However, I’ve been really busy with the retreat center lately, which explains my lack of recent posts. I miss blogging! I should have more time in about a week or so. In the meantime, if you’re curious, you can check out my new project, Le Trajet. It’s in French… But you can see me and my team here.

But back to the Penpal of the Week! I’m really happy because this time it’s a man! Let’s see what he has to say…

Please tell us about you!

I’m Jim Britcliffe, I’m 46 and I’ve been married, to Debbie, for almost 22 years. I live in Crewe, Cheshire, England. We moved here in 1996 when I was appointed as principal of the national training centre for Railtrack PLC. I worked for the railways for almost 20 years following in the steps of my father and grand-father. Coincidentally my great grandfather’s name was George Stephenson.

This is me.

As well as being a collector and user of fountain pens I play in a brass band, something I have done for my whole life. My father and two elder brothers played in a band along with my uncle and cousins so I just tagged along with the others.

Silk Brass on parade. Just one of my hobbies.

I now work as a driving instructor and also a wedding photographer. Photography has been a passion of mine since I was given a 35mm slr for my 18th birthday. Even after all these years there’s still something magical about watching a traditional print develop in the dark room. It floats my boat every single time.

I also enjoy motorcycling but I don’t have as much time to ride as I would like. I took my bike test about 12 years ago and currently ride a Suzuki Bandit 650.

Motorcycling is one of the things I like to do for fun.

Describe your personality in 10 words!

Anachronistic, malleable, stubborn, artistic, pedantic, dreamer, pragmatic, bookworm, traditional, conservative.

How long have you been penpalling? How did you first start? Tell us about your first penpal!

My current pen palling has been going on for about 18 months, I guess.

As a very young man I used to be a prolific letter writer. It was a good way to keep in touch with friends and family back home after I moved to London and, also, a good way to pass the time on those long, lonely night shifts in my signalbox when I was working on the railway. Pen palling seemed to die off with the advent of e-mail and other electronic media.

Taken during the Queens Golden Jubilee tour in 2002

when I was the operations inspector on the Royal train.

How many penpals do you have now and where are they from?

I have between 12 and 30 pen friends (that’s a guess) and yes I do have favourites amongst them. My very favourite knows who they are.

My pen friends range in age from early 20s to 70 something, they are a mix of male and female and they are from the USA, Australia and Europe. We discuss all kinds of things like books, music, photography, politics, theology and good old fashioned gossip.

I have met one of my pen pals and I’m meeting another one next weekend. She and her husband are coming over from America for a holiday in the UK. I’m looking forward to meeting both of them.

Southend on Sea. I lived here in the mid 1980s

What are your favorite topics to discuss in letters?

Music, books, photography, theology, anything.

What are you looking for in a penpal?

I like them to be interesting and have something to say. I don’t care if they write every week or only once a year, I like to see how they go through their lives and what experiences they can share with me. It’s all good from my perspective. I like penpals with some things in common and some things very different. Our correspondence needs to be an adventure.

Handwriting sample.

What do you like the most about penpalling?

Getting a letter is so exciting. Replying to it is also really great. I also have an interest in stamps. Interesting stamps on a letter are always a bonus.

I’m also a very visual person. I make judgements on people depending on their appearance. Pen-palling takes that element away so I find out about the inner person rather than how they look. People usually turn out to be rather interesting. Then when I find out, later, what they look like it’s interesting to see whether or not I would have made the effort to speak to that person if I had seen them first. I have had some wonderful experiences this way.

Royal Mail stamps. I like to use interesting stamps on my letters.

In what language(s) do you correspond?

English, and sometimes I struggle with that :D

What are some of your habits in regards to letter writing?

I nearly always write letters late at night. I guess this stems from those days writing during my night shifts. I sit down and write a letter in one hit. I don’t plan I just re-read the last letter I received and then hit the page with a reply. I like to write back as soon as I can but this isn’t always possible due to work or whatever.

