Thursday, September 18, 2008

Parcels.....

I just want to share with you a glimpse of what my life is like here by telling you about my experience today at the Post Office...
Just think how difficult can it be to post a parcel ??? simple you would think huh ? NO today the process took me an hour......
I love recieving parcels :) and have recieved two this week ( am a happy girl ) and so I thought it was about time i caught up with a few people's birthdays i had missed.... so i packaged and labelled three parcels and stuck them well with tape so they would not come undone and went to the post office. I was directed to a window round the back of the building for parcels. I met a friendly man who tried to help.....a very unfriendly lady came and told me i had to undo my parcels for immigration purposes, despite me telling them exactly what was inside....so having asked if they were sure they had tape to do them up i reluctantly complied!!! trying very hard to be patient and tolerant....
She then went away and the man proceeded to try and squash them into a box, he folded one of them in half!!! right in front of me....I couldnt believe it and then when he worked out how much it would be .....It was a horendous price...so i asked whether there was a cheaper way of doing things and was directed inside now...
I went to one lady and she told me it was impossible to do !!! and then another one called me over and said they could do it!!! she then proceeded to weigh them and it was slightly cheaper and so proceeded to give me stamps. Well she gave me so many stamps they had to be stuck all over the parcel....( no big stamps it seems) and the gum on the back is not very sticky and so they would not stick very well to the parcel....we tried and tried....
She directed me out of the building and round the other side to post them, well when i found where to go the people freaked out at the way i had tried to stick the stamps and insisted i got some glue and stuck them. So when i asked for glue they all said sorry you will have to go to a shop and buy some !!! ( by this time my stress levels were rising....i was wondering how hard it was to try and post a parcel here !!!)
So i went out carrying my parcels covered in stamps and bought some glue, one nice lady could see i was a bit stressed and folowed me to help me stick !!! while sticking she asked me about myself and what i was doing and told me how much she liked the British !!! and laughed at my frustration with trying to post my parcels.
She then offered to take them back to the place where we had previously been and as i thanked her i gave her the pot of glue, she laughed as i said to her that her their need was greater than mine.... It wasn't until she walked away with my parcels that i thought i hope she was honest and did put them in the post and didn't keep them herself !!!
So if you recieve a parcel from me soon....it will be a miracle , and know it has come with a lot of feeling.....and stress......

2 comments:

Jamie Quinlan said...

made me laugh again! :)

Unknown said...

Ha ha!!!!!! Yikes, my stress levels just rose up, knowing exactly where you were and wondering why ON EARTH you tried that. Crazy Brit. Any American would tell you to skip that whole scenario and send the parcels back with the TX team and then they could post them to England, and probably for the same price...and even if it was more, that at least you knew they would arrive. what a riot. You need me.