Monday 1 March 2010

Post Office Adventures

When you want to send a letter to someone – do you put the stamp in the top righthand corner, and with an air of finality, thump it with your fist, saying to yourself, “right, that’s done, I’ll post it tomorrow and they’ll get it the day after that”?? Well, maybe you shouldn’t take it all for granted.

When I returned from my trip to Argentina last year, I did the usual thing that untidy travellers do – dragged out the presents to distribute, the knickknacks to show off, the dirty clothes to be washed… and then abandoned my half unpacked suitcase in the spare room, to the delight of my cats who are evermore on the hunt for new and exciting places to sleep.

Next I wrote my thank you letters and e-mails - and there were many, for so many people had been extraordinarily kind and accommodating. After that I checked my photographs (for “checked” read “straightened”, and thank you to Photoshop), printed off pictures and consulted my list – oh yes, I’m one of those nerdy list makers – to see who had asked me for a copy of the original book whose translation I had been promoting, who wanted prints of my pictures, who had requested information I didn’t have at the time, and so on.

In due course, and in stages over the following weeks, I had various parcels to post to different locations in Argentina. One Monday morning in mid December two of them started their arduous journey to different addresses in Patagonia, the first of which contained several stoutly wrapped bars of bitter chocolate laced with strong chilli (…I know, me neither…) requested by a 15 year-old friend, Tomi, who couldn’t believe such a thing existed and was keen to try it; the second was a padded envelope for Carlos Espinosa, the journalist who had helped me set up my trip, containing a DVD with several hundred pictures taken during my visit, and a Spanish translation of one of the ‘Just William’ books by Richmal Crompton, the series written between the wars about the adventures of an impish English boy aged 11 and his gang. This richly comical saga for all ages had been Carlos’ favourite as a boy, and I was delighted to have found one of them on the internet.

My two parcels disappeared into the maw of the international postal office system and perhaps got to Buenos Aires when this country’s revered institution was having a particularly bad week, or perhaps one of its workers denied time off at Christmas – but when the new year came and went with no sign of them I started to worry that the jaundiced employee was both a chocoholic and a bookworm.

On 13th January Carlos e-mailed me to say he had received two (!) parcels from me: one contained the book, with a written note advising that a second parcel containing photos was on its way, and the other, much larger, was very torn and shrink-wrapped, with a polite note from the national post office, part of which said:

"Dear customer,
The consignment delivered herewith has been damaged by other parties and was received by us from its country of origin in its present damaged condition. Conscious that your post is important and should be received in good condition, we have proceeded to shrink-wrap its original packaging and contents…."

This damaged envelope had my handwriting all over the outside, and nestling inside were items totally unknown to me: (1) a Christmas card addressed to one “Kitty”, wishing her a merry Christmas and happy new year in very shaky Spanish, “with kisses and hugs from Ken and Jean”, and (2) a calendar entitled “Scotland’s Artists 2010”. There was no sign of the DVD in either package. A couple of days later I posted off to him another padded envelope with a second DVD with my pictures, this time with his address all over the disk in indelible print.

Stick with me, because the story gets even weirder.

Ten days later on 24th January an envelope was popped through my door in Bristol by the postman, along with other post – it was a padded envelope, completely unsealed, containing the missing DVD, and was addressed to me in a neatly typed label, from Shanghai, China.
.
Carlos was as mystified as I was, but the thick plottened: On 15th February his son was sitting in the garden and a Renault 18 car drove up. The driver got out and called across to him “Is this the Espinosa household?” On being told that it was he handed him an envelope and said “this appeared at my house”, upon which he got back in his car and disappeared. Not knowing the preceding goings on he didn’t think to ask him anything else. The envelope contained my second replacement DVD and a card from me sending my best regards to Kitty…


So why did the previous DVD get sent to China, and who knew my address to send it to me in England??? Oh (sigh) never mind.

Meanwhile, back to the first parcel to Tomi, which contained the chocolate with chilli –

By mid January, a month after posting, it still hadn’t arrived. I realised that if the first one had been purloined, chances were that the second one would be too, but I decided to risk sending another, speculating with grim amusement on the unpleasant surprise the post office worker would have received on taking a bite out of the chilli-infused, ultra bitter chocolate. The second parcel I sent was even more heavily padded – enough in fact for it to look quite consistent when I wrote in clear black print on the outside that the package contained “Zapatos Viejos” – old shoes...

Well folks, the jaundiced one turned out to be me and not post office workers on either side of the pond, because Tomi received both parcels together, and had a wonderful time alternately devouring the chocolate and gasping for glasses of water, not to mention the fabulous street-cred he gained when he shared some of it out with his friends.

So it all got somewhere in the end, probably thanks to the goodwill of persons unknown in both Patagonia and China. The well-travelled DVD wasn’t giving up its secrets, and fearing a Chinese sense of humour that might have introduced a virus into the DVD, I threw it away anyway.

Carlos was for once saved the monthly tedium of the usual long queue at the bank when he went to pay his utility bills thanks to Richmal Crompton’s “Las Travesuras de William” which I had sent him, and didn’t mind in the least the strange looks he got, not even when he attracted the attention of the security guard who demanded to know what was making him laugh. Carlos volunteered to read him a particularly funny paragraph, but was disappointed when the offer was sternly refused. Ah well, their loss.

