Waiting for the postman.

The post man comes every day Monday to Friday at about 10.30am.  And if you live in the village he delivers to your house.  For those of us who live outside the village,  there is no delivery but we have all put mailboxes on to the wall in the square.  About 8 boxes at the moment...

Mail boxes on the wall by the car...

Mail is delivered to the boxes to be collected whenever is convenient and if you have a parcel then the delivery notification is put in your box.  Up till earlier this year,  you then went with note in hand, to the post office in Cadiar to collect your package,  between 08.30 and 10.30 in the morning.  That worked well, and has done for the 12 years we've lived here.

However it's now changed - for the better?  Not sure.  The post man now has your parcels in his car,  the note says he will be at the mailboxes between 10.30 and 11.00.  Sounds straightforward,  but the first time we had a parcel to collect,  I went down to the village for a 10.30 collection and he'd been and gone.  Small village, not much mail that day....  The next day  I went at 10.15 just to be certain and waited and waited till nearer 11.00 as that day he'd had lots of mail to deliver....

The trick is to go and wait in the sun,  take a book - in my case my kindle - be prepared to chat to  every one who is out and about as they all want to know what you're waiting for,  maybe go for a coffee.  Above all, be flexible!

Parcels due this week,  I missed the postman yesterday so went back down this morning for the 10.15 wait.  Talked to one of the Antonio's,  one of the Lola's,  saw some of the women trying to sweep up the piles of falling leaves,  fighting a loosing battle really as the tree has so many more leaves to drop yet,  and finally at 11.05 the  postman arrived with my parcels.

A change for the better? You can see why I'm not sure.  Before the change we knew we had a 2 hour window to get to the post office,  and  while in Cadiar did any shopping we needed. Now it's a case of less distance but more, much more, hanging around.  But on the good side it's much more sociable  as I got to chat with people that I only normally get to wave to on the way past.