Monday 12 June 2017

Postie People

Four years ago this was the view whenever i left my island home to go shopping. a three mile causeway punctuated by diving birds, sensational sunsets and drifts of sand. i miss the coast, though my family and friends don't miss having to consult tide timetable prior to visiting.   miss the deadline and the best scenario is your car ends up under six foot of salty water.  worst scenario??? it sails off into the sunset heading towards Norway.

On moving inland it was inevitable that the sea would be a big miss. being Bournemouth born and bred  the cry of gulls was a permanent accompaniment throughout my childhood, add in twenty plus years on Tyneside and my veins run with brine.  

Another anticipated miss was coffee shops. there's something satisfying about being wedged into a corner with a large cup of coffee and the newspaper, surreptitiously watching the world and it's residents coming and going, attending to their daily routines, interacting with other humans, unknowingly performing for an audience of one.   The village is made up of one hundred and fifty souls, 330 bird species and 650,000 tourists a year so there was plenty of entertainment for a dedicated voyeur. 



What i didn't see coming was how much i would miss the simple pleasure of posting a letter. because everything in the village is clustered around a tiny main street on a good pain day i could reach the post office, post my letters, buy a Guardian, stop at Pilgrims Coffee Shop for an hour, buy birthday gifts from their craft shop and then it was a matter of steps to my back door.   a universe on my doorstep.   it wasn't until moving that i realised how very satisfying the simple act of launching an epistle into the void could be and how much i would miss it once it became an impossibility.   




So....this little blog post is to thank my unofficial posties (you know who you are).   you lovely humans who deal with my letters, parcels, comics to granddaughters, Love Film Movies, cheques, Postal Votes, birthday gifts and all things Royal  Mail related.   it may seem a small thing but to me it's a huge benevolence.  thank you so very much. xxxx