I have a small office in the spare bedroom where I keep my pens, inks and what have you. There’s a desk here where I sit and write.

This is where I like to sit and write.

The wooden chest is where my fountain pens live.

Has anything strange/funny ever happened to you since you’ve been penpalling?

Not yet, but I’m always hopeful.

The pens and paraphernalia.

Have you met any of your penpals?

I met one in Paris earlier this year. It was great to put a face to the handwriting. We arranged to meet in Starbucks on a particular street. Then he phoned me because he was already there > I thought it was odd because I was there waiting for him. It turns out there were 2 branches of Starbucks barely 100 yards apart on the same street. C’est la vie.

What I do best. Winning trophies in brass band contests and drinking Guinness.

Are you currently looking for more penpals?

Always.

jim.britcliffe@btinternet.com

Thank you so much Jim!

Good morning / afternoon / evening! I’m no longer sick – yay! Just in time for another Penpal of the Week interview. Today, let’s meet a girl from England.

Please tell us about you!

My name is Petrova and I live in England. I’m 30, I don’t look it or feel it really though, it’s always a good / funny / positive thing when people are like “noooo you don’t look that age!” :D I’m pretty young at heart I guess.

One of the few pictures of me with my glasses on, I was prescribed them

nearly 3 years ago but I don’t have to wear them all the time.

And both of my pairs are NHS ones (this probably means nothing to

people outside of the UK), which surprises some people because

they are so nice, apparently nhs glasses have changed a LOT over the years.

Anyway, some of my hobbies are such things as reading; I’m a MAJOR bookworm, seriously, I just totally love reading. Some of my favourite authors are Sophie Kinsella, Cathy Cassidy, Tony Parsons, Alan Bennett, Sue Townsend, Dorothy Koomson to name a few. I love writing such things as letters, journal entries, things for my zine, thoughts, rants etc.

Maths is a major hobby of mine, which people think I’m joking about most of the time, and when they find out how much I love algebra they’re totally confused. My friend Lee even said “Petrova, not only do you love maths but you love algebra, the WORST kind of maths!!” Now, THAT confuses me. How anyone can HATE algebra!! Come to think of it, how can anyone hate maths!? :D numbers just make sense to me, they relax me and they just rule!

This is a picture that was taken in some beautiful gardens in leamington spa.

I love being creative and making things; knitting, I’m learning how to crochet, I love doing decos / lyrics / quotes, journaling, and I’m interested in learning how to sew, I like customizing things, like on my tote bags I put a few badges on them (I think in American they’re called buttons).

Something which interlinks with the craft theme is craft fairs, I LOVE them, they’re so much fun and so inspiring, there are quite a few near me and I just love going to them and the stall holders are so friendly and lovely!

Comedy is another major love of mine, I’m a total and utter quote nerd, me and my brother once walked home from town (25 minute or so walk) and most of the conversation was just quoting back and forth of I’m Alan Partridge. Some of my favourite comedies to quote from are dinnerladies, bottom, I’m Alan Partridge and family guy. But I love a tonne of other comedies too but I’m not really sure if you’re supposed to write lists on here (hence me not listing my favourite music and things like that).

This is me being a classic dork before me and my friend Mandy went to see Avenue Q.

And I LOVE going to comedy gigs, the first one I went to was when I was 14 and it was Dylan Moran when he was really new in the comedy world, I still have the ticket (I keep all my tickets) and it cost £5 and was in the small room at the venue, whereas when you go and see him now he would be in the largest room at the venue and cost about £25 or so. Other faves of mine are Andrew Maxwell, Jason Byrne, Stewart Lee, Lee Mack, to name a few.

I have a major thing about ginger hair, I just love it. I think it’s so beautiful and the BEST hair colour, my favourite colour is orange as well and both of those things people can never understand, they’re like “why???”. Each to their own I guess. I think people with ginger hair are so lucky, they have such a beautiful stunning hair colour, but I have some friends who say they were bullied about it SO much at school and that’s so sad.

