Poczta

I spent the best part of an hour in the post office tonight. That's an hour of my life that I'll never get back. I only went to collect a parcel, which appears to have been around the houses somewhat, since it was despatched, with an incorrect address on the outer packaging, from the UK before Christmas.

I waited for 20 minutes, I was going to say I stood in a queue, but that would have been a lie, since Polish post offices do actually have seating areas (Poland - one, UK - nil) and I did get a space for part of the wait. The four post offices that I have been in so far all have seating for customers to wait their turn, after taking a ticket similar to the queueing system found at UK supermarket deli-counters. It's just as well, because it takes a while for your turn to arrive. Processes are a little behind the times too (one all) because whilst they do have electronic weighing scales, and barcode-readable machines, it's not all automatic and there is a lot of pen and ink involved in whatever transaction you want to do. Not to mention the stamping.

So it took about 20 minutes until I was seen at counter 4. Only to be told that I had taken the wrong ticket (there are usually 3 options and I have been lucky with an A ticket on every other occasion ) and that I should go and press C and wait at counter 11. There were four or five colour-coded buttons on this ticket-dispenser. I was after all in the main post office on Plac Konstytucji, because the aforementioned parcel had been sent to a bigger post office from my local one, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to deliver it. Goodness only knows what the options all meant. I thought I'd gone for the one that said letters (listy) and whatever the word is for parcels (I forget) but seemingly not. I could have gone back to study the options as I waited in the C queue for my turn. It was on 928 when I pressed the button and I was 943. Two people were working behind counter 11, so it took a wee while before I finally got my hands on my very delayed Christmas present.

...which was a pair of slightly too small slipper boot/socks things from Monsoon. Bugger!


and in other news. Moscow: OMG. Awful
and in even more other news. Silent Witness on BBC1 tonight. OMG.