United Kingdom
Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK became the fifth world leader to respond to my request. Its interesting to note that the accompanying note clearly says the signature is a facsimile.
Another interesting tidbit I noticed was that the return address on the envelope says "10 Downing Street' and nothing more. I suppose that when you're one of the worlds most powerful land famous leaders you don't exactly need to give a full address.
posted by Joel at 3:24 PM
3 Comments:
10 Downing Street does have a post code: SW1A 2AA. It's a unique postcode --11 Downing Street is SW1A 2AB. So all you'd need to do, technically, is address it "Tony Blair, SW1A 2AA, United Kingdom". (Normally a postcode only narrows it to a group of houses.)
SW1A 1AA is Buckingham Palace, and SW1A 0AA is the House of Commons.
(Sorry, among other things, my husband does extensive work with the Royal Mail postcode database...)
Lots of small villages have one house per postcode. I think both of my next door neighbours has a different postcode from me and I certainly don't live in a palace!!
By the way, 10 Downing Street needs no further explanation, at least not in England. Everyone knows that that is the official residence of the PM. You wouldn't need us to say 'Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Road, St. James, london' would you? You know where it is!
Although, interestingly, Tony Blair actually *lives* at 11 Downing Street- the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He swapped houses with Gordon Brown because the Blairs have quite a large family (4 kids, I think) and 11 Downing street has bigger private quarters. Gordon Brown had no children at the time, although he now as a young child and his wife is expecting another.
We invented the postal system or at least pioneered it. That means we get baggsies (first pick) on designs and stuff. If the envelope had had any stamps on it then you would have noticed they do not bear the name of the country (United Kingdom or Great Britain). All other countries have to put their name on it. The same for coins as well I think. Relics from when Great Britain was 'Great' and needed no introduction.
Post a Comment
<< Home