Shortly before I left for Sweden last month, I received two letters from pen-pals on the same day: one from Wales and the other the Republic of Ireland. They don’t know each other, so the timing was entirely a coincidence.
I’d already planned to send postcards to both of them while I was away, along with selected other folks. Since the Swedish equivalent of the Post Office allows you to buy postage online, I was able to stamp and address them in advance; it was just a matter of writing them while I was there.
But it’s now time to reply to the actual letters, so I’ve been plugging away at this for the last week or so.
I keep lined notepads especially for this purpose, particularly the Nu Elite brand. The pages have perforations near the margin so they rip off into perfect A5 sheets and fold in half for a C6 envelope. It doesn’t have to be that brand, as long at the paper is reasonably thick and has similar properties.
It’s all practical, and certainly less stylish than the letters I received.
The one from Wales has a striped coloured border, but not feint ruling on the writing area. If you ask me, it’s quite a skill to write neatly on unruled paper, as mine would start sloping up or down, no matter how careful I was. I typically write mine by hand.
Then the letter from Ireland starts off in a notecard with an intricate Alice in Wonderland theme before continuing on A5 paper, similar to what I use.
And just as I was writing this paragraph, my Welsh friend sent me a message to say the letter had been received. That’s good news, as her very first one to me went missing without trace. Fortunately, she’d kept a copy of it, although I never remember to take a copy of mine before posting. That said, it barely matters, as long as I’m reasonably careful not to repeat the same news every time.
The one bound for Ireland is around 80% complete, and just needs a final push to complete it. As far as I’m aware, the recipient doesn’t read this blog, so there’s no hurry.
I can’t see it happening any time soon, but I’ll maybe one day be able to introduce the two pen-pals so they can write to each other and complete the circle.
Gavin Cameron 
It’s definitely a good mail day when we receive two on the same day and maybe like you say, one day we might “complete the circle” as it were. You were really organised over those postcards. I think writing on unlined paper from an early age just helped me build the skill as I’m not that co ordinated so you made me think about that 😉 I didn’t have a copy of your first missing letter, sadly but made sure after it went missing that I always took a photo of my letters. Just in case. I did sometimes take photos before over long letters but hadn’t on this occasion. I wonder where that letter is in the world right now? We need a webcam for penpal letters haha.
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