-oOo-

From now on I would like to introduce a sort of signature to my posts, the idea for which I have got from a gentleman called Matías Vieira, whose blog Patagonia, Chile, el Mundo, (http://matiasvieira.blogspot.com/), contains many beautiful photographs taken by him, of Patagonia and other travels. He lives in Punta Arenas, Southern Chile, and though his text is in Spanish, the content is mainly photographic, and of a very high quality at that. He always finishes his posts with an old photograph or postcard taken from his family archives, and they are a fascinating window into the past.

While mentioning Chile, I would also like to express all my sympathy for and solidarity with the Chileans who have been hit by a very severe earthquake this weekend.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

I’ve recently purchased a second-hand Nikon scanner which is designed for scanning slides and negative film. I’m no tecchie, and the setting up phase has been horrible, but I’m there at last, and for the past week have been enjoying scanning 20 years worth of slides. It’s been like meeting up with old friends again, and has reminded me of why I always referred to it as my “belovèd hobby”. Of course the non-digital pictures were less sharp, and sharpening images electronically doesn’t always work. On the plus side I can crop them to a more pleasing composition. What I would like to do, in future without all this verbiage, is to include a couple of non-digital images at the end of my posts, with explanations if required.

Photo Finish
– from Lonicera’s non-digital archive

All the fun of the fair



-oOo-

9 comments:

Lap Band Groupie said...

Well that was an interesting post! Sounds like a fun trip and an even funner follow-up with all the packages! Enjoyed the fair too! Can't wait to read more! -BG

I'm here:
http://bandgroupiethesweetspot.blogspot.com/

THE DASH! said...

Girl, I don't know anyone that gets around like you do (ooh meant that in a traveling way..;) Your trip was unreal - and I love getting out all the stuff you've collected while away. It's fun.. the washing is not so much!! lol.

Debi said...

Wow! What a journey your gifts made! LOL You are lucky though that they did eventually get there! But I agree with you, no way to be sure that a virus wasn't attached in the CD, so best to start over.

Here in a way too long winded way of saying it, is my response to your comment in my blog today!! Hope you can understand what I was trying to convey! LOL

Caroline, I checked and I don't know how you can add anything other than a pre-made template, like I have for the sides. I know that you can add an almost unlimited amount of gadgets though, but they don't fit on the far sides!

I am currently using the template called Denim from Blogger, with the Fonts and colors changed. Then I added a Layout from MySpace Layouts which filled in the sides. Here is the link to their page, http://www.pyzam.com/myspacelayouts/.

I found my Layout by clicking, More MySpace Categories at the bottom of the left hand column, then I chose Palm Trees. My Layout is called, Totally Vaycay!

To install it in my blog, I just clicked, Get The Code, then click Copy. Then in your blog under Customize, Add A Gadget (but you must Add A Gadget ON THE SIDE BAR, not one that goes across the top/bottom or it won't take. By putting the Gadget on the sidebar, it fills in the sides of your Template!). After you picked Add A Gadget, choose HTML, then right click in the main box and paste it in. No need to name it.

I believe the original template that I used before I changed this past week was, Herbert. Which used the entire width of the screen, and I believe, gave more space for photos. I hope this helps!!

Matvi. said...

Caroline, thans for your simpathy and feelings regarding the earthquake.
And very honoured to be mentioned in your post, specially with such warm praises.
If you ever get to buy a new photo scanner, y strongly recommend a Canon 8800F.

Beatrice said...

Muy divertido el viaje que hicieron tus envíos, pero al fin llegaron a destino. Sin duda el DVD de China es muy extraño, fue lo mejor descartarlo.
Ese chocolate Lindt...chili and bitter, algún día habrá que probarlo.
Gracias por tus palabras para mi terremoteado país.
Un abrazo
Beatriz

Lonicera said...

Thank you all! Such nice comments.
Just realised looking at your blog BG that one can put links to past posts - I've always regretted the fact we bloggers rarely go back to old posts of the blogs we read, and so much decent stuff gets submerged...
Cara - No. 1 commentator, always kind and positive - thank you.
Debi - I remarked on your blog what a chicken I am about changing the appearance of my blog. I wonder if Blogspot will ever make it easier... and make their software work better...
Matías - unfortunately I spent twice the amount of the Cannon scanner and the Nikon, and it was secondhand... it's the story of my life that I always realise these things too late! However I'm getting a great deal of fun out of seeing my old slides again, and look foward to showing a few on the blog.
Beatriz - your blog is pure and absolute pleasure, and you don't waste space with long entries, as I do. A beautiful picture, a lovely poem - it's all one needs. That and Ana Moura of course. It was such a relief to hear from you again.
Grateful hugs to all.
Caroline

Lonicera said...

Correction: I spent twice the value of the Cannon "on" the Nikon...
(Too hasty!)

Anonymous said...

Excellentes tus photographias !!!!
Bonjour et bonne journée

Lonicera said...

Merci Mari Clara! (I've looked at your blog and like your images very much - and forgive me for not knowing how to say this in French!)
Caroline

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