Mail delivery?

The mail finally arrived after 4pm yesterday. This is the one delivery in a day every second day. 

We do not get as much mail as we once did.  It is impossible to get some things in the post now. If you want to keep a paper record then you need to print the bill, the receipt, the notification, the information off for yourself. Examination results day was a nightmare (or should that be daymare?) of waiting to hear the "postie's whistle". On a birthday there would be an eager rush to the letter box "just in case" someone had sent a birthday card.

Yesterday's mail, so late in the day, was late in another way as well. It contained some papers I had been asked to look at. There they were in a large bright yellow envelope. There was my name in very clear, thick black print. The address was correct. The post code was correct. The amount of postage was correct. 

Why then has it taken the Downunder postal service seventeen days to deliver it from an address that is just 11.2km away? It would have been faster for the sender to walk over here. Had either of us had a car it would have been faster to deliver it by hand. (The sender is in his late eighties and no longer drives.)

I phoned him to let him know it had finally arrived and that I would deal with it immediately. He sighed. "Thanks Cat. I'll get my son-in-law to pick it up from you.When would be convenient?" 

We arranged a time for later last night. I went ahead and did the necessary work for him. I wrote the letter he will need with it. When his son-in-law arrived full of apologies for all the "fuss and bother" I told him it would not have been a fuss and bother at all if the postal service was working as it should work. I told him I had written a letter as well and suggested, as he knows all about the problem, he read it through. We could change it on the spot if necessary. He read it through quickly and shook his head, "That's fine. If P.... doesn't like it for some reason can I email you? I'll run anything else by you as well. I should have scanned the damn stuff in and sent it to you that way."

We looked at each other and then he said, "And, guess what?" 

"You will be delivering those papers by hand," I told him. 

So much for the postal service. Is it any wonder they made a $200m loss last year?