T is for Telling the Customer Off

This is a P6586 sticker. I refer to it as the Telling the Customer Off sticker, and it's my favourite. I relish sticking them on people's parcels and letters. This is because I go to quite a bit of effort to make sure things get where they are meant to be, and sometimes people thwart me in my labours by not really knowing the address of the person they are sending to. Bad postcodes cause things to be misrouted entirely. For example, the town of Bellshill in North Lanarkshire; it's postcode is ML4, which, when written lazily looks just like M14. Every day I send on parcels for Bellshill. I hope the people there appreciate my efforts. Missing house or flat numbers cause me to go searching our SPS system to discover where a person might live. Students who continue to use the postcode of their hall of residence even though they have moved into a house share. All these people will get a P6586 sticker. Don't be stickered, check the postcode when you send stuff this Christmas.

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Get a better sticker.

S is for Sorry

This is a P6543 card (everything has a number in Royal Mail), more accurately called the apology card. I do still have a couple in my pocket even though I rarely go out delivering letters any more. It's easier than you think to put the wrong thing through someone's letterbox. The most common reason in my experience is being interrupted on the street: someone comes up and asks you something, and then you turn to go, walk up to the next house and deliver the next letters, only to realise they did not have any letters and they were for the house next door. It can be quite hard to admit you have done something wrong (the childhood fear of punishment lingers well into adulthood) but over time I have become more relaxed about knocking and apologising and asking for letters back, and mostly people are perfectly nice about it. The card is there so apologise on your behalf if there is no one home. I worry I have almost gone too far the other way and happily admit to customers (regularly during the pandemic) that no their mail did not go out today, or that I have no idea where their parcel might be ... I can't lie to save my life so find myself unable to spout fake excuses (I told one customer the notice about technical issues causing the early closing was a lie and we just did not have enough staff). The Amazon driver dropped a packet on our doorstep last week for Cowesby Street (without stopping to wait for an answer) so I just walked round and delivered it. Acknowledging mistakes in myself makes me much more forgiving of others, and when you do so you are less fearful of errors, because mostly they are not the end of the world.

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Cut yourself some slack.

R is for Redirection

'If you don't redirect your mail, anyone could be reading it'. It might seem like quite a lot of money to mainly get your Boden catalogue but it is surprising how many people don't bother to redirect their mail. Random people you don't know could have access to all sorts of information about you if you leave your post at an old address ... your bank statements for example. Walks in our office can have anything from four or five to 40+ redirections. They are a physical thing (as I tried to explain to a customer once), a plastic wallet containing the instruction, with the old and new addresses, and stickers with the new address on. Each day the sorted mail is checked for each redirection and letters for the specified people are stickered and sent on. The parcel scanning system will also flash an alert on tracked parcels for any address that has an active redirection. I know you have a lot to think about when you're moving, but in effect this can save you trouble as it gives you extra time to inform all the people who need to know that you are in a new place. 

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Protect your identity.

Back to Work

  I went back to work today. Having pottered about for my entire week off, and waited in twice for my barrel delivery, I finally got the only job I had planned done this afternoon. My plum tree is now three years old and it was time to give him a bit more room to grow. I had to move everything round to make some room in the yard and charge up the drill to make drainage holes, and move the other plants that were sharing his planter.

The tomato seedlings that have been all over the place this summer are still determined to take over:

Plum tree in his new home, with a new selection of bulbs for some springtime delights:

I did manage to spend a delightful day with my adorable bubs on Saturday:

Stay safe. Be kind. Plant a tree, autumn is the best time.

The Great Outdoors

So I went with Julie and Al over to the Bridgewater RHS garden last week (having succumbed to an advert in the Gardener's World and joined the RHS). It is a lovely place and being close enough to bike to I hope that it being free to get in means I will go regularly and see it in all the seasons and watch the garden develop over time. It was still very colourful despite the onset of autumn and the sun shone.

The Chinese Streamside Garden has come on quite a bit since the spring.

I had been feeling very grumpy and some time in the out-of-doors was just what I needed.

We pottered gently for an hour not worrying about 'seeing everything', but did spot this magnificent bracket fungus:

Back at home Tish bought some random yarn to make baby socks so we have been doing outfits for our sprogs. Matt and Harshi are due the first week of December and Jacob and Kerri the week after. I have started a toddler sized poncho as well. Getting excited to welcome our new family member.

Stay safe. Be kind. Fingers crossed for safe deliveries.

Q is for Queue

I looked out of the front window one day a few weeks ago and thought that there was some kind of roadside vigil happening ... only to realise that the queue at the bus stop was so long it was passing across the front of the office. Everyone was standing a 'safe distance' apart. It feels like covid has permanently changed our queuing behaviour, everybody leaves a gap now when they queue, it's the new normal. Apart from when we were only open two hours a day, for most of the pandemic we rarely had a queue. People were home. The number of parcels we stored at the office plummeted. The number of people calling to collect plummeted. Things seem to have finally gone back to normal. Bear in mind that the three people in front of you in the queue will want; 1. the Post Office 2. to complain about a parcel that is showing on the tracking as delivered but they haven't had and 3. to ask about their letter from the Home Office via Google Translate. If we have someone with a complicated query sometimes I can ask a colleague to take over and serve the rest of the customers, but given our current staffing crisis please bear in mind that I am doing three people's work and when I go off to find the manager they may have popped out to Macdonalds. I am always working as fast as I possibly can. Please refer to my 'Read the Card' post to ensure you do not stand in the queue unnecessarily. 

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Enjoy your week off.

P is for Packaging

In advance of Christmas posting the issue of packaging is the main one. Look at the item you wish to send. If it is in any way fragile pack it in a box, padded with lots of cushioning, either crumpled up newspaper, bubble wrap or nice starch based packing peanuts. Do not pack tiny things in big boxes.  If the box you have is too large just cut it down to fit better. Jiffy bags are the best way to send smaller item, and they can be reused multiple times. If the item has any sharp edges wrap them to prevent them poking out. Choose a size that fits your item snugly so that it does not slide around inside and tear the packaging. 'Do not bend' envelopes are strictly only for flat things. If the item is soft and squishy do not wrap it in brown paper; the paper will tear when the item is picked up or put through the sorting machine; use a plastic posting bag. It's fine to improvise; a tough carrier bag folded over works well, but bin liners are mostly too flimsy. Do not use Christmas wrapping paper to send things through the post, it is not robust enough and will simply disintegrate. As far as I am aware there is not currently any rationing of sellotape. Use plenty. Make sure there are no loose corners that can tear open. Ideally write the address directly on the package with permanent marker. If you do use a separate label, again cover all edges with sellotape/parcel tape to ensure it cannot be torn off accidentally. 

It is part of my job to repair damaged packages ... well sometimes people just hand things through the hatch because they don't want to deal with it, and we do try and get your items there in one piece, but appropriate packaging is the responsibility of the sender.

(Disclaimer: this A to Z is not official Royal Mail advice, except by coincidence.)

Stay safe. Be kind. Time to pot up your plum tree.