Catching The Post

A little bit of a moan. On Thursday, a card arrived stating that there was a package, at Dereham Parcels Office, and I needed to pay £1.50. I could either 

1. pay and collect in person [providing evidence of name and address] 
2. pay online and have it delivered,
3. put stamps to £1.50 on the card, post it, and parcel would be delivered.
4. ignore it
   

I decided against 4 [it might be a birthday present]

I have stamps, and was about to choose option 3, when I realised the address on the card was wrong - not Corner stones,  but Corner House,  and it said Road not Close.

What about Option 2 - no this is no good, as the online form asked me to 'fill in the address as on the card' - which was wrong [and no postcode either] and the identification number had not been filled in. So it's option 1. 

"I will go in to the sorting office this afternoon or Friday" I said to Bob. Except there were three possible options for the opening times listed online. I rang our lovely village postmistress. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you, Angela" she apologised. "They have sent me two different sets of times - they either open at 8 or 9, and close at  either 10 or 12"

I went at 9.30 Friday figuring that way I might get in.

And yes the office was open.

I passed the card through the slot. The woman didn't ask for any identification. She found the "This is too thick and too heavy- you should have more stamps on this" I politely pointed out I was not the sender, but the recipient, and gave her the cash. "Could I just say, I had real problems finding out your opening times. How do you know when the office is open?" "Its 8-10 weekdays, 8-12 Saturdays" "Yes, but how does anyone know that?" and she actually said "Well I know because I work here, and also there's a sign on the wall" "But online, you have three sets of times listed online, and when I rang my village post office, I was told they had been sent two different lists" "That's not my fault" "I am not saying it is, but can you ask somebody higher up to sort it out, please?"

When I got outside, I looked at the envelope - the person who sent it had written my address correctly, legibly and  included the postcode. Whoever filled in the card at the Sorting Office hadn't even bothered to get those address details correct. Oh well, at least I got my birthday gift, eventually.

My daffs outside are coming to an end, and the wind blew this one over - I picked it, trimmed the stalk and stuck it in a bottle to brighten the kitchen. Four small blooms on one stalk. It is a variety called "Cheerfulness"- I decided to adopt this attitude rather than be grumpy all day. 

And life gradually got much better as the day progressed! The rain stopped, the sun came out, and I went into Norwich and met lots of lovely people.