Travelling On

badmemory

I still haven't had anyone trying to hand me a parcel yet.  But then our numbers are worse than yours.  It also saves them time if they can put it down & walk away, so I suspect that we will be stuck with this here until their bosses actually tell them to get a proper signature.  I'm surprised they are actually prepared to wait to hand it over if they don't need to as they are on a pretty tight delivery schedule/time clock!

Karmacat

Yeah, this guy really hadn't been reading his updates!  So I just told him what I wanted him to do.  Didn't feel able to do that when I was having a parcel *collected* by Royal Mail, but still, piece by piece.

I still need some time chilling, but also I need to keep an eye on the weather, I have some washing out there drying.  Frankly, there are so many items on my to-do list that make me think "ooh, I must do that", I'm not going to list them  

apple_muncher

Our delivery chaps and chapesses here are brill - pop the parcel in front of the step, ring the bell and knock on the door and they step right back. Sometimes they are back around the corner before I can thank them! Some need a photo of the parcel in my hand for their proof - i assume they just get my hand in the pic, as I'm not really photogenic!!!

rtandon27

Most of our delivery chappies are wonderful & quite happy to leave the parcel on the step as long as I've stuck my head out the upstairs window to acknowledge that I know it has been left.  After knocking, our postie even waits 3 steps back for me to open the door and step away, before he picks up letters/parcels from the shelf beside the front door.  He even consciously steps back to scan them into his system and exchange a few pleasantries before continuing on his rounds.

On the odd occasion where a delivery chap has insisted on having a picture beside an open door, I've indicated that they can leave it on a the step and take a picture, or I can refuse delivery and they can take it back.  My understanding is that the paperwork associated with a non-delivery is not worth their time, so they begrudgingly leave it, take a picture on the step and then leave.  As you indicated KC it's a delivery on your terms not theirs!

beanielou

I once got an email confirming delivery with a picture of my socks!

Cheery_Daff

I once had a picture confirming delivery, of a parcel clearly just lobbed over the gate and sat in the middle of the front lawn 🙄😂

How interesting about your relative being bought out of the Navy. Presumably he shouldn't have been allowed to sign up in the first place? Was £20 a lot of money? I bet his mother was cross, and I also bet there were people who couldn't afford to buy their sons out (and possibly sons who later regretted lying omabout their age...). Interesting stuff.

Karmacat

Delivery people round here *used* to do that kind of thing - though before the pandemic, I had somebody throw a piece of electronic equipment (headphones?  I can't remember) over my side gate - and it was a wet night, there was no notice that they'd "delivered", and when I checked, it was listed as "delivery to greenhouse".  I don't have a greenhouse    It's all good: he stood back when I asked him to, that was the main thing.

The age at enlistment is interesting in the UK, Cheery - the Army *still* lets boys of 16 or 17 sign on legally, though they're not allowed on the front lines.  There's something about children that age in the navy serving on land-based training "ships".  I think they could sign up legally at that age, but if the parents disagreed, they could nullify the contract by buying it out, so to speak.  £20 was a fair amount, but not crippling - Hansard has this WAGES (1914 AND 1919). (Hansard, 1 August 1919) (parliament.uk) gives wages per shift for working men as anything between 7s for a dock labourer to 83s for a train engine driver.  This family were skilled working class.  I have to get to grips with all that still: I was doing a mad download yesterday, so I'm not sure where the document is, and I haven't got any backup research done yet either    It will come!
 

themadvix

Karmacat said:

The age at enlistment is interesting in the UK, Cheery - the Army *still* lets boys of 16 or 17 sign on legally, though they're not allowed on the front lines.  There's something about children that age in the navy serving on land-based training "ships".  I think they could sign up legally at that age, but if the parents disagreed, they could nullify the contract by buying it out, so to speak.  £20 was a fair amount, but not crippling - Hansard has this WAGES (1914 AND 1919). (Hansard, 1 August 1919) (parliament.uk) gives wages per shift for working men as anything between 7s for a dock labourer to 83s for a train engine driver.  This family were skilled working class.  I have to get to grips with all that still: I was doing a mad download yesterday, so I'm not sure where the document is, and I haven't got any backup research done yet either    It will come!
 

Indeed boys and girls can sign up at 16 - that was my friend’s and my plan should we have failed our GSCEs - you don’t need any to train as a dental hygienist in the navy! 😂😂 Fortunately we both passed with quite a few good grades (which I think is indicated by the fact we even knew what the options were should we have failed miserably!), so this didn’t have to become the reality - apart from the nice looking men in uniforms and the sea I’m not sure a naval life would have suited me and dentistry certainly wouldn’t have! 😳

 thanks for the link to the price comparisons - very useful!

Cheery_Daff

Vix, dental hygienist in the Navy is a very specific career for someone who wasn't aiming at it! 😂😂 Glad you got your grades!!

Karmacat

That's fascinating, vix!   Good career, too!  The forces used to go very strong for that sort of thing, I think it must have started during WWII: my dad learned to drive in 1941 or so in the Sinai desert just "follow the lorry in front" - nothing about traffic, signals, use of headlights, nothing.  And he never had to take a driving test in this country, either  

I've been chatting and tidying paperwork and recycling and parcels, caught up on laundry etc, and I've **finally** swapped over my grotty old Ikea chair for my "new" leather armchair - I have to figure out how to make it stay at one inclination, which I think will mean switching it on (bought in a charity shop for £145, I think it retails at £800 or so).  Tres chic, and I'm so glad to see off the Ikea - it was killing my back, using it every day for years.  

Rest of today: continue working on the porch, and I'm going to ready a little parcel of electronics, which can now be recycled in a plastic bag alongside our rubbish bins.  That will be a new experience.