As I said, I am a big kid, and I LOVE cuddly animals :D

Anyway I think I might get on with the rest of the questions now!!

Describe your personality in 10 words!

Chatty, friendly, honest, shy, quirky, intelligent, young, inquisitive, geeky, genuine.

Another cuddly animal ;) haha, as you can see I like the Disney store.

How long have you been penpalling? How did you first start? Tell us about your first penpal!

Wow, that’s a question, well the very first pen pal I got when I was about 10 or 11 I think, it was a pen pal exchange thing or something at my primary school where everyone in the class had a pen pal from another class in a town in the same region as us. I don’t know what happened to everyone elses pen pals but my friendship with mine only lasted a few letters and it stopped, I don’t even remember what happened. Ah well.

So I’ve kind of been into pen palling since then really. I’ve had quite a few come and go over the years and some that have been in it for the long haul or whatever the expression is. Some of them I am friends with still but we don’t actually write anymore, we meet up, text and talk on the phone etc.

This looks a weird colour, it was taken with a camera I bought from a

charity shop when my film camera stopped working, this one was ok

but made me look a weird colour sometimes though. Hmmmm.

How many penpals do you have now and where are they from?

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how many I have at the moment, and by that I mean I’m not even sure if some of them are writing to me anymore really. But the ones I definitely DO know are writing to me are awesome, they live in a variety of places, Hong Kong, USA, Scotland, Finland, etc.

I took this photo when I went to the park one day when it was snowing

and I very nearly turned into a snow person, I was so scared, it was sub

zero temperatures and I started to worry, but it turned out ok.

What are your favourite topics to discuss in letters?

All kinds of things, it depends sometimes really who the letter is with. Music, comedy, zines, what we’ve been up to lately, travelling, hobbies, alllll sorts of things!

This is one of my decos.

What are you looking for in a penpal?

Someone who wants a real friendship, someone who is friendly and open and honest and who can talk about everything and anything. Who possibly has the same interests as me, not as in EVERY SINGLE interest because that would be silly really, but some at least! Someone who likes to write and receive chatty and friendly letters with lots of questions! And also likes to swap packages with things like decos and other fun things in.

Another deco, as you can see I like doing cute ones.

What do you like the most about penpalling?

It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s just really sometimes difficult to describe, it’s just so awesome to see fun mail waiting for you and to tear the envelope open and read all the things your friend has to say.

This is a sample of my writing

(and I guess you can see my writing in the deco pictures too).

In what language(s) do you correspond?

English.

What are some of your habits in regards to letter writing?

Habits? Hmmmm, well I love questions, asking and receiving them. I draw a lot of little smilies in my letters. It was difficult to stop myself from doing smilies all over this piece of writing! Haha!

Just another two of my peeps :D

Has anything strange/funny ever happened to you since you’ve been penpalling?

Hmmmmm, well back in the day (in the late 90s) I met up with one of my friends who I met through penpalling (she lived near me, so we met up regularly) and she was like “I got a letter from * today” (I’m not going to say her name ;) ) and she had it with her and she was wondering if it was one of those letters that some people send to EVERYONE, (it was typed and didn’t seem very personal) and she read a bit out to me and then shown it to me and it was the exact same letter that the girl had wrote me!!! We were like “What’s going on with this??”.

I can’t really think of anything else!

This is Mandy, we started writing when I was 11 and now I’m 30 so you do the maths ;)

We don’t really write anymore, we’re more likely to meet and text and call each other.

Have you met any of your penpals?

Yes, I’ve met quite a few of them over the years! Some of them I had known them for a long time before we actually met in person (there was no reason for not meeting for a long time, it just happened). It’s amazing to say that, that you have been so close to someone and been friends for such a long time but hadn’t actually met yet. And it’s so lovely to meet them for the first time and have a lovely time with them and to meet them again and again.

Me and Mandy again.

Are you currently looking for more penpals?

Hmmm well I’m not sure to be honest. Because like I said, I’m not really sure how many of my current pen pals are even writing to me anymore. I could be persuaded and say yes maybe, hehe.

