Another Post - pun intended

Okay, here comes another bus (see previous posting). I have today completed a mail-shot for a new publication of our church history. As I opened the door to the office of the United States Postal Service (North Durham Station), I was greeted by a smiling face, a "thank you so much for using the US Postal Service" and the wishing me a good day.

I have a great admiration for the USPS. Up to now, we have never had any item go astray. Letters, greetings cards, packages and parcels all seem to magically wing there way over the nation, indeed in many cases for us, across the Atlantic, for a very reasonable cost and usually within a short time. Letters to England normally arrive within four working days. Of course, it's a two organization operation, and the quality of the United Kingdom's Royal Mail have to be congratulated also.

As I've mentioned before, we lived in Málaga, Spain for five years. The Spanish postal service, the Correos, it has to be said, is a poor, very poor, imitation of the USPS and Royal Mail. We had only ONE delivery per WEEK (and we lived in an urban, not rural environment), mail would go astray on a regular basis, we often received mail intended for an address miles away,the counter service was non existent and it would be normal to be greeted by a sneer rather than a smile. Parcels containing gifts mysteriously disappeared, both on their way to England, or from the US. I have used the past tense as it's over three years since we lived there. To be fair, the situation may have improved. I hope so.

Getting back to the US, we have a great letter carrier, who is thoughtful, friendly and helpful. One service I love here is that we can leave our outgoing mail in our mail box for our cheerful letter carrier to pick up - just a shame we have to add a stamp! Just joking.