101 Things/Postcodes

[Wendy St. John]

Just jumping in on the Royal Mail topic with my own story regarding Mary
Ann's (Dizzy Elf's) comment below:

> Oh, I love it!  Royal Mail has a special centre in Belfast where=20
> incorrectly- and strangely-addressed letters are either deciphered or=20
> condemned.  I came across some examples once, and darned if I can=20
> remember any, but there were several along the lines of "the cottage=20
> with the blue door and flowery net curtains next to the post office=20
> in a little village on the number 5 bus route out of Reading".  Kudos=20
> to Royal Mail; a lot of these letters are properly delivered, albeit=20
> a few weeks late.

I have the utmost in respect for the Royal Mail. When I was living in
Scotland, I once ordered something from a website, and somehow the woman
sending the package from somewhere down in the south of England missed the
part where I wrote my whole address, and just mailed the package to "Wendy
St. John, Gullane." I was amazed when the package reached me addressed like
that (and in a timely manner, at that). The postie did include a small and
very polite note asking that in future I please give out the entire
address. <G> We'd only lived in the village for a couple of months at that
time, too, so it wasn't as though they'd been delivering mail to me for
years and years. Pretty cool. Not to knock the USPS (who delivers my mail
now, and does an admirable job), but I always loved having my post
delivered by an organization called the "Royal Mail." Sounds more romantic
or something. :-)


Wendy 
hebrideanblack at earthlink.net
(Who's been back in California for four months now, and is missing the heck
out of Scotland!)