Curiously another courier

Someone calling me

It could have been a case of cross-communication, I would hate to think it was one of impersonation. I was expecting a courier to pick up a parcel in the one-hour window between 11:18 and 12:18, but at 11:55, I received an SMS text message that he would arrive in 5 to 10 minutes.

30 minutes later and beyond the window, I go a call that he was outside Primark waiting for me, that seemed quite strange. Why would a courier end up about a kilometre from where he was to pick up a parcel? I could hardly keep my voice down when the person at the other end of the phone said he was not familiar with the terrain.

His apparently halting and incoherent English with incomprehensible enunciation did not help me properly identify or appreciate who I was talking to as I told the person off and proceeded to write a letter to the courier company about their unprofessional service.

Not the same person

Just over an hour beyond their proposed collection window, my doorbell rang and the courier I heard through the video intercom system then eventually chatted to outside my apartment who arrived in a van with the courier company sign on it was not the person I was talking to on the phone, earlier.

At one point, I thought the courier company had called the other greenhorn off and sent this more articulate courier in his place. I wanted to be sure, so I asked. Whoever contacted me earlier was not this courier and that left me wondering who it was. I have not received a response to my inquiry on that phone number of who was apparently arriving in 5 to 10 minutes, almost 3 hours ago.

Care and consideration

It meant I had to send an updated email to the courier cancelling my broader complaint apart from the late retrieval of my parcel that should be delivered to Wales by noon tomorrow. Rather strange and concerning, I have blocked that number, now.

I cannot account for who called me when I was expecting someone else, I could have given away my address in the process of getting this lost courier to my residence and be endangered. I definitely have to pay more attention to the kinds of messages I receive and verify with clarity who is calling, making no allowances or excuses for poor communication that might feed wrong assumptions. Phew!

I am not pleased

My letter conveying my dissatisfaction went thus (Names changed to conceal identities):

Dear Mary,

I am supposed to have had John visit my residence to collect a parcel for delivery by noon tomorrow in Swansea between 11:18 and 12:18 today.

At 11:55, I received a message that he would be with me in 5 to 10 minutes, 30 minutes later he called to say he will be with me in 5 minutes only for me to receive another call that he is waiting for me at Primark.

That bears no semblance to my address which is another location with the postcode [redacted] in Manchester. That from all appearances suggests John cannot use a satellite navigator, is completely clueless about directions, or doesn't know what he is supposed to be doing.

I paid for this service and he is supposed to be a courier, if he can't find simple addresses, he is probably in the wrong job.

I am now sat in front of my house wondering what is going to happen now, it has hardly been a professional outing for your company.

Maybe someone can contact him on this number [redacted] to determine what he is up to.

To say this is untenable as a service would be suppressing my utter displeasure.

I hope you can help.

Signed

In a place of serenity

Above the fray

Much thought can be given to situations and circumstances around us for which we have little influence or control. Existing within these settings the only thing we have is how we react and handle the things presented our way, so our equilibrium is not upset to the point of throwing us off our perch.

The perch is an interesting illustration of stability, for out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a man perched on a branch just as an owl or an eagle might settle on the branch of a tree. Comfortable in their chosen space, surveying their surroundings with such awareness of safety, danger, advantage or invasion, looking like the hunted but well into the hunt.

Knowing the difference

The variance is in understanding how that perch serves you, you are visible and much as you are invisible. In the former, for those with intent and an obsession, a vulnerability exists for which a cloak of invisibility is but a wish that you have to have assured yourself of some invincibility through being unperturbed about dangers you cannot manage.

In the latter, the advantage you have is useful to the end that if you are after something, it is caught in your gaze and you can be as evasive enough not to be noticed by your quarry. That why from my lips, the Serenity Prayer proceeds, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr