ladyofastolat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofastolat) wrote2007-08-23 04:52 pm
ladyofastolat) wrote2007-08-23 04:52 pm
Entry tags:
Silliness
How's this for a piece of silliness? Two weeks ago, I posted an anniversary card to my parents. Ten days later, it still hadn't arrived. 11 days after I posted it, they got a note through the door saying that the postman had tried to deliver something to their house, but had had to take it away again since there was inadequate postage on it. They were told to go to the main sorting office, 8 miles away, to collect it.
At great personal cost – money, time, and threats to life and limb* - my parents went into town to get the mystery package. They were told that the postage on it was short by 6p, but they had pay an additional one pound on top of this. Even then they didn't get the letter. The post office person carefully counted out 6 1p stamps, and put them on the letter, being careful to hide it from my parents so they couldn't see what it was. They were then told to go home; the letter would be put in the post as normal and would arrive in due course. Three days later – i.e. two postal days, and one Sunday - it did. It was indeed my card.
6p appears to be the difference between a first class normal letter, and a second class large letter, so I assume that the card was just a bit too big to go by normal letter rate. To be honest, I'd totally forgotten the existence of the new big latter rate, but even if I'd remember, I think I'd have assumed the card was small enough and thin enough to pass as normal. Still, that's fair enough. What is annoying, though, is the 11 days it took the Post Office to tell my parents about it, and their refusal to hand it over.
* Okay, so they got on the bus that stops right outside their front door, paid nothing, since they're over 60, and had a trouble-free bus journey over the delightful scenery of Cleeve Hill, but why let the truth spoil a good story? In my version, they fought lions en route, and spent all their hard-won savings on hiring horses. I bet the real version of most great sagas is actually fairly prosaic. That Beowulf, you know… Mildly bruised a baby squirrel, causing its mother to throw a nut at his head… And as for King Arthur… Found a rusty penknife in a puddle, and before you know it, the bards are hailing him as king.
At great personal cost – money, time, and threats to life and limb* - my parents went into town to get the mystery package. They were told that the postage on it was short by 6p, but they had pay an additional one pound on top of this. Even then they didn't get the letter. The post office person carefully counted out 6 1p stamps, and put them on the letter, being careful to hide it from my parents so they couldn't see what it was. They were then told to go home; the letter would be put in the post as normal and would arrive in due course. Three days later – i.e. two postal days, and one Sunday - it did. It was indeed my card.
6p appears to be the difference between a first class normal letter, and a second class large letter, so I assume that the card was just a bit too big to go by normal letter rate. To be honest, I'd totally forgotten the existence of the new big latter rate, but even if I'd remember, I think I'd have assumed the card was small enough and thin enough to pass as normal. Still, that's fair enough. What is annoying, though, is the 11 days it took the Post Office to tell my parents about it, and their refusal to hand it over.
* Okay, so they got on the bus that stops right outside their front door, paid nothing, since they're over 60, and had a trouble-free bus journey over the delightful scenery of Cleeve Hill, but why let the truth spoil a good story? In my version, they fought lions en route, and spent all their hard-won savings on hiring horses. I bet the real version of most great sagas is actually fairly prosaic. That Beowulf, you know… Mildly bruised a baby squirrel, causing its mother to throw a nut at his head… And as for King Arthur… Found a rusty penknife in a puddle, and before you know it, the bards are hailing him as king.
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'Old Curiosity Shop' - 'Man retires to West Midlands'.
Oh, hang on though, that is even more incredible than the original ...