You're Kidding - It Costs How Much For Postage? 16th Jan 2020

Today we caught up on a few things that needed doing. The first for me was to finally get organised and pack up all the wedding stuff to send back home. I had researched things ahead of time with the post office, and even got 3 boxes all ready to pack.

It was a bit of a mission to wrap up everything and put all those precious memories safely and securely packed ready to send home to Perth, Australia, even with Morag's helpful hooves! It took me the better part of 2 hours but as we left the house I felt well pleased with myself - fully organised and in control with my 3 boxes and plastic tube (with a photo gift from Aad and Mike in it) all addressed and ready to go! (You just know that things have to go down hill from here don’t you - and they did!)

We drove to Uig to Rankins, the general store, which has a small Post Office part to it. As I presented each of my parcels feeling well pleased with myself still thinking I’d just pay the postage and waltz out of there no problem, I could see the postmistresses eyes widen as she looked at the price. "Hmmm this is 3.4kg so it will be 89GBP" - WHAT? I was totally gobsmacked - that’s like almost $200 dollars for one box. I asked her to weigh the others (5.9kg and 4.kg).

Seeing the shock and horror on my face she suggested that I could halve the cost if I broke things down to boxes under 2.00kg each - so we needed 7 boxes to cover distributing the 13kg - oh and I couldn’t use the boxes I already had as they had to be sent as large parcels that cost more - well why the F&CK did she sell me those in the first place I thought - but kept my mouth firmly shut.

The merry dance of trying to unpack my highly organised and exquisitely packed boxes commenced and Vince ran backwards and forwards buying extra boxes (they had to paid in Rankins NOT the post office) and I put random things into boxes trying to guess the weight only to be told I needed to take more out each time - in the end there were 8 boxes with very little in them that would just roll around everywhere and probably get broken. On top of that there were now 8 parcels instead of three and as I had already been concerned about sending 3 parcels and whether on not Royal Mail and Australia Post would manage to delivery them without loosing any into the great void of the lost parcel office, I now tried to digest and recalculate the probability of all 8 arriving safely at their destination! Freaking “No Chance or Buckleys!” was my estimate!

My heart sank with each treasured item I pulled in and out of boxes and as my husband tried to help by splitting up a pair of shoes between two boxes, and our stress levels went through the roof, the postmistress laughed “the honeymoon is over - that didn’t last long”. A chancy comment I thought at any time to anyone, but to me in this very moment - highly dangerous - she had no idea that I felt like reaching across the counter and doing the unthinkable! But I chose to just smile instead and get on with it as best I could.

When it came to my wedding dress there was no option - it couldn’t be split - unless I got the scissors out - so it had to be sent in the large parcel box and weighed 2.6kg so would be over 60GBP on it’s own. I asked if I should take the contents of one of the 2kg boxes to add to it as I was paying over anyway and would it be cheaper to combine it as under 5 kg. BIG MISTAKE! She looked a bit puzzled but came to the other side of the counter to show me a brochure which clearly said international would be up to 5kg 40GBP to which I then looked puzzled - so why is 2.6kg 60GBP and 5KG only 40? She said that it was not the price on her screen, she went to the other side of the counter and prattled off something about 2kg being 20 GBP and each gram over up to 5.0kg at 1GBP per gram. In my brain in a befuddled state It made absolutely no sense to me, Vince as trying to be positive as usual and I was ready for a complete melt down.

The postmistress looked at me and said “Oh and I have to get you to fill in these customs forms for each box, and I’ve only got 7 so I don’t know what we’ll do - one might have to have no form but I don’t know if they will let it through”. FFS - I was seriously ready to tear someone a new one by this stage but I kept a calm exterior and soldiered on with no hope of ever knowing what was now in each box it all became a blur of “Wedding Items” value 10 GBP each.

“Have you lost the will to live?” She asked - “Yep absolutely!” I answered. “Well you better sit down before I tell you the price!” I did! It was over 250GBP - the equivalent of around $500 Australia to basically send home a few precious things from our Scottish Wedding - unbelievable and almost criminal in my opinion, I could buy a new wedding dress for that!

I left feeling that I had just had my insides ripped out, with little hope of anything arriving back home in one piece if at all, and that I had just found our what it is to experience tweedle de and tweedle dumb! Off to Portree to find a pub for a stiff drink I thought!

We ended up at the Royal Hotel where I had some yummy lentil soup and a Scotch and Dry (Ginger Ale they call it here!) and we laughed at the vision of my daughter’s shocked face when she receives 8 boxes on her front door step! Not what she signed up for I’m sure when she agreed I could send my wedding stuff back to her address.

After lunch we visited our new mates at Inside Out (Richard and David - the owner) who had sent us an email that our gloves had arrived. We had a nice chat with them and purchased the gloves and I also got a beanie. Vince picked up a trekking pole basket (as he’d lost one) and a new set of emergency whistles (as I lost mine). He entertained the staff with stories of how we have a system with my bath towel, he heats it by the fire, I blow my whistle twice when I’m ready to exit my bath and he brings in my towel. We also told them of his idea to market the “wife whistle” as he uses it on me when I’m too far ahead and he wants to get my attention!

A quick look in the jewellery shops - still no necklace I like, and the book shop, they didn’t have the book we were chasing. Then back home on this miserable day where the relentless rain and wind have us feeling the cold and echo the way the day has gone with all the dramas of this morning.

We stopped very briefly in at the Staffin Store to pick up a tub of comfort icecream. Flavours were limited so I ended up with Raspberry Ripple.

On the way home Willie and his mate Billy (our names for them) were at the fence - we stopped and I tried to get some shots in the pelting rain and hail but they were all blurry.

At home I cooked bangers and mash with some veggies and gravy. For afters we had icecream. We settled down to watch Downton Abby but Vince couldn’t stomach it so we went to bed early.

NB: On the way to the post office I stopped in at the Kilmuir Primary School and spoke to a teacher there (the children had been sent home due to heating problems). Vince and I have offered to come and speak to the children about Australia if they are interested - we will see what happens!