, Leif eventually managed to catch a rather respectable haul of ten fish, not bad for a first attempt.

For me one of the most interesting sections on this blog is Leif's "Don't go There" series. As the name suggests the series is about places he has been and the reasons why he feels they should be avoided. The most recent post in this series is entitled Don't Go to Andorra la Vella talks about his experiences of the city which he sums up as an "ostensibly bottomless ravine of choking, duty-free despair". The article talks about his fruitless search for a grocery store among the towns endless offering of shops selling nothing but watches, cheap jewellery, perfume and other duty free goods. Leif sums this up nicely when he says "It was truly a duty-free nation. You can walk into just about any shop on the street and save a whopping 25% on your indispensable bottle of CK1. On the flip side, you have to ask directions and stalk back alleys to find someone who will sell you a fricking apple." Obviously his first impressions of Andorra La Vella are not great but he goes on to describe the extent of the air pollution in the town caused by exhaust fumes which left him gasping for breath and with burning eyes after only three hours of walking around the town. Other articles is this series include Don't go to Berlin and Don't go to Monaco.

Another interesting and equally humorous section of Leif's blog is entitled "What I've Learned". This section contains a lot of short but often very useful things that Leif has learnt on his travels. They range from little tips such as "Check to make sure that your very expensive digital camera with numerous delicate moving parts is not in your day-bag before you go to the beach" and "Even if you have a co-conspirator, even if you spill some, even if you’re celebrating something really awesome, three bottles of wine on a Tuesday night is too much wine."

This blog has so many good articles that it has been hard to pick just a few things to say about it. Its definitely worth a visit. 

posted on Sunday, January 13, 2008 3:27:49 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Saturday, January 12, 2008
Loganair has announced that it will offer 50,000 permanent low cost fares on its key routes between the Scottish mainland and the islands. It will also introduce an extra weekday return flight on four routes including Kirkwall to Aberdeen, Shetland to Aberdeen, Stornoway to Glasgow and Islay to Glasgow. The discounted fares are offered under the government’s Air Discount scheme which provides 40% on flights to islands and parts of the highlands. Discounts are cuurently available to residents of Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, Islay, Jura, Caithness and north west Sutherland.

posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 7:40:58 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, January 11, 2008
Another 40 post offices are to be closed across Glasgow, Argyll and Bute. The original announcement which came in October had said that 44 branches were to be closed. However, four post offices that were on the original list have now been spared. Cultenhove in Stirling, Auchenback in Barrhead and Kelvindale and Hyndland in Glasgow will now stay open although four other branches will now also be closed. The full list of closures is below.

Branches to close in central and south west Scotland are:
Argyll & Bute
•    East Princes Street, The Post Office, East Princes Street, Helensburgh
•    Gallowgate, Gallowgate, Rothesay
•    High Street, The Post Office, High Street, Campbeltown
•    Hillfoot Street, The Post Office, Dunoon
•    Kirn, The Post Office, Dunoon
•    Mossfield, Combie Street, Oban
•    Ralston Road, 125 -127 Ralston Road, Campbeltown
Greater Glasgow
•    Anderston, 76 St. Vincent Terrace, Glasgow
•    Balornock, 34-36 Drumbottie Road, Glasgow
•    Bowling, 32 Dumbarton Road, Dumbarton
•    Brucehill, Brucehill Road, Dumbarton
•    Carmunnock, Clarkston, 17 Busby Road, Carmunnock, Glasgow
•    Croftfoot, 509 Castlemilk Road, Glasgow
•    Crow Road, 304 Crow Road, Glasgow
•    Drumchapel, 135 Garscadden Road, Glasgow
•    Forge St, The Post Office, Forge Street, Glasgow
•    Gilshochill, Glenavon Road, Glasgow
•    Govanhill, 328 Allison St, Govanhill, Glasgow
•    Greenbank, 29 Eaglesham Road, Clarkston, Glasgow
•    High Street, 271 High Street, Glasgow
•    Kingsridge, 55 Inchfad Drive, Drumchapel, Glasgow
•    Levenvale, Co-Op Store, Argyle Street, Alexandria
•    Muirend, The Post Office, 367 Clarkston Road, Glasgow
•    Newton, 107 Glasgow Road, Dumbarton
•    Nithsdale Rd, 8 Kildroston Street, Glasgow
•    Radnor Park, 379 Kilbowie Road, Clydebank
•    Red Road, 51 Red Court, Glasgow
•    Sandymount, 18 Grantlea Terrace, Glasgow
•    Springfield Rd, 98 Springfield Road, Glasgow
•    Temple, 58 Fulton Street, Glasgow
•    West End, 125-127 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow
Central Scotland
•    Bothkennar, Main Street, Skinflats, Falkirk
•    Brightons, Quarry Brae, Brightons, Falkirk
•    Church Street, 206 King Street, Stenhousemuir, Larbert
•    East End, 161 Main Street, Callander
•    Forth Crescent, 36 Abbey Road, Riverside, Stirling
•    Greenhill, 2 Lea Park Drive, Bonnybridge
•    Highland Dykes, 66 Wheatlands Avenue, Bonnybridge
•    Nethermains, 4 Fleming Court, Denny
•    Thornhill Road, 192 Thornhill Road, Falkirk

