1. Is this Microsoft’s business plan for Hotmail? If so, should they perhaps consider reading your email, like the smarter companies do?
2. Who first came up with the (orthographic?) rule that the word FREE must always be capitalised?
3. Has anyone ever paid money for emoticons? Who thinks a fiver is a fair price for (a) the immense joy they bring and (b) their incredible expressive power as literary devices?

I so hope the bubble bursts quickly.

I’m getting really fed up with the Royal Mail. These days (and it’s not just after the strikes) I often get my mail delivered once or twice a week. On several occasions I have received domestic letters three weeks after they were sent. On other occasions my mail just never arrives. A few weeks back I got two copies of the Economist on the same day, the new one and previous week’s. I just had NatWest send a letter to me three times before one (the last one sent) actually got through.

Also, the postwoman is an idiot. She’s actually written to me (on an envelope addressed to me, signed as ‘Mrs Postie’) asking if we could install a mailbox at the bottom of the stairs (I live on the 3rd floor). I can only assume that it’s Royal Mail’s policy that the placement of maiboxes be decided between a tenant in a block of flats and an individual mailman. According to the building porter, ‘she’s a bit stupid’. I couldn’t have put it better.

Am I unlucky to have a lazy and/or dishonest postwoman/sorter or is it really this bad throughout Royal Mail?