Package hunting

Coming down for dinner some days ago I was met by a small red slip waiting for me at the table, telling me that someone had sent me a package, that no one had been home at the time the post person arrived and that I could come pick it up. Excited and quite curious I left the house in the early morning – well, as early as my mornings ever are – the next day and walked to the post office.

Once there I was kindly explained that; no, they did not have my package. I would have to go somewhere else to pick it up and unless I had a car it would be something of a walk. Did I mention it was raining? The clerk drew me a map and sent me on my way. Now, since I believe very few people reading this knows their way around Alloa I’m not going to describe all the roads I walked in detail, I’ll just tell you they were many. I also asked quite a few people for directions, to the ‘ATM’ as the clerk had marked the place holding my packet as on the map. Oddly enough no one had even heard of it, which I found a little peculiar, not so strangely – no one could understand the map either. It really was a poor map- I would show you but after having been rained on and then crumpled in my hand it really wasn’t worth carrying around, and I may have lost it at some point too. Possibly.

Finally, somewhere down a street I had never been before, I asked another random bypassed if they could point me in the direction of the ‘ATM’. This lady had never heard of it either but took me into the shop where she was going anyway to ask the shopkeeper as she figured she’d probably know since she worked in town. The shopkeeper had never heard of it either but after a brief debate with the woman I met on the street they managed to work it out between themselves where I was supposed to go.

Apparently, Alloa keeps a separate post office where you can pick up your packages. And somewhere near this office there is a tire service, known as the ATM. It also turned out that this office really was quite far away, not to mention all the time I had already spent searching for it, but the lady I had asked for directions was kind enough to take me down there in her car. And then, as it turned out we live on the same street, wait for me and give me a lift home as well. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me.

Finally back at the house I had at least managed to figure out who the package was from, but I was still very much curious as to what was inside it.

As it turned out, my super sweet stepmother had knitted and sent me a throw along with other bits and bobs, like this star which my sister made especially for me. Admittedly it came with clear directions to hang it on the wall but I’ve never paid all that much attention when people tell me to do things and I figured the window was close enough.

And here is the famous blanket! Picture taken off my stepmother’s blog – because she’s much better at taking pictures than me and it would be a shame not to show this lovely thing from its best side.

Finally I feel like giving a small birthday shout out for my grandmother who has been faithfully following this blog, despite the lack in updates recently, and whose birthday it is today! Happy birthday grams, you know who you are because only one of my grandmothers actually reads my blog.