#SOCS – Post

A message popped up on Sandra’s iphone:

Mom’s birthday party invitations are finished. Can you have a quick look and confirm you are happy with them.

Sandra opened the attachment. The invitations were lovely. Brightly coloured and featuring a wreath of hibiscus flowers and a fruit packed cocktail. Mom would love it.

Sandra responded:

The invites are great. Are you going to send them out by post?

Sandra’s iphone showed that her sister was typing … and typing … and typing.

By post, are you crazy? This is South Africa. It takes at least three months to receive anything by post and that is if it ever arrives at all. I am still receiving Christmas cards from December last year and it is September. Amazon won’t even post books to South Africa any more. I either have to have them couriered at great expense or buy ebooks. No, I will email them to people?

Sandra was shocked. She had lived in the UK for ten years and the postal service was so efficient. If she posted a letter today, it would usually arrive at the addressee the following day. She felt she was in for a few surprises when she visited her family for this birthday celebration. This was the first time she could afford to make the trip home since she had arrived in the UK.

She typed a response:

OK, I understand. What about the older folks who don’t have email?

The response popped up:

I will deliver them by hand. If I want something done it is usually best to just do it myself.

This post was written for Linda G Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You can join in the challenge here: https://lindaghill.com/2018/09/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-15-18/

Published by robbiesinspiration

Robbie and Michael Cheadle are co-authors of the Sir Chocolate series of books. We both like to write and bake.

39 thoughts on “#SOCS – Post”

      1. Great posting! Just wanted to ask you about? Is this better nowadays? Cant believe it. Otherwise since, four years for business purposes we are testing out our german postal services, and i have to say that from year to year parcels need longer time to be delivered. As shorter the distance, as longer the need to arrive. ;-(
        Enjoy your weekend! Michael

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      2. Unfortunately, Michael, our postal service is very bad. People try not to use it at all. I buy kindle books now and only have special books couriered. I don’t even post Christmas cards but rather send an ecard. I would have expected the German postal service to be efficient; that is a surprise.

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      1. Lol , sadly it’s not as good here as it used to be. First class letters usually take a day or two depending on what time they are posted. But as for when the post man arrives ….. ? It used to be about 7/8 am nowadays it can arrive as late as 4pm… Not complaining though.💜💜

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  4. What a great post. I love when I enjoy reading something *and* learn something new. Our mail service (U.S. but rural area) can be a little unpredictable but that’s more due to the individual carrier and not the system as a whole. I can’t imagine post that takes months and months…

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    1. Hi Elizabeth, I can buy ebooks from Amazon. Physical books have to be couriered and it is very expensive so I limited this to collectors item books I buy only. Amazon won’t use the SA postal service because the books get stolen. You can’t send parcels to SA via the normal post due to theft as well as the very slow service.

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  7. Wow, I had no idea that the mail service in South Africa was so bad. We get almost no mail anymore in the U.S. People are moving to all the other more efficient ways to communicate. It’s a shame in some ways, because receiving a written letter has always been special. Great post!

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    1. Thank you, people don’t use the postal service that much for letters anymore but it is still used for parcels in most countries. We have to get any parcels couriered as the contents get stolen so you can’t use the postal service.

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  14. I could feel the frustration, Robbie, The services are so efficient here in the US, we could pay for overnight express. I probably would drive to deliver by myself if it takes several months to be delivered by the post office.

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