The Postman Bringeth...

And then generally returns with my parcels to the collecting office and I have to wait 48 hours for access - such is life. Be it a timely delivery via the agencies of the royal mail, my dodgy flat intercom, and a late start to work, or the delayed gratification of waiting for 2 days before trudging along to a small room tucked down a dodgy side alley near the train station (that’s where the collecting office is, it’s not just somewhere I go to hang out) I just love getting post.

Since letter writing has become an all but dead art my personal post has dwindled – I get very occasional postcards, equally occasional greetings cards and fairly frequent suggestions from the bank that I might want to plunge myself deeper into debt, and of course books. Books are easily as exciting as letters even if I’ve bought and arranged for their delivery myself – the element of surprise which comes with a letter is replaced by the element of relief when the desired item turns up.

Anyway my most recent postal goodies comprise the rest of the Barsetshire Chronicles and I’m feeling ridiculously pleased with them so thought I’d share a picture. I also got a shower hose from my dad. I wasn’t expecting it, am not entirely sure I need it, and when I put it together with last year’s spanner have to wonder what he’s trying to tell me...

Actually a quick inspection of the existing shower whatsit suggests that dad might have a point, although when I (try and) fit the new one I’ll clearly have to give the taps a good seeing to with some anti lime scale stuff - my bathroom is clean and welcoming honestly, or at least I thought it was but now I’m finding lots of jobs that need doing. I wonder how susceptible dad would be to the suggestion that on his next visit he does the bathroom tiles anew? He’s generally pretty good about these things never leaving home without his tool box, I don’t think he’s trying to turn me into a D.I.Yer though – he’s always (and with good reason) very dismissive of any attempts I make in that direction.

And now that the sound of fireworks has died back a bit - it’s Diwali as well as Guy Fawkes tonight (Leicester has the biggest Diwali celebrations outside of India, or at least that’s what all the publicity stuff says) and we have a lot of fireworks which due to rain and poor organisation on my part I can hear but haven’t seen. It honestly sounds like I imagine the Western front did in 1916 with the likelihood of constant barrages from nightfall to about 3am for the next few days, the smell of gunpowder is perfuming the air, and I’m likely to develop a nervous twitch if I walk home at night but I love all of it – this is absolutely my favourite time of year to be in this city.

Good things also come to those who wait...

More lovely parcels have been coming my way – birthday and Christmas are frankly going to be a disappointment after this and once more these books I’m particularly pleased to have especially as some of them seem to have come my way against the odds.

There are a lot of nice things about blogging and at the risk of sounding shallow/mercenary I have to admit that the occasional free books that come my way are high on the list of my personal reasons to get out of bed in the morning. I’ve always loved getting post, and I love books so as combinations go what could be better (apart from a lottery win, or world peace, or a sunny summer on the Scottish coast, or a really good cake...)? Nope, I can’t think of anything either.

Perhaps part of the reason I get so excited about these things turning up is because it has a definite novelty value and because the few mailing lists I’ve been lucky enough to get myself on are with publishers I’m hugely enthusiastic about. Of all these my absolute favourite is Oxford World Classics who mail out utterly unexpected books including ‘The Complete Fairy Tales’ of Charles Perrault. I’ve wanted this book ever since I saw it in hard back a year ago – it’s been quietly sitting on my wish list ever since, and moved up a notch or two when I saw it was available in paperback so imagine me when I turned up at the post office to collect an expected parcel on Friday morning having a conversation a bit like this with the post man...

Me “hello I’ve come for this” (brandishing receipt for undelivered packet)

Postman disappears behind the scenes and makes some furtive rustling noise in the background appearing a couple of minutes later with two parcels and a sheepish expression. “Do you have another receipt anywhere” he asks

“No, just that one” I say eyeing up the second parcel and my chances of getting hold of it (he’s clutching them pretty tight I can tell you, and I doubt I’m getting to him through the plate glass window, plus I should stay on good terms with the post office...)

“ummm” he says “er, we seem to have two parcels for you”

“Well I’ll have both” says I, and then I see the date on the Oxford parcel “it says September on it”

“Yes, we’ve had it for a while” (I can tell he’s lying being economical with the facts because I’m in that office quite often care of my dirty amazon habit.)

“Thank you for keeping it” I say through gritted teeth as I head back off into the dawn and on to work. This isn’t really a criticism of the post office who got me my post in the end even if it did temporarily go missing (though I also know for sure that there is a micro library of mislaid books out there with my name on them and where do these things get to?) In truth I was so pleased to have the book that nothing would have dented my mood – and nothing did for the rest of the day.

I also want to say a big thank you to Sophie at Virago who made me feel like a kid in a sweet shop by telling me to let her know if there was anything I might like. Oh yes. I asked for ‘Desert of the Heart’ and she sent it twice after the first copy was a no show. I consider that particularly generous and again it’s a book I’m really looking forward to reading. Now – time for bed to get up for work and just the possibility of something exciting in the letter box when I get home (quite likely at some point this week courtesy of that amazon addiction.)