3p

I like this stamp because it's for only 3p! In the series were five different 5p designs and one 3.5p design that year. Amazing to think it was worth printing a fancy stamp with a face value that low... The interweb tells me they were issued in 1973, which would have been my last Christmas before my little brother arrived. For the curious, the frank date on this stamp is 2005, so it had been sitting around in an office for quite a while before it was used...!

I don't remember 1973 to be honest. I have a few memories from nursery school, which would have been around then, but they are very vague and I've probably embellished them over the years. As I age even my memories of primary school are growing dim. I do remember the 70s though, sitting round a candle because there was no electricity, no foreign food, freezing winters with chest deep snow drifts, the glorious  summer of 1976...! Learning all about the EEC in school which we had just joined...

Not done a lot today. I need to do the electricity diagram of the extension and the remodelling work on the house. French wiring is a bit rubbish to be honest, while the British ring main has its drawbacks, British plugs and sockets are vastly superior to their continental equivalents. In both countries people install way to few sockets, and people laugh when I say I want eight power sockets and eight RJ-45 (CAT-6) sockets on that wall, and yet more on each other wall! Somewhere I'll need to install a 24-port Gig-E switch so that most of the computers and devices can have direct cable connections to each other and the Internet router. That will leave only my phone and tablet on the WiFi, and Ethernet over mains will be for reserver only.