Thursday 24 September 2009

Naked deliveries make my day


I feel I must apologise for my absence over the last few days. I'd been so looking forward to tucking into some tasty British food and blogging about my discoveries, but by Tuesday I was all struck down with a nasty cold. Then my appetite skedaddled and my tastebuds followed suit, all disappearing into a big black hole.

Hardly being able to speak today I was home alone feeling sorry for myself, coughing with one breath and then sneezing with the other, when suddenly I heard a rat-tat-tat at the door.

And what a surprise!

It was my lovely friendly postman making a naked delivery.

Now, stop your rude thoughts.

Granted, the Royal Mail might make a few extra bob if they did strip-o-grams, but then again....

I can reassure you that our friendly postie was most definitely suitably dressed in all the right clobber, but he was holding before him a naked flower.

Of course, I had to to grab my camera to snap it before saying thank you and closing the door.

The felt flower, which was all pink and fuzzy, had been sent to me by Henry and Jayne, home of a beautiful range of hand made gifts. It was part of an experiment to see what would happen to flowers sent in the post without any packaging whatsoever, focusing on ways to reduce unecessary packaging. You can read more about their experiment here.

Well the great news is, the flower has arrived in one piece, completely intact with no damage at all.

Just perfect.

It even had an address tag made from a recycled Christmas card.

So thank you to Liz at Henry and Jayne for letting me take part in this wonderful experiment. I am now a joyful owner of a beautiful flower that's taking pride of place in my dining room.

And as for the postie, well he says, it's the most beautiful naked delivery he has ever made.



I promise to be back soon with further news of my local gastronomic adventures, as well as some other exciting news that has made my day even more exciting. For now though, I'm afraid I have to go and sneeze.

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8 comments:

Unknown said...

What a fantastic idea! Sorry you're not feeling well. There is an award for you over at mine to make you feel better :D xx

Almost Mrs Average said...

OMG Clareybabble. Looks like you're another angel who's come at the right time to cheer me up. It seems to be the day for good news. I was going to nip off to bed, but am coming over for a looksy right now :-D x

Nick Palmer said...

I don't want to burst your bubble A Mrs A but I used to be a postman and sending something "naked" through the post like this is a bit like Russian roulette. Sometimes it'll be OK, sometimes it'll get squashed - it depends what other people have posted at the same time whether you get away with it or not - one heavy parcel on the conveyor belts after yours could wreak havoc.

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Nick - great to see you and no worries about bubbles, I hear what you're saying. In fact, Henry and Jayne's experiment goes far wider than my delivery.

I remember having a conversation with our local postman earlier in the year about a mad idea I had involving reusing tetrapak cartons as packaging. He advised against it because he said it probably wouldn't stand up to the process.

On the subject of naked deliveries though, I did ask the postman what other things they'd received through the local sorting office. There were a few interesting ones there, the most unpleasant being a pheasant, sent with just a tag.

Now that makes your mind boggle.

I think the moral of the story is most definitely be careful what you send. And it seems that with the right type of packaging, not only can you protect your product but you can also protect Royal Mail staff from some unpleasant sights.

An ex-postman eh...now I bet you've got a few stories to tell :-D

Nick Palmer said...

Once, we saw what we initially thought might be anthrax or drugs - a greyish powder - turned out to be someone had posted someone's ashes (crematorium!) in a jiffy bag - which developed a leak...

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Nick - oh my word. Now that's something you don't see every day. I hope they were scooped up and sent onwards in their journey :-D

Layla said...

Oh, my!! :) lol!! :)

YAY for the naked postman - I mean, delivery! :)

YAY for the flower to make it intact! wouldn't it be great if other things could be sent without excessive packaging too?

except pheasants. and anthrax. Definitely better to have those properly packaged and not just tagged!!

Almost Mrs Average said...

LOL, I bet there are worse things too. It's the kind of stuff that would make a great book, don't you think. However,it would probably also encourage other people to find the next most original item to challenge the post office with and that would not be good.

By the way....here's probably a great opportunity to give a shout-out for Wiggly Wigglers and Natural Collection who both have the courage and conviction to send out their catalogues without plastic or paper wrapping. And they always arrive in pristine condition.

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