posted on Friday, January 11, 2008 3:24:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Thursday, January 10, 2008
Birmingham International Airport has submitted a planning application to extend its runway. The application would see the runway extended 405m towards Bickenhill and Hampton-in-Arden. The airport hopes that the extension of the runway will be able to accommodate larger aircraft and allow it operate more long haul routes.

posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 12:13:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, January 9, 2008
British Airways passengers are likely to see fuel charges on longhaul flights top the £100 mark for the first time. The rises come as the airline struggles with rising oil costs. The rise follows an increase in November which saw the fuel surcharge on a longhaul ticket rise from £76 to £96. A family of four would now have to pay £464 in fuel charges on a return trip to Hong Kong.

posted on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 12:27:11 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Air passengers could face chaos because of confusion over plans to relax baggage security rules. As of yesterday ministers are allowing airlines at some airports to allow passengers to carry two pieces of hand luggage. However, other airports have not been given permission to relax the security rule. This article has a useful guide listing the main airlines and their current baggage allowances as well as airports that do allow two bags. It all seems a little complicated at the moment but its worth checking out the list before you fly.

posted on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 7:02:40 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Monday, January 7, 2008
With the rising cost of rail fares you might be better off calling a taxi and sharing the cost with some of your fellow passengers that’s according to this report. The report says that a standard single from Euston to Birmingham New Street now costs £61.50 whereas Rosebery minicabs will take four passengers at a cost of £140, a saving of £26.50 per person.

posted on Monday, January 7, 2008 7:12:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Saturday, January 5, 2008

blogoftheweek Happy New Year! We apologise for not having a travel blog last week, but the staff at PC2Paper had a well earned break for a week over new year. Our first Travel Blog of the week for 2008 is The Cranky Flier, a blog focused mainly around (you guessed it!) airline travel.

The blogs author goes by the name of Brett and calls himself "an airline dork" who has had and obsession with the airline industry since he was a boy and became a travel agent by the age of 12!

Brett's blog gives anyone interested in particular airlines or airports a good overview of past problems and things to expect, quite useful if you are booking flights in an area you have never been before. A rather useful aspect is if you are booking flights with an airline that might be nearing bankruptcy.

posted on Saturday, January 5, 2008 8:57:33 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, January 2, 2008
New Year price increases will mean that the cost of some rail tickets will rise by nearly 15%. This is despite the fact that many services have problems with chronic overcrowding and punctuality. One of the biggest increases is on the Southeastern Railway's weekly season ticket from Hayes, Kent, to London, which will rise by 14.5%, from £24.80 to £28.50.

posted on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 9:05:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
The Unite and PCS unions have cancelled the planned one day stoppage that would have closed seven UK airports. The strike was called off after BAA managers agreed to negotiate any changes that are made to the firm’s final salary pension scheme. Two further strikes could also be called off if a deal is reached by union representatives in a meeting planned for Thursday.

posted on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 3:19:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback