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.

Christmas is coming . . . .

On Thursday of last week we received our fist Christmas card. Admittedly it was from England, although why so early I have no idea. I'm sure this is the earliest ever. Unlike when living in Spain when we had a card delivered in April (just in time for Easter). No, that wasn't early, it was late!

On Friday we received our second! There was a good excuse for this as the senders, dear English friends, had posted the card in England en route to the ferry on the first part of their road trip to southern Spain where they, and their cat (who has her own passport), are spending three months in their beautiful home in Torreblanca. Experienced in Spanish life, they too, are aware of the failings of the Spanish postal service, so made sure that their card to us bore an English, rather than Spanish postmark!

Although we have, as yet, sent no cards, to England, Spain or anywhere else, we have sent the package of Christmas gifts to our Norfolk, England family. Our reasoning was threefold: we already had the gifts; it included an early December birthday gift; and we wanted to beat the bottleneck we know that the Royal Mail suffers pre-Christmas.

The US Postal Service, as usual, excelled themselves. Our daughter emailed us to let us know that the package had arrived in five days. Credit where credit is due.