Flowers and bracelets

My mother-in-law always sends flowers for my birthday and this year was no exception. The flowers, beautifully scented Longiflorum lilies, arrived two days after my birthday looking a little limp. With some hesitation I told her this while I was thanking her for them and she was most indignant for she had ordered them to be delivered on the due date. She is in her nineties but still fully aware of what she has ordered and when, and so she contacted the company to make a gentle but insistent complaint. It transpired that the company was not at fault – they had dispatched the flowers in good time. In fact, because the local Royal Mail depot is being closed down, everything is being sent to Swindon and there is chaos. The flower company 'Bunches' is ill served by this change but today, by way of apology, a further delivery of wonderful Longiflorum lilies arrived, with a complimentary box of chocolates. Delightful – though I did think the floral apology should have been delivered to my mother-in-law. Now I have a vase full of these gorgeous blooms – thank you, Dorothy – thank you, Bunches.

For this birthday my husband had taken enormous pains to design a beautiful bracelet in the process of which he was given tremendous help and advice from 'mememe jewellery and accessories'. The bracelet was destined to arrive by 1:00 p.m. on the day before my birthday and of course it had to be signed for, so the entire day was spent waiting for it to be delivered. Many phone calls were made between Berkshire and Newcastle upon Tyne and eventually a very nice South African, JJ, drove from Swindon to hand it to my relieved husband, just after 5:00 p.m. The next day our local postie told us that JJ is the best boss he's ever had.

There are so many helpful, pleasant people 'out there' doing their very best to provide excellent service. How sad it is that they are let down so often by the apparently unnecessary reorganisation of services.