Lack Of Perspective
Posted By Judith on 28th July 2017
The other day I dropped my glasses down the back of the cooker, not my brightest move I’ll grant you, but it’s amazing what you can do with a cup hook screwed into the end of garden cane!
However there are some things that are even more ridiculous than that, some things that just defy belief. Take a recent postal delivery for example.
You might remember the 2 candlesticks of a couple of weeks ago that were comprehensively smashed due to a combination of poor packing and the questionable actions of the Royal Mail.
They are not the first things that we have found to be been broken upon delivery, you might also remember the broken lampshade from a couple of years ago. We managed to get that mended.
Although the candlesticks and lampshade were obviously breakable, they did have a certain structural integrity which must have suffered some major trauma in transit. The other thing that these items had in common was that they were packed in boxes that were far too small.
If I’ve learned one thing over the years it’s that the secret of packing and safe delivery of fragile objects is to use a box that is big enough in all directions, allowing room for plenty of packing material.
A few weeks ago Peter saw a yellow vase for sale on EBay which he thought would be a good addition to our growing collection of tango glass, the largest piece of which, the red one in the middle of the top shelf, is 12″ high.
The advert did not specify the size of the vase nor did it’s photo offer any help by showing it next to a 50p piece, can of Coke or a small child, but given it’s design (you’ll see what I mean in a moment) Peter assumed it would be about the same size as our red one.
When it arrived the box was huge, which was obviously a good sign, or so we thought. Imagine our surprise when we opened it and found out the vase was actually 24″ high not 12″.
That was the first shock. The second shock was that the box it was packed in was only 24″ at it’s longest point, the packing consisted of a random selection of plastic bags including a ‘Family Pack’ crisp packet from Asda’s and it was such a tight squeeze that the vase was actually touching the cardboard at both ends.
I don’t know what left us more speechless, the fact that it was twice as big as we were expecting or that it had arrived all in one piece!
How did it survive the British postal service? Where on earth are we going to put it?!
Suggestions on a postcard please. (Try to keep them clean!)
