Not Another Pigeon

My amazing brother Ned, of Not Another Bill making headlines today...

Businessman hires pigeons to deliver goods after huge Royal Mail price jumps

A FRUSTRATED businessman who runs a mail order service has decided to boycott Royal Mail services and set up a team of carrier pigeons to deliver his goods.

By Tom Rawle/Published 2nd April 2014

LETS FLY: Ned has sent some pigeons to Oxford already [NATIONAL NEWS AND PICTURES]

Ned Corbett-Winder, 29, said his small business now cannot afford to use the regular parcel service and is now testing the new animal-based technique to save money.

The owner of NotAnotherBill.com said he is standing up for the little guys and is not willing to pay the hiked prices.

He said: "Businesses like mine rely on Royal Mail and we're at the mercy of these price hikes.

"The latest price increase will cost my business around £2,500 over the course of a year which for a small business is a huge amount of money.

"Government is supposed to be supporting small businesses but this move flies in the face of that support and I fear that with the privatisation of the Royal Mail price increases like this are going to become a regular occurrence."

SMART: Ned is hoping to save thousands by using the pigeons [NATIONAL NEWS AND PICTURES]

“”

New Royal Mail prices came in to effect on Monday.

First class stamps increased by 2p to 62p and second class now start at 53p rather than 50p.

In 2012, a first class stamp cost 46p, a third less than what it is now.

Ned has taken on his new pigeon delivery service by setting up a flying route from his home in Acton, west London to a destination 59 miles away in Oxford.

The homing birds, which were used largely throughout the first and second world war, have been used throughout history to transport messages.

PIGEONS: The birds are all set up to test new routes [NATIONAL NEWS AND PICTURES]

He is now testing if the pigeons would really be reliable enough to deliver letters on a regular basis.

Ned said: "People always joke that if their parcel is late it would have been quicker sending it by carrier pigeon. Well I'm testing the theory out."

By placing food at the location, the birds have so far back and forth travelled twice a day.

They could carry parcels up to 75g with the journey taking just over an hour to get there with the birds flying over 50mph.

After Royal Mail was sold in October last year, many are saying the organisation was undervalued and taxpayers have not received enough in return.

www.notanotherbill.com

Tulip Fever at Worton

Last weekend Chaz and I were given a tiny taster of our what our pre-Cub life used to be like.  We had a lie in and then had until lunchtime 'off'.  It was extraordinary. With only an hour left, we managed to tear ourselves away from watching Saturday Kitchen in bed and headed off in the sunshine - a miracle in itself - to my favourite place on the planet, Worton Organic Garden.  

They were having a 'Homage to Sea' weekend surrounded by more tulips than I've ever seen.  

If you can get there this weekend I can't recommend anything more highly; I'm sure the tulips will still be as ravishing as ever.

No early bird catching the worm here - it's not open until 11am 

www.wortonorganicgarden.com

Ten & Co

I was trying to do sale shopping; bargain saucepans and bath mat type things. Boring shopping.  But I got slightly way-laid by these shoes on the way.  They're from a company called Ten & Co and are made out of hand woven antique Moroccan rugs and wisps of leather - each pair is a one off.  I'm adding them to my birthday list.

www.ten-and-co.com

Magic Coat

After several especially grey days and sleepless nights last week, I took myself off to Oxford for a time out.

I'd had a thought about doing some culture; maybe pop into the  Jenny Saville exhibition at the Ashmolean or even take a peek at the shrunken heads in Pitt Rivers.  

It unsurprising remained just a thought though and I ended up doing retail therapy instead. 

I ended up with a new winter coat.  It's from Zara. Although it really could be Celine.  I am completely mesmerised by it and keep getting it out of the cupboard to stare at it.

I now know why it's called retail therapy...

  

www.zara.com

Escape to the Country

I haven't quite got my head around it yet and it feels quite odd seeing it actually written down.

We are moving to the country.

Leaving London and moving to the country. We've even exchanged on our new house. It's really happening. I truly do believe in fate and think that this move is all down to it. Some people would think we are barking mad. It was the first and only house that we have looked at. But we knew from the second we saw a photo of it that it was meant to be. It turns out the owners are old family friends. We used to hang out on the beach in Wales with them when we were tiny. One of their daughters is our next door neighbour in London. I could go on.

The move is both scary and exciting at the same time. Once again we are upping sticks. Leaving all our friends and family and moving somewhere that we don't really know anything about. Apart from this time we wont have to grapple with the joys of Ryanair every time we want to come back. The language wont be changing. And we will still be able to get sliced white bread and English sausages. We are only moving one-hour-and-four minutes away, (by train) to Oxfordshire. You're probably wondering what all the fuss is about.

When we were trying to make our decision I think we probably made about seven hundred lists. The pros and cons of moving.

They went like this;

Cons

Leaving our friends and family

Not being able to walk to the shops

Having to sell our gorgeous home

No Starbucks on the doorstep

Not being able to go out for dinner on the spur of the moment

No more 'Naked Nosh' (best take out in the World)

No people dropping in for cosy time

Having to plan everything

Pros

s p a c e

Just thinking about it makes me feel I can breathe more easily

A walled garden. We can just open the doors and the Cub will be free

Doing up a new house. Think of the wallpaper potential

I would have my own office

Not having to have our daily walk in a cemetery

Planting our own kitchen garden

Oxford on our doorstep

Weekend house parties

Making new friends

Bicester Village is 20 minutes away

The village school for the Cub is a two minute walk

Cosy time in the garden

Long summer lunches in the garden

Kitchen garden

Oxford

Space for the Cub

Growing our own asperges

Starry walls by Barneby Gates

The pros well out weighed the cons in the end. But we tried to be sensible and rationalise that as it was the first house we saw, there would of course be many more out there with our names on. Maybe even better ones. And that we should stay put.

We both woke up the next morning heartbroken. It was all we needed to realise that leaving was the right decision.

And now, this time in two and a half months, we will be well on our way to escaping to the country. I literally cannot wait.