I get them confused too: I think David's brother-in-law is a Man of Kent (I'm not sure where he was born), but his daughter (who was born in Canterbury) is a Kentish Maid.
There is some dispute, but being born EAST of the Medway makes you a Man (or Maid) of Kent, whilst WEST of the river makes you a Kentish Maid (or Man).
Canterbury is east of the Medway, so b-i-l's daughter is a Maid of Kent.
Hermes. I suppose naming themselves after a deity associated with trickery and thieving as well as being a messenger is a bit of a giveaway. Delivered package at 21:04 last night. At my address. Lies. No sign.
Oh Penny I sympathise - I had a package delivered by them when I was out. I got a message to say it had been delivered and was home half an hour later. By which point the parcel had been nicked. They were able to supply a picture of it by the front door and it was my front door. I got intouch with the supplier - and they sent a replacement which I thought was amazing and they did so without hesitation. So, I hope you are able to get what you ordered. It's upsetting.
There's a lockable cupboard they can put things in - and have in the past.* The doorstep is out of sight from passers by, Checked to see if the neighbour had taken it into protective custody. Have sympathy for someone required to be out after 9 at night delivering.
Research shows that the three balls of yarn, bought to complete a Christmas present, are probably the last balls of that colour in the country - at least available on line.
I wish I'd gone for click and collect from Waitrose - but I am observing lockdown, and didn't want to go into the shop.
*In one case, having failed to ring or knock, took the time to remove stuff from the cupboard as the delivery was a large box, and then build a wall of said removed stuff across in front of it. Bearing this in mind, I have removed stuff from the cupboard to search for a fairly small plastic bag, in case they decided that the empty plastic box arranged sideways on to be a good place to put stuff wasn't good enough. But no.
Local rumour has it that there have been cases of the couriers photographing packages on doorsteps and then taking them away themselves.
I suspect I'll be consigning myself to Hell shortly, as I've ordered a Christmas tree from B&Q, and missed the bit in the "checkout" where you can tell them which day you want it delivered. It's apparently going to arrive on Thursday, and if it was at 9 in the evening that would be fine, but I suspect it'll be rather earlier, and while I'm at work.
If there was a space on the order for a safe place to leave it (the dustbin store would probably do) then I didn't notice it.
Local rumour has it that there have been cases of the couriers photographing packages on doorsteps and then taking them away themselves.
I received such a picture earlier this week from a delivery company, and arrived home to discover no package. I then opened the storm door to find a note from my neighbours across the hall saying they'd seen my unattended package and had taken it in themselves as they weren't sure it was safe/secure. Thank you, kindly neighbours.
I have ordered a three foot long tubular heater for background in the bedroom without a vent from the warm air. I dread to think what will become of that!
Just had an email. It is in the hands of Royal Mail.
Who I arrived downstairs to find had left an "in the cupboard note" - no doorbell again. But it turned out to be a bottle of eucalyptus oil which I need for mixing up in the fashion of Martha Gardner to make wool wash. So it fitted in the cupboard easily - though the postie didn't use the empty box I'd installed for that sort of thing.
I have a notice on the door by the letter box. "Please ring all the bell buttons to be sure of being heard. The letterbox cannot be heard." I have three bells. The original which has a loud buzz which I can hear everywhere except my bedroom or the garden. The wifi one which I bought for use in the garden, but for which I lost the receiver (now found), and the other wifi one which I bought to replace the garden one and the receiver for which is in my bedroom. And loud. Not a buzz, not a dingdong. Don't know if Fur Elise went off as it is in the hall.
I had a delivery this morning and an email to say it had arrived. I opened the door it wasn’t there, but parcels often get delivered to similar named house down the road, so I trotted down the road and there it was.
John Lewis customer services. My iron has a split in its sole plate and is within their 2 year guarantee. The receipt, which I emailed them, is missing an essential customer number so I have to physically visit a store to exchange or refund. In December. During a pandemic.
My Iron Ing is nearly always put aside for a couple of months ...
Re: my Christmas tree from B&Q - I spent today playing telephone tag with them and eventually got a lovely lady who said it would be sorted (with one minor change to the decorations I'd ordered). Jolly good show, I thought, and then when I was on my way home I got an e-mail to say the order had been cancelled!
I'm not sure what to do now - I've got a Teams training session in the morning, so I'll have to turn my mobile off. I'm beginning to think sod it.
I received an email from Australia Post on Wednesday to say delivery of my new phone cases would be delayed and should arrive some time in the future. However they’d already been safely delivered to my desk at work on Tuesday.
