I was planning on visiting my local Royal Mail office this morning, only open from 8 am until 10 am, so I got up a little earlier than usual to allow time to get up, dressed, breakfasted and on the road. (See thread 'Royal Mail puzzle" for context).
Yesterday, I had received a message from FedEx that a parcel I was expecting would be delivered on Friday, so I had made sure that Friday was clear and I could afford to stay at home all day, as delivery was only promised "before 18:00".
So this morning, when I logged on to my e-mail, I was surprised to see a message from FedEx to say that the parcel was still scheduled to be delivered on Friday, but was on track to be delivered today, "by
18:00", and was already en route from Thetford. It was impossible at this stage to change delivery instructions, that would have g=had to happen yesterday, when I thought that delivery would be on Friday. One of those "You can't get there from here" situations. Now, as part of my medical regime, I take diuretics, and they need to be managed, ie if I take them in the morning with breakfast, I need to be within reasonable distance of a toilet until about lunchtime, and this had formed part of my preparations for the Royal Mail visit. Once I had decided to not go to Royal Mail today, but to wait in for FedEx, then I was able to take this morning's delayed tablets. Now I am committed to stay home for the morning. This is the same FedEx who, when I returned to the UK after living in the US for several years, was in the process of finalising the sale of my house in Michigan. The Estate Agent (Realtor) had sent the final documents for my signature to me here in the UK via FedEx Priority International Return, meaning that I was to receive them, sign them, call for FedEx to collect them and send them on their way back to Michigan, all prepaid. Not so easy, the FedEx bot at Stansted didn't recognise the Account Number, as it didn't originate in the UK, and so this time-sensitive pack of documents just sat in the airport from Friday until Monday, when I finally got somebody's attention. So much for 24-hour service! Needless to say, FedEx is not my favourite courier. Amazingly, the best one locally is Hermes/Evri, but that is because the local driver is intelligent and uses his brain, which is more than many others do, especially those who deliver only looking at the house name, but ignoring the street name, village name, and Postcode. DPD, I'm looking you.