Thank you Petrova!

By the way, I love ginger hair too, but mostly on women…

Here’s a letter that I received from Chas a little while ago.

Actually, I’m not looking for more penpals Chas but if anyone is interested in writing you, maybe they can comment here and you can get in touch with them?

Thank you for sharing your Top 10 Quirks with us!

I’m doing a little better already, so let’s meet the Penpal of the Week now. She’s a girl that I’ve known via slams and online groups for probably more than 10 years.

Please tell us about you!

My name is Sabine, I am 33 years at the moment. Well, hard to believe sometimes. I am Austrian, grew up on the countryside but moved to Vienna for my studies over 10 years ago. Apart from having lived in the capital of my country, I lived in France and Italy each for one year. At the moment I am living in Nicaragua, Central America. I moved here roughly two years ago to work in a sustainable rural development project, where I work with farmers and their micro-financed businesses. Most of the time I love my life and job here but sometimes I am struggling with cultural barriers or mentality. But I love people, I love working with them, I love going out to the farms in the middle of nowhere even if it means walking in rubber boots. Life is sunny and a great challenge is what I believe in.

Hello, that’s me!

I studied international business administration (meaning business with languages) and I speak 5 languages (English, Spanish, Italian, French and my mother tongue German). I am pretty sure I do not want to work in business all my life but for the moment, I am still a business girl.

My main interests/hobbies have varied a lot especially here in Nicaragua where the offer of entertainment (movies, concerts, cultural events etc) is really scarce. I have always loved music, going to gigs and dancing, this will never change. Dancing to me is like breathing, I totally dig belly dance but dance to metal as well! I got into yoga and meditation, and have interests in lots of spiritual stuff. I am currently reading a lot about psychology and my main interest in psychology are C.G. Jung’s theories and archetypes of the shadow principles. Who knows, I might try to get a degree in this one day?

Giving computer class for the farmers & their children in Nicaragua.

I love animals a lot and I still have this dream of leading a simple life one day, in an old cottage close to a lake or forest and having lots of animals like ducks, cats, a dog, geese, a pig, a sheep etc and a garden with vegetables and herbs. Also I would like to learn to make my own incense of dried herbs/flowers/petals and tree resin.

My darling Laica and me, my dog here in Nicaragua.

What else should you know about me? I am not at all serious but I have the impression this description of mine sounds like it! I love to laugh, to socialize, to do spontaneous things, to go shopping as well. Yes, I work in a poor country and try to contribute to a better world but I am still a material girl. I love SHOES for example. And I have more shoes than any of my friends. I have this idea to set up a blog where my story is told by the shoes I own… I have silly ideas like that all the time.

Ivania – a girl I met when working on the river in Nicaragua.

Something else, I’d like to mention is my love for foreign countries. I love traveling and exploring places. It is hard for me to understand that people can live in a country/place and never having had the desire to see something else/something new. I guess I would suffocate if I could not travel. And traveling is something you can easily combine with meeting your penpals :D

Meeting my Italian penpal Daniela in Rome, July 2008.

Describe your personality in 10 words!

That is kind of difficult because I feel my personality has changed and somehow I feel I am more balanced than I have ever been before. Let me try! I believe I am friendly, smart, spontaneous, self-reflective, independent, intuitive, optimistic, creative, a dreamer, ambitious and lazy at the same time and I would say I am definitely outgoing.

Learning how to make chocolate from a lady I am working with in Rosita, Nicaragua.

How long have you been penpalling? How did you first start? Tell us about your first penpal!

I first started writing letters to my favorite aunt who lived in the capital of Austria, Vienna, when I was 10 years old. I missed her and I wanted to be in touch and I remember writing a bunch of letters to her. I received two letters from her and I still remember the stationery she used. Purple and green.

