The final leg of the journey
So, my meerkat has arrived from the continent. I would like to start out by first informing everyone that it is all lies – they come from a factory in Blackburn and are made in China! Frustrations aside, my meerkat toy was handed over to Royal Mail by Postkat and turned up in Manchester two days later. At least they’re faster than Postkat. Can’t fault Postkat though, he did get it to me in the end!
The toy I have been bestowed with was Aleksandr, the great leader of the Meerkat clan in Meerkovo. Luckily for me, the toy that gets the most on eBay 
Photos of Aleksandr are below. Annoyingly I checked my post at 11am on Saturday, and found a Royal Mail “While you were out” card. Even more annoyingly the card said that the Postman had called at “10:34am”, a time when I was certainly at home, and certainly awake. I certainly heard no knock on my door, so I can certainly only assume he has gone straight to the post box, shoved the card in and gone on his way. The annoying thing is that in order to get my mail, I have to check my post box. The post box is in a big bank of them (see lovely photo below). Now, the door to my apartment is maybe 15 – 20 steps away from this post box, so why hasn’t the postman knocked instead of just leaving the card?
Postboxes, the first point of call when I get home from work!
Anyway, so I get the card, it says wait 3 hours. I assume that if he hasn’t knocked on my door, hes probably not brought the parcel and just left it at the depot. Nevertheless, 3 hours takes us to 1:34pm, and the office shuts at 2pm. I turn up at 1:50pm. The postman hasn’t arrived back yet. Why hasn’t he arrived back? His card says to leave 3 hours. Its a good 3 minute drive. The petrol alone probably cost more than the value of the Meerkat toy just to get there… Nevermind the return journey!
Alas, I had to wait until Monday after work. I drove on down to the depot and picked up my discreet brown box from the lovely people at the office. Once in the car, I opened the parcel to find out just which Meerkat I had been blessed with. Meet Aleksandr.
Buckle up!
I was sure to buckle him up for the journey back to mine. Note, I did unbuckle him and put him back in the box after taking this photo. I’m not that sad! (Imagine getting stopped by the police on the way home and having to explain that…)
Aleksandr came with a letter thanking me for my ability to know the difference between cheap insurance and meerkats, and a “Certificate of Authenticness”, a COA if you will. He’s the real deal.
So just where did Postkat end up in the epic journey to our shores?
- Set off from Meerkovo
- Istanbul
- Munich
- Venice
- Krakow
- Kiev
- Brussels
- Pamplona
- Gothenburg
- Minsk
- Split
- Monaco
- Berlin
- Bucharest
- Budapest
- Rotherdam (So close!)
- Calais (Even closer, come on!)
- Lisbon
- St Petersburg
- Prague
- Amsterdam
- Bologna
- Athens
- Paris
- Rome
- Nice
- Venice (a second stop, it would seem)
- Finally, Dover. Handover to Royal Mail successful!
Not the most efficient of postal services.
