Surprise Partan!

I never know what Mike will come home with! A couple of old men were landing some boxes of partans (crabs) at the slip yesterday and offered him a few. I'm very allergic to shellfish, so while I was out at a meeting, Mike cooked them up for his dinner!

As a postie he gets given all sorts of vegetables, fruit, plants etc as he goes on his round. Everyone who grows vegetables will be familiar with the scenario - all your cabbages/ lettuces/ cauliflowers are ready at once, they are about to go to seed, the seedlings need transplanting and you have run out of space, you've got a glut of tomatoes or blackcurrants or courgettes. This is where the postie comes into his/her own - they are the ideal person to pass the surplus on to!

He also has little tasks to do in return sometimes. In the past he has been asked to dispatch hens, ducks or geese for them, to fix their outboard motors, to stop dripping taps, mend broken vacuum cleaners and give them a hand moving heavy furniture!

This is something of an old postal tradition. In Northumberland my granda used to get the postman to dispatch his hens for him as he couldn't bring himself to do the deed. My granny took things to whole new level, she used to get the postman to help her turn the mattress! I don't know if it was just when she was feeling unwell - she had a heart problem - or if it was a regular occurrence! Or maybe it was a euphemism . . . . !