At about the same time, I started writing to some friends that I only saw during my summer vacations but I never got any answers from them. So my first foreign penpal was Connie Dimech from Malta. I was 12 or 13 by then and had “ordered” her address from IYS in Finland. I was so excited about it but my English back then was still very basic, so I started a blueprint letter first before copying on cute stationery in a neat way. We exchanged a few letters but as it happened so often back then, she stopped writing, unfortunately. But from them on writing letters became a huge hobby and in peak times, I had about 50 penpals!

Nicaragua has the most beautiful Pacific beaches & I love taking photos.

How many penpals do you have now and where are they from?

I am writing with a handful of people nowadays.

Stefi, Francesca and Daniela from Italy, Cindy from Canada, Petra and Sandra from Austria, Penny from Hong Kong, Tanya from Bulgaria, Amylea from Australia, Melissa from the US, Anja from Germany and Shani from Israel.

Some of them have been good friends for 10 years and longer, others are more recent friendships. But they are all true friends I share important details of my life with. Also I have met some,  taken trips to meet them or we met when they were visiting my country.

My Austrian penpal Petra and me in Nov 2008,

first time we met after having written for 5 years.

What are your favorite topics to discuss in letters?

That totally depends. I guess, the most important thing is that we have some common interests and then we talk about what’s going on in our lives, what we want to share, moments of importance, what makes us happy, what makes us sad, what dreams we have and so on.

Rosita Airport, countryside Nicaragua – where I often fly to from Managua.

Military has to make sure the cows do not cross when the plane comes in ;)

What are you looking for in a penpal?

The readiness to form a true friendship and dedication to write a letter. Wow, this sounds serious. Haha. No, penpalling is not a serious matter to me, but I feel it takes a little more than to write one page and call it a letter.  And well, that they like to “talk” in their letters like I do ;)

Waiting at the check in at Rosita Airport with a friend,

who is Austrian as well and permanently living there.

What do you like the most about penpalling?

I like best that every letter is a surprise in an envelope!

In what languages do you correspond?

I write in English with most of my penpals, I do write Italian with two girls from Italy, and German with the ones from Austria and Germany. I could write in Spanish and French as well and I would certainly love to correspond in those languages to keep practicing them.

Handwriting sample.

What are some of your habits in regards to letter writing?

My habits… I do love to get up in the morning on the weekend and the first thing I do is sit down by my desk and start a letter or continue a letter I had started the night before… even before dressing, before having had coffee… I just love that feeling.

The older I get the longer my letters tend to be. Haha. I can certainly write up 30 pages… but that is not standard. I would say one of my usual letters is about 5 to 8 A5 pages or well, longer… ;)

As for the time it takes me to write back, it depends really. I hardly let letters get older than 3 months but sometimes it happens, especially now that delivery to Nicaragua can take up to 6 weeks already. I do not have a special order in which I reply to people. It really depends on my mood. Maybe it is not fair, but hey do you meet your friends in a special order or just depending on what you want to do/talk about and on your mood, no?

A night out in Hollywood with my penpal Melissa, Aug 2011.

Has anything strange/funny ever happened to you since you’ve been penpalling?

I might mention receiving my first Friendship book ever. Not that it is something strange to receive but I did not know WHAT it was and WHAT to do with it and this was before Internet was ruling the world. So, I was so scared with the booklet, I had no idea what it was and thought all these people wanted something from me and could find me through my address if I put it there, so I threw it away. That was certainly stupid but I was too scared.

My Canadian penpal and me at the edge of Grand Canyon.

Have you met any of your penpals?

Oh, I have met MANY!!! A lot of them stopped writing, because they quit palling but we are still friends online and we do keep in touch. Last August I went to California to meet my pal Melissa. We have been talking about it for a while and finally I could manage to go. We had a blast. Since I have never been to California before, I did travel around on my own as well but Melissa was on vacation and could spend time with me. The funny thing is that Cindy, a common pal of ours, also decided to come down and so we all met! Here is the pic!!

Meeting my penpals Melissa & Cindy in L.A., August 2011.

Are you currently looking for more penpals?

