Greetings!

One thing I love about moving to the UK is that I finally have access again to a never ending selection of Greeting Cards!

I know, stupid, right? I don't know what it is about them, but I've always loved Greeting Cards. Like post cards, I guess I have a very strong attachment for these simple straightforward pretty pieces of cardboard that convey a message, be it of love, warm wishes, congratulations, sorrow, etc., but that in any case, lets you tell someone you are thinking about them.

I remember in my early days of moving to France I once went looking to buy a nice greeting card for a friend (can't exactly remember what the occasion was, but I'm pretty sure something standard like a birthday). I went to my trustworthy Monoprix and was appalled when I came across the "greeting cards" section. It was more like a standalone booth wedged between the stationary aisle and the pharmacy counter!! There couldn't have been more than 20 different cards, all themes included!!! There I was, coming from the land of Hallmark, suddenly facing a crummy selection of plain, somewhat ugly and completely unoriginal "Heureux Anniversaire" cards!

When I went home (empty handed) I asked Hubby about this. He just shrugged and said that French people don't really seem to give much importance to sending out or receiving greeting cards all together. I couldn't believe it! I've always felt that sending a card sends the message that you care to someone, but according to Hubby, it seemed the French don't really see it that way and instead see greeting cards (the standard, industry made kind) as simply that: an industry made item that conveys no feeling or personal thoughts to the recipient - you buy a card that says what you otherwise wouldn't have thought of saying yourself.

Needless to say, I was very skeptic of this explanation and went out in search for cards in more upscale stores. However, even though I eventually did come upon a wider selection, it never really compared to what you can find in the states. Eventually I came to terms with the truth: in all my time living in France, the only time we really did receive proper and systematic Greeting Cards (and had access to a pretty respectable selection of them ourselves) was during the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Over the years I came to understand what the French meant: if there is one event where a standardized copy-cat message can be used without reserve each year when sending your "Happy New Year" wishes to all the contacts in your address book, that occasion is New Year's Eve (and even then, I had to practically twist Hubby's arm to write something on the cards to personalize them an itsy bit!).

By the time I left Paris I was so used to the lack of greeting-card use or expectations that when my friends and colleagues sent me off with the traditional pot and wrote on blank sheets of paper stapled together their good luck wishes for our new life in London I didn't even think twice about it. And to be honest, I still love and treasure those pages so much that I probably take more care of them than I would have if they'd presented me with a Good Luck greeting card.

So, understandably, I thought I'd been desensitized to the whole Greeting Card thing by the time we moved to London.

Except I wasn't.

In my department there seems to always be an occasion to go greeting-card shopping. Be it a birthday, a leaving party, a maternity announcement, a job promotion, any occasion really, there is always an envelope passed around to raise money for a card (and eventually a gift).

The first few times I ducked the responsibility of actually going out and choosing the card myself being as how I didn't want to be trusted with that delicate task if the offer of choices out there was going to be as meager, limited and quite frankly depressing as it'd been in France. But once I realized that there is actually a never ending selection of cards out there, I instantly reconnected with my long lost love for Greeting Cards.

I once again enjoy being able to go to a greeting card store and spend hours browsing the funny ones, admiring the beautifully decorated ones, memorizing the poems in the traditional ones, imagining where I could use the really wacky or funky ones, matching styles to personalities, finding the right text to go with the right occasion, etc. I love the envelopes too, sometimes shiny, sometimes matching the design of the card, sometimes having a design of their own.

I'm a dork, I know, but I really am glad I live in the UK. This way I get to once again send cards to all my loved ones to let them know I'm thinking about them, be it because they have a new fish pet, or have decided to leave their job to go travel the world, or because it's the Queen's Birthday.

Just because.


With love,
Fned.