Alas, I am sometimes in the habit of grinding my teeth when asleep (so the former Mrs BF told me...), and I seem to have started doing this again recently. A group of molars (lower jaw) is loose, and the gums are tender, so that it's quite painful to bite down on them.
Given the Troubles of the Time, I'm reluctant to visit a dentist, so have ordered, from my good friend Mr E Bay, a certain Device which fits into one's Gob to prevent the grinding whilst asleep.
I hope it works.
Wikipedia tells me that teeth-grinding can be caused by stress and anxiety - another effect of the pandemic, maybe?
Teeth grinding is debilitating - I have a special thing to wear to protect my teeth but I know that feeling of aching jaw and headache and tension when I wake up in the morning. I hope you are able to find some relief Bishops Finger.
Update re: my B&Q order: I had an e-mail from them this morning saying it would be delivered on Saturday morning.
We'll see - I'm planning on a very long lie tomorrow after my first week at work in nearly five years, so I hope the postman won't be horrified by my unkempt appearance!
We'll see - I'm planning on a very long lie tomorrow after my first week at work in nearly five years, so I hope the postman won't be horrified by my unkempt appearance!
Ours seem unshockable. Including the time that I was in the shower when the doorbell rang, so I nipped out onto the landing to look out the window to see who it was.
Alas, our postie, having had no immediate response to the doorbell had come into our hallway to leave a parcel.
We had a brief moment - me at the top of the stairs looking down, and the postie at the bottom of the stairs looking up....
I had grabbed a towel to minimise drippage onto the carpet, so I was decent-ish but...
Anyway, the postie just said "parcel for you" and legged it.
I had a parcel delivered today - the poor postie couldn’t have looked more wet and windswept if he was on the deck of a trawler in a gale! Still cheerful though!
It is always a big delivery day for me on Saturday - the weekly shop from Tesco arrives. I started online grocery deliveries in March during lockdown, and I am a convert. The Tesco drivers are always cheerful too, and are far too polite to comment on the chocolate-to-vegetable ratio in my deliveries...
@North East Quine - reminds me of the time I was, for some reason, having a bath in the afternoon, when the doorbell rang. Mr F being out I thought perhaps he'd forgotten his key, so I bundled on a dressing gown and went down. It turned out to be an evangelist (with hovering acolytes). To this day it puzzles me why he thought a dripping woman, dressed only in a wrap, standing barefoot on a doorstep, would be disposed to theological discussion.
I know I am being a curmudgeonly old bat, but it would have been nice if any one of the 21 Christmas themed songs in the top 40 had even waved at the manger on the way by. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55192231
Not curmudgeonly at all, Doublethink, although I can't say I'm surprised.
Personally I'm not too bothered about the lack of Christmas meaning in secular Christmas songs: I think I file them in different mental drawers, IYSWIM.
Our small town is three posties short so we have had many different posties and sometimes none, ie days without deliveries. I think some temps have just been just taken on this week, so the situation should improve.
Here in Melbourne (down-under) we have been limited to postal deliveries on alternate days only for some months now, and set to continue until June. Nothing on Saturday or Sunday, of course, so Mon., Wed., and Fri. one week and Tues. and Thurs. the next week. Very hard to keep track of.
New Zealand has a permanent 3 day a week delivery of standard mail. Our days here are Monday, Wednesday and Friday while other people have Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so at least it's consistent, though irritating as Monday is the day most likely to be a public holiday.
I get very little mail these days as most people email.
Our local postie is a very chirpy young lass, notable for the cheerful smile with which she greets people. It must be getting towards winter, though, as she has put her legs away, and is now wearing Trowsers...
@Bishops Finger I often think posties are the hardiest people on the planet, based on my local postie’s ability to wear shorts in November, in Scotland... 🥶
But the trouser season has arrived here too. I wonder if Scottish posties should have uniform kilts instead... 🤔
Some of the other posties around here are still in shorts , but I do rather like the idea of a posties' kilt. Maybe a special tartan could be devised, once Blessed Alba becomes independent?
My yarn arrived. Email announcing due between 1 and 3. Doorbell rung at 11. Rushed to look out of upstairs window to see two young women waking away. "Hello!" shouts I. One turned round and indicated the parcel on the doorstep, in a non-British accent, probably Eastern European. Found second email, rescheduled delivery between 12 and 2. It appears to be last weeks' parcel, from the paperwork. Hmm. And the yarn isn't dark enough.
