My cards have gone AWOL - again!!!!! :(

Kirsty Wiseman has been collecting handmade cards for some time now, to be sent over to our soldiers in Afghanistan, so that they have access to something nice to send home.

My brother was in the first Gulf War with the RAF and, although he wrote to me lots, he said he didn't send many letters home to mum because there wasn't much to say that wouldn't just cause worry. And there is a limit to how often you can just fill a page with small talk. So I can understand that having access to some blank cards would help them keep in touch, let alone sending something nice home for birthdays.

So! At the beginning of April I completed 10 cards and sent them off to Kirsty. It was a busy day at the Post Office so I didn't pester them for a 'Proof of Posting' slip. I had tons of Easter cards to weigh and the queue behind me was muttering. So I thought, ah, it'll be all right.

WRONG!!!! The package never arrived :(

Undeterred, I double-checked I had the right addressed (yep) and made another eight cards and sent these last Friday. This time I sent them "First Class, Signed For". I thought that the glaring big orange sticker that this put on the front of the package would help steer it in the right direction, if the other one had just been lost, and put off any thieves, if the other one had been taken.

Today I checked the tracking number at the Post Office website. AND rang them. Guess what? They don't know where this one is either!

I asked them to investigate and they said they can't until 19 days have passed, so I have to wait till 14th May, then fill in a form. When they've got the form, then they'll look into it.

I am so annoyed! I know stuff does go missing by genuine mistake, but to me this is too much of a coincidence- two parcels to the same address in under a month gone missing????

Earlier this year someone online very kindly offerred to stamp up some images for me and sent them, first class. THESE never arrived here!

So now I'm afraid I'm rather convinced that somebody in the Colchester area sorting office is being very dishonest, and is skimming the post for packages that might have something valuable in them, i.e., anything that looks like it could have a gift inside.

Although he spent most of his working life in the Royal Navy, my dad worked as a postman for a few years in the 1960s. I have 'postman' under 'father's occupation' on my birth certificate :) I'm sure there was a time when this was a friendly, respectable job. Certainly you could trust the post. It's a sad sign of our times that when you send something now, even if you pay to have a signature the other end, there is no guarantee it will get where you sent it if it looks like the contents might be of interest.

))))SIGH!((((

Well I hope they get there eventually. But at least this time I remembered to photograph the cards first :) although they weren't as nice as the first batch, as I was rushing this time........

I made them all using just 2 stamps :(Oh! Hullo, Dilly! Fancy seeing you there!)

They were coloured with my Pro-Markers and most were decoupaged a wee bit.
Here you can see what I mean, with the middle section of the design double-layered.They were all lined inside with heavyweight white cartridge paper to make them easy to write long messages on.

Matching envelopes, too, and each sealed in a cellophane bag.WAAAHHH!!!!!!!!! I hope they turn up :(


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UPDATE!!!!
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They've arrived!!!!!
Horray!!!!!
(But I wonder what happened to the first lot....)