Christmas and winter in December SHOCKER!

Finally got in touch with the company from whom I have purchased parcels of joy for the kids this Christmas. Armed with tracking number, I went to find where the parcels are. The Midlands. Still. So much for next day delivery. Still, I learned a new word today:

Sortation: The use of any process of sorting; A process or instance of sorting.

Or, an alternative from the SooB practical definitions guide:

Sortation hub: A place where stuff you want goes to die.

But, the man on the phone at the toy company was very nice. He (in the south somewhere) had been told that no deliveries were possible in Scotland for the last two weeks, and seemed genuinely surprised to hear that the roads in Scotland have been open for a while, and interested that other delivery companies are getting through. He even said he would pass the names of those companies on to his boss so they could change who they use. Well I'm sure they probably won't, but just for a minute it felt like I was getting some customer service (if you gloss over the two unanswered emails and the 35 minutes it took to get through on the phone). He also agreed that delivery companies are taking the proverbial to be complaining about the 'unexpected winter weather' and 'high volumes of parcels'.

And then, just minutes after this was taken, the Citylink man arrived with parcels of joy for other people's children, and most importantly, the new car heater that will hopefully transform our car from a steamed up igloo, to a comfortable wonderland, in which we can travel Santa-like next week distributing gifts to the rest of the family.

So, some good, some bad. But still nothing exciting to report.

Of course, really I'm spending most of my time on my international espionage job. But I don't like to talk about it.


EDIT: Startlingly exciting backblip for yesterday here.

(CAUTION: some lying may have been used in this edit.)