A Cup of Joe and Post Office Package Woes

Being that we are soon going to leave Scotland, we thought it would be nice to thank Phoebe, our most generous and entertaining neighbor, for being such a delightful addition to our stay on Regent Park Square. We decided to go to a nearby bakery and get some goodies to take back to Phoebe and her daughter, Molly. We knew Dominic, the man of the house, was on a business trip to the States, so we wanted to be sure Phoebe was not lonely (not that Phoebe is one to get lonely easily) and that she knew how much we enjoyed spending time with her.

We found Bradford's Bakery right down the street from us and picked up some croissants, chicken pie, raisin puff pastry and a fruit tart to take back. We had another lovely visit with Phoebe and her house guest from Brasil, whose name I have forgotten. Apparently this gal is a family friend who has been in London studying English and staying with Phoebe's sister while she's been there. She took the time to come and keep Phoebe company while her husband has been away and to help take care of the kids, which I thought was very nice of her to do. We shared with Phoebe all our happenings in the Highlands and she continued to share her stories about her endless aggravations that go along with trying to sell her home. Unfortunately, the potential buyers evidentially pulled out of the deal last minute and claimed that Phoebe and her husband were not being attentive to requests that they had made. It sounded pretty pathetic to me! In any case, she had people coming to take a look at the house so we had to skaddadle and let her tend to getting the house cleaned up and ready to show!

A big errand that we had to take care of was to go to the nearby post office to ship a box a stuff home that we didn't really want to shlep to London and Nice. Thanks to Phoebe, our first challenge of finding a perfect sized box to put the stuff into, was easily taken care of. She has a collection of boxes in her shed that she was happy to have us take a look at. Luckily, we found one that would suit us well!

We decided we would ship home a bunch of books we had bought while we've been here, some sweaters, some glasses and my long, heavy winter raincoat (which I have only used 3 times since I have been here) to at least lighten our load a bit. We looked at our filled box and thought, "Ah, this might cost a bit to ship but, hey, how bad could it be??"

Speaking of shlepping, we took the box (or I should say Michael carried the box on his back)to Victoria Road, where many little restaurants, pharmacies, grocers and the post offices are located. Before we could take the box to the post offices, we had to make a stop off at the hardware store two doors down to get twine and/or packing tape to make the box secure. Michael found some heavy duty tape and we packaged everything up safe and secure at the post office before getting in the long line that was out the door. We waited patiently and continued looking at the box trying to estimate how much this thing weighs and how much we would have to pay. We get up to the counter, weigh the box, find out it weighs about 9.5kg (roughly 20 pounds)which puts us at £55 to ship this thing to America -- and this is the cheap way! Michael and I look at each other, we ask if there is a cheaper way. We pull out of queue, use the clerk's scissors to tear open the box, and start unpacking. We struggle for a bit, trying to decide what is essential to ship and what can we try and cram into our already full suitcases and backpacks. After rearranging the contents a bit and looking at the items carefully, we decide it's worth the £55 to ship this stuff and not have to deal carrying it around any longer. So... we put everything back, pack up the box with the remaining tape we had, and got back into the long line once again! We approach the same clerk who helped us the first time and told us that the form we had filled out with that had our address on it will be placed on the box but that we might want to write our address on the actual box just in case the form should detach. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to write our address on the huge amount of tape that we wrapped the box in, the lady gives us a piece of paper and tells us to get out of line while we create a shipping label and adhere it to the box. Out of the line we go again, fighting with the pen once again and strategically trying to tape the paper securely on the box. We finally manage to make it work to only discover that there is an outside chance that the box might not get to us in the states and that they now need an address where the box can be returned should there be a problem. We first thought Archie's address would be the sensible one to give but then figured that if it did come back to him, he would have to then take care of the package and repay shipping fees. Not a nice thing to do so someone who has allowed us to stay a month in his house! We chose to classify the box as "abandoned" should get lost or is not, for some reason, able to get to California. I will cross my fingers... it would be unfortunate if I don't get my coat back and I have a few things I have purchased that I would like to give as gifts! We'll see what happens in the next 4-6 weeks!

After the fiasco at the postoffice, we went back to the house and spent the rest of the afternoon blogging and sorting out how we are going to get to the airport on Sunday to travel to London. Long story but... looks like we will be getting up around 4:00AM to catch a 4:45AM bus downtown that will take us to Prestwick airport, which is the airport on the outskirts of Glasgow. Our flight to London doesn't take off until 8:15AM so this ought to be fun! Oh well...that's what we get for taking a discount airline carrier and booking a flight earlier than the trains take off on a Sunday morning!

So... with this, I sign off. I most likely will not, unless I feel that something noteworthy happens, add anything to the blog tomorrow and will resume once we begin our adventures in London. We have things to take care of, an errand or two to run and an early bedtime ahead of us tomorrow so... probably nothing too exciting for the day ahead.

Ta-Ta for now!. London, watch out! Here we come!