But because all you people are sending emails and text messages rather than sticking a stamp on a letter and posting it, you’re sending Australia Post broke.

It’s losing lots of money in the traditional mail business, last year posting (oh dear) a $218 million loss and expecting a $300 million loss this financial year because we’re mailing fewer letters than ever.

The loss in a few years is expected to be $1 billion annually and Australia Post can’t absorb that saying without change it won’t be able to survive.

It wants two classes of mail so it can charge you a special annual postie fee in addition to a proposed $1 stamp price, up from the present 70 cents, if you want your letters delivered daily otherwise you’ll have to be satisfied with a several-day delay for low-priority mail.

This is all planned to happen by September but it will be interesting to see what else Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull decides to do to save Australia Post.

That’s if he can find the time from white-anting the PM.

In the meantime, turn off your computer, get out the pen and paper and write a few letters.

Orange people filling their car with petrol yesterday morning got a huge shock.

Unleaded had rocketed in price around 15 cents a litre overnight to $1.33.9.

That’s added around $5.50 to $6 more a tank and is nothing but a rip-off.

It will be interesting to see what the excuses for this is.

In December 2013 Essential Energy with a fleet of trucks and workers in Calare replaced some power poles a metre from the old ones but left the old poles in the ground because they weren’t permitted to unhook and move a couple of Telstra phone lines across to the new poles.

That job, likely to take no more than about half an hour, had to be done by Telstra technicians who have at last turned up all these months later to do the job.

But Essential Energy still has to come back to take out the old poles.

It will be interesting to see how many more weeks, or months, that takes.

Maybe they’re waiting until after the NSW election to see whether the poles and wires are going to be sold off.

Two for the price of one, sort of thing.

We’re several weeks into the TV ratings which normally are the signal for the TV stations to roll out their biggest and best shows but obviously the programmers are writing off weekends.

Last weekend the five channels had an unbelievable total of 99 repeats in the two days.

Saturday accounted for 51 with Channel 10 doing the worst with 12, followed by WIN and the ABC with 11, SBS 10 and Prime seven.

There were 48 repeats on Sunday with the ABC producing a shocker with 19 followed by WIN on 13.

Prime had six and TEN and SBS five each.

So are the TV stations feeding us cake or what?

Orange seems to be missing out on the simple things that can keep us in the national spotlight and all it takes is some nous.

We’ve lost our place on the Channel Nine national weather map while an opportunity was lost for Orange to be a wild card entry to fill one of the final two places in Monopoly’s 80th anniversary world edition game.

People were able to vote for their city from last Tuesday until next Monday but we’ve missed out.

Maitland is in there with a show to join 20 other cities around the world.

We need someone to keep an eye out for these sorts of opportunities.

Some of the Sydney and Newcastle radio announcers and their boring relayed talkback shows that we get in Orange all day and all night can be an absolute pain in the neck.

They’d like everyone to think they’re walking encyclopedias, qualified political commentators, economists, health and education experts and everything else that’s needed to run the country and handle our money.

But if they’re so smart you wonder why they’re not running Telstra or Newcrest or some other big company rather than waffling away behind a microphone, a lot of the time arguing with listeners.

The worrying thing is there’s people out there who believe everything they say.

And many of the serial phone-up know-alls seem to have their own timeslots each day while their silly and inaccurate comments make a good case for people having to sit for an intelligence test before being allowed to vote in elections.

So, Luke, Warren, John, Maureen, Ray, Allan, Jimmy, Phil, Meg, Maree, Raymond, Andy and the rest of you, please put a sock in it.

Without you telling us every day, we know you’re all experts on everything from what the government is doing wrong and free trade to climate change.

They’re just like the ultracrepidarian announcers.

It’s a wonder the health police haven’t complained about the promotion of junk food in the so-called guilt lanes in supermarkets and discount stores where chocolates and sweets and sugar-filled drinks are prominently displayed next to the checkouts.

They’re deliberately put there to tempt you, particularly your kids, who nag you for a treat while you queue to pay for the groceries.

The mouth-watering displays also tempt mums and dads to buy snacks they normally wouldn’t, adding a hefty dose of calories and sugar to their diet.

Retailers recognise that most confectionery buys are made on impulse so they ensure lots of it is placed exactly where that impulse is triggered.

And it certainly works.

A Turkish Delight anyone?