I hereby retract any consigning to the Infernal Regions that I may have imposed on B&Q; the Christmas tree arrived at exactly the time today they said it would, and is now assembled, decorated and lit.
Comments
I may have got them the wrong way round ...
Canterbury is east of the Medway, so b-i-l's daughter is a Maid of Kent.
A Man (or Maid) of Kent, as the case may be, as the mooring is on the east side of the river.
Research shows that the three balls of yarn, bought to complete a Christmas present, are probably the last balls of that colour in the country - at least available on line.
I wish I'd gone for click and collect from Waitrose - but I am observing lockdown, and didn't want to go into the shop.
*In one case, having failed to ring or knock, took the time to remove stuff from the cupboard as the delivery was a large box, and then build a wall of said removed stuff across in front of it. Bearing this in mind, I have removed stuff from the cupboard to search for a fairly small plastic bag, in case they decided that the empty plastic box arranged sideways on to be a good place to put stuff wasn't good enough. But no.
Local rumour has it that there have been cases of the couriers photographing packages on doorsteps and then taking them away themselves.
If there was a space on the order for a safe place to leave it (the dustbin store would probably do) then I didn't notice it.
I'm a piglet of very little brain ...
🤣🤣
I received such a picture earlier this week from a delivery company, and arrived home to discover no package. I then opened the storm door to find a note from my neighbours across the hall saying they'd seen my unattended package and had taken it in themselves as they weren't sure it was safe/secure. Thank you, kindly neighbours.
Just had an email. It is in the hands of Royal Mail.
I have a notice on the door by the letter box. "Please ring all the bell buttons to be sure of being heard. The letterbox cannot be heard." I have three bells. The original which has a loud buzz which I can hear everywhere except my bedroom or the garden. The wifi one which I bought for use in the garden, but for which I lost the receiver (now found), and the other wifi one which I bought to replace the garden one and the receiver for which is in my bedroom. And loud. Not a buzz, not a dingdong. Don't know if Fur Elise went off as it is in the hall.
Re: my Christmas tree from B&Q - I spent today playing telephone tag with them and eventually got a lovely lady who said it would be sorted (with one minor change to the decorations I'd ordered). Jolly good show, I thought, and then when I was on my way home I got an e-mail to say the order had been cancelled!
I'm not sure what to do now - I've got a Teams training session in the morning, so I'll have to turn my mobile off. I'm beginning to think sod it.
I'm sure you could find someone who would appreciate that!
Alas, I am sometimes in the habit of grinding my teeth when asleep (so the former Mrs BF told me...), and I seem to have started doing this again recently. A group of molars (lower jaw) is loose, and the gums are tender, so that it's quite painful to bite down on them.
Given the Troubles of the Time, I'm reluctant to visit a dentist, so have ordered, from my good friend Mr E Bay, a certain Device which fits into one's Gob to prevent the grinding whilst asleep.
I hope it works.
Wikipedia tells me that teeth-grinding can be caused by stress and anxiety - another effect of the pandemic, maybe?
We'll see - I'm planning on a very long lie tomorrow after my first week at work in nearly five years, so I hope the postman won't be horrified by my unkempt appearance!
Ours seem unshockable. Including the time that I was in the shower when the doorbell rang, so I nipped out onto the landing to look out the window to see who it was.
Alas, our postie, having had no immediate response to the doorbell had come into our hallway to leave a parcel.
We had a brief moment - me at the top of the stairs looking down, and the postie at the bottom of the stairs looking up....
I had grabbed a towel to minimise drippage onto the carpet, so I was decent-ish but...
Anyway, the postie just said "parcel for you" and legged it.
It is always a big delivery day for me on Saturday - the weekly shop from Tesco arrives. I started online grocery deliveries in March during lockdown, and I am a convert. The Tesco drivers are always cheerful too, and are far too polite to comment on the chocolate-to-vegetable ratio in my deliveries...
Personally I'm not too bothered about the lack of Christmas meaning in secular Christmas songs: I think I file them in different mental drawers, IYSWIM.
It varies - I've had things delivered by ladies and gentlemen here.
I get very little mail these days as most people email.
Let the reader understand.
This reader does...
Our local postie is a very chirpy young lass, notable for the cheerful smile with which she greets people. It must be getting towards winter, though, as she has put her legs away, and is now wearing Trowsers...
But the trouser season has arrived here too. I wonder if Scottish posties should have uniform kilts instead... 🤔