I won’t mind finding new like-minded friends, so write if you feel we will click!

Thank you Sabine! It was wonderful getting to know you more in-depth after all these years!

It’s time to celebrate because… I received a penpal ad from a man!

A man who has beautiful typewriter labels…

A man who loves fountain pens!

A man who has a blog: Lucas Writes

Yay for male penpals!

Rachel in the USA has chickens and is looking for chicks! (I’m easily amused…)

So, are you one of the chicks that Rachel is looking for?!

OK I know that the proper spelling is probably “pen pal”, but I prefer to use the word “penpal”. And I like “penpalling” as well!

Most of the time, I see it written as “pen pal” but I’ve been writing “penpal” for so long that I just can’t bring myself to use separate words for this concept.

I just did a quick search on the Internet and both spellings are widely used.

I’m curious… Which one do you prefer?!

Um, what?!

Here are some Top 10 Quirks by Sarah in the USA…

Sarah lives on Cherry Street so she’s awesome.

And she sells lovely stationery (proof #1, #2, #3 and #4).

And she’s quirky!

Sarah, I did a search on the electron diffraction experiment… But I only understood about half of the story! Science is definitely not my strong suit…

This week, let’s meet a girl who lives in a beautiful country and has cute animals…

Please tell us about you!

Hello! I’m Abbye and I’m a 21 year old girl from Northern Ireland. At the moment, I’m coming to the end of my final year at university. (Don’t ask me what I’m going to do next year! I haven’t a clue!!) I study English and Film which is really interesting and more work than it sounds! I am hopefully graduating in July.

This is me and my insane hamster, Don Juan -

he’s named after the legendary seductive libertine that Johnny Depp

played in the movie… yeah it’s mainly because of Johnny Depp!!

I live in a town, about ten miles from Belfast, with my Mummy and my dog Poppy – she’s a very excitable and over affectionate Staffordshire Bull Terrier (my dog, not my Mum!) Oh and my crazy hamster Don Juan. I’m an only child. I’m really close to my Granda, he’s an inspiration to me. He’s 88 and is super independent! He lives on his own, drives, and does everything himself. He even comes round to our house in secret to cut our grass!! I hope I’m as independent and thoughtful when I’m his age! I’m also very close to my Auntie, she’s more like a sister and a best friend wrapped in to one.

Me, my Mumma Bear and my Auntie Gail :)

I’m an animal lover and although I like cats, I’m definitely a dog person.

I love travelling and have been on a couple of big trips so far. In 2010 I spent a wonderful month in Thailand. I worked in an orphanage with some other volunteers (and my boyfriend, Paul) – we built a road and spent a lot of time teaching the kids. I loved it there, and I miss all the kids so much! When there’s a language barrier you find so many other ways to communicate – I’ll never forget that experience!

Me and Apeh (pronounced Ah- Pay).

He was one of the kids that I worked with in Thailand. I miss him!

In Summer 2011 I went interrailing around Europe with my friends. We travelled through The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, France and Spain. It was an awesome trip!

I like to keep active but I’m not a very competitive person so I tend to like to do things like hiking, swimming, cycling. I especially love to go on long walks which turn in to adventures!

Other things that I like to do include baking – I love baking anything and everything for my family and friends (and myself a lot of the time).  Reading – I like everything from the classics to more contemporary books, I recently read Stephen Kelman’s ‘Pigeon English’ and Karl Pilkington’s ‘An Idiot Abroad’ – which was actually recommended  by a penpal. Movies – I love watching films but I can never decide what my favourite film is! Tea – it might sound silly but tea is a big part of my life! I drink so so much of the stuff!! I think I’m a tea-aholic :)

Tea! The love of my life!

And a wonderful tea pot cosy knitted by my talented Mummy.

I’ve been going out with my lovely boyfriend Paul for just over two years now. We met on the very first day of university and were friends for a while before we got together. We lived together last year but it became too expensive so we’re back home this year.

