Deliveries N E V E R Arrive Earlier- Word Games

You remember, (previous post) I was told that a delivery I was waiting for would arrive on Monday next, also, that deliveries never arrive earlier than stated, well, guess what happened............... 


I was out all afternoon. On my way home I felt a bit jaded, so, I stopped off at the local supermarket café, bought a drink and munched a moist blueberry muffin, (naughty but nice).  

A grotty [news]-paper for café customers had an interesting word game, the kind where you are given a number of letters, you make words found in a dictionary and each word must have  a minimum of three letters from those given plus  the given centre letter.  Adverbs are not usually allowed.  There's always one eight letter word to find. This word game allowed adverbs, just as well, the centre letter was a 'Y' . Generally, average ability is given as fifteen words. My brain sizzled while I scribbled. 

 Half an hour later, with two eight letter words and fifteen words in total - Yay! at least average - I decided I had better pick up my bags wander on up the hill to home.  My brain was still actively composing words as I walked. 

My key turned in the lock of the front door about 5pm. I felt the need for a wee rest, all the brain work with word creation must have used up some energy. I sat in the armchair and dozed off. Half an hour later, I was startled awake with the doorbell.  I found our local friendly courier at the door with my parcel.  

The courier commented that he was always doing deliveries for certain companies earlier than customers expected.  He had to wait for me to set in motion various things which, if, I had been better informed, I would have completed in advance of the delivery.  While I did those things, the courier sat patiently waiting in my kitchen. 

I signed his electronic machine.  Oh bother, I did not get the man's signature, obscurely, in a booklet he gave me, which I discovered was part of the delivery process, only after he had gone.  I'll try get it done, if I see the guy around town. I often do, but, you can bet on it, that because I now need to see him, it won't happen.

Apart  from a blip or two, Lady luck smiled, thus far.

DELIVERIES IN RAGING STORMS

Storms are raging over Shetland.  Elsewhere in the far North of Scotland there are gales.  To give some perspective, a Gale is anything about wind force 7 to 9,  (anything less than 7 is rather windy) and a storm is wind force 10.  Force ten is really  fierce.

In our gales of about wind force 8 today, Royal Mail delivered our post.  The poor post woman who arrived on our doorstep, (to my surprise) looked quite dazed and battered; she said it was really difficult to hold on to the post she was carrying and delivering.  

The seas rage, the winds blast, scream, push and shove; it knows no chivalry.  The lifeline ferries to the islands take shelter and stay in port.  There will be no deliveries of the everyday commodities to the islands that we take for granted.  There has been little let up in the gales and flooding this week causing transport and domestic chaos in many parts of the UK.

In view of the extreme weather conditions the management of Tesco Limited, have chartered a Hercules Transport plane to make four deliveries of commodities this weekend, to the storm bound Shetland islanders. I am not aware of any other major food and goods retailer that has a presence on the island, who would do this.  

HAIR RAISING DELIVERIES

Furniture and domestic appliance orders seem to take a lifetime to materialise. You wait, and wait, very patiently. You keep your fingers crossed for when the order does eventually appear that everything will be alright.

In the past I have had deliveries that have not matched the order I made; they've been turned round and I have had to wait and wait till the next scheduled delivery of replacement goods.  Even then, they have not been satisfactory.  It makes you want to tear your hair out. 

I ordered a particular make of freezer some years ago from the only supplier I could find, who was based in England.  They knew I lived in Scotland. The process of the delivery of the freezer was given to me in fine detail, down to the advice that the delivery people would unpack it, place the freezer in situ and balance it, then check everything was working.  They, (the delivery people) were, I was told, always instructed to do this and take the packaging away; it was part of the service.

A Van arrived that was only just tall enough for the freezer to stand in.  One elderly man, the driver, could not take the freezer out of the van on his own. There was not even a drop ramp at the rear to lower the goods. When the sales company was contacted, you could hear they were horrified. Their delivery contractors had sub-contracted the job to couriers who usually delivered packages and medium-sized parcels.  

I phoned a farmer neighbour and he sent a burly farm labourer to help out.  He knew a thing or two about how to do it, and he instructed the van driver.  Bless his heart, the farm labourer unpacked the freezer, got the van driver to assist him to put it in place, then the labourer balanced it.  

It was no surprise to hear that the van driver knew nothing about removing the packaging, not only did he not know anything, he was not going to take it, anyway.  "No problem", said the saviour of the hour, "I'll take it away for you, I'd be glad of the polystyrene to keep the foxes away from my own lambs on the croft". 

This week has felt like moving house to make way for replacement furniture. The delivery was completed by the company's own people and, they did know what they were doing.  Their care and skill was impressive.  We were relieved.........until adjusting door hinges to align the doors on a unit, one door fell off.  Looking at the gouges where those hinges had been unceremoniously shoved in, 

and the sliver of packing wood to try to hide the damage, 

the failure was hardly surprising. (you can see the marks of the screw in the packing piece).  Why oh why did it have to happen at our house!  Now we wait for a resolution.

THE RUNAWAY BUS CAME OVER THE HILL AND IT BLEW...

Because of the storms last week, post and other deliveries have been seriously delayed. No commercial planes were flying passengers, nor to distribute post to outlying areas, or, to heavily populated ones either. Just imagine the bulky back-up of Christmas and business mail that resulted. Some long distance passenger buses tried to maintain a limited service when the trains could not. The bus drivers were brave, and the buses that battled with the weather, were extraordinarily late in their arrivals. They did, however, arrive. Passengers had some hair-raising tales to tell. It is just possible that a mail van limped through the stormy trail as well, though one of those, by no means, would have dented a sizeable backlog very much.

Trickles of mail arrived here at home by Friday evening. Apart from one letter, everything else was local. Is it possible that the bosses had allowed the local sorting office to do their own local sorting rather than bag everything up to travel hundreds of miles South, only to return North again I still have difficulty mentally sorting out the economics of that exercise. 

At about 4.30pm, Monday 12th December 2011, a wadge of mail landed on the mat, mostly Christmas mail. No packages or parcels have arrived. Don't get me wrong, I am not expecting tons of presents, I am however, expecting our usual arrivals of mail order, which haven't shown up. It is this current pattern of deliveries that leads me to believe that there is quite a backlog of mail somewhere in the system, much of it caused by extreme weather conditions. Now, we are waiting for the next severe weather experience that is forecast, which, is bound to have a further impact on mail and courier services.

From past experiences, especially that of last Winter here, I am sure the individuals who work for most of the delivery services will do their level bests to meet the extra demands of Christmas and get their post and parcels to businesses and households. 

I cannot speak highly enough of the local postal services and the efforts they made in the severe Winter of 2010/2011 with the most difficult of weather conditions - blizzards, ice and deep snow underfoot.