Northern Ireland can be a beautiful place to live. There is a lot of charm hidden in places that you wouldn’t expect!! I love going to places like the Mourne Mountains or the Giant’s Causeway. The town I live in is quite busy, eventually, when I’m older I think I’d love to live in the countryside.

The secret charms of Northern Ireland!

Describe your personality in 10 words!

Ooo! This is a difficult one… Active, imaginative, over-thinker, curious, friendly, trustworthy, loyal, giving, nostalgic and long-nail-hating. The last one refers to my phobia of long nails! I can’t stand them, I cut my nails loads and get a bit anxious when long nails touch me! <WEIRD!

Me :) at a wonderful place called Bloody Bridge river

in the sea side town of Newcastle.

How long have you been penpalling? How did you first start? Tell us about your first penpal!

Well, I think the first ever penpal I had was my childhood best friend who moved to Australia but after a while we started to email each other and unfortunately the letters kind of dried up! I didn’t really write to anyone else until I met a fellow snail mail lover at university whose family home happened to be quite far from mine. We wrote to eachother over the holidays. I began properly penpalling only a few months ago and I’ve found most of my wonderful penpals through this lovely blog :) Thanks Julie!

My boyfriend Paul, Me and my best friend Cheryl,

enjoying the best ice-cream ever in Rome.

How many penpals do you have now and where are they from?

I think at the moment I have around six penpals, they are from lots of different countries including England, Norway, Finland, USA and Canada. I love finding out more about other cultures and how people live in other countries.

What are your favorite topics to discuss in letters?

I suppose I like to discuss everyday life with my penpals. I like to tell my penpals about any adventures I’ve had, anything strange that’s happened and I also like to ask odd questions – I like to know the day of the week people were born on or what they weighed when they were born :)

Being an adrenaline junkie in Thailand.

What are you looking for in a penpal?

Someone who wants to share :)

I like writing to people who care about what they’re sending.

The view from (almost at) the top of Slieve Donard.

You can see some of my friends on their way up.

What do you like the most about penpalling?

I love opening a letter and thinking about the person who wrote it and learning about them. It’s like being able to peek in to someones life.

I also love picking the post up from the floor and spying a colourful or handwritten envelope between the bills!… That’s if Poppy hasn’t got to the letters before me! Sometimes by the time I get to them, they have a couple of little holes in them, she’s getting better though :)

This is the very hyper but lovely Poppy.

She’s actually camera shy so I was lucky to get this one.

In what language(s) do you correspond?

Unfortunately I can only speak English :( I so wish I could speak other languages, maybe I’ll get round to learning sometime!

What are some of your habits in regards to letter writing?

The perfect letter writing environment for me is a quiet hour and a big pot of tea. I use quite a lot of nice letter sets but I also like to decorate my own envelopes. I like to try to include my penpals interests when I decorate envelopes. I try to write back as quick as I can, usually within a week and my letters are normally quite long since I tend to ramble a bit!

A sample of my handwritting :)

Has anything strange/funny ever happened to you since you’ve been penpalling?

Hmm… I’m happy to say that nothing negative has ever happened. I receive a lot of tea – which I will never complain about!! I’ve also received beautiful handmade tokens and cards from my lovely penpals which I treasure.

I try to send nice things when I can too :)

A collection of some of my decorated envelopes.

Have you met any of your penpals?

I haven’t met any of my penpals, they are all quite new, I would love to meet them if we were ever to cross paths.

Are you currently looking for more penpals?

Of course! I would love more penpals. No one is too rich to refuse a friend! That’s what I think anyway :) I would love more penpals from anywhere in the world!

If anyone would like to get in contact with me, my email address is abbye@live.co.uk

Thank you for interviewing me Julie :)  it’s been fun!

My pleasure, Abbye!

Lovely handwriting, by the way…

I have another penpal ad for you today… Yay!

Nicole in Canada sent me this pretty envelope. I love butterflies!

Now look at her fun penpal ad!

Wishing you many letters in that cute mailbox, Nicole!