So, has all your Christmas post arrived yet? Have you received all your online orders made in November? We might be in the third week of January, but it is not a daft question when you live in Cyprus.
I always tell friends and relatives in the UK to send birthday cards and gifts for the kids three weeks in advance, and by the same token, I ensure that I make online orders a month in advance for birthdays and events. Sometimes they get here within a month, sometimes they don't.
Am I happy about the situation? No, of course not, but to be honest, it has just become a way of life for me, just as I know without certainty that the postmen will never, ever deliver post to me two days in a row. On average, my postman comes to us a maximum of twice a week. I know that he saves my delivery slips and delivers them in bulk, because some of them have the date of the day he delivers them, whilst others are dated from the previous days. He also never comes out in inclement weather, although I suspect that might be a perk of the job and one of the official policies, otherwise Cypriot postmen would be given an alternative mode of transport to their little moped… wouldn't they?
I am not sure if delivering mail on a not-daily basis is an official thing due to cutbacks, or if it is just my particular postman who has taken it upon himself to cut his working hours down. But whatever the reason, it means a lot of disappointment for us come birthdays and Christmas when everything is so late. Receiving cards a week or two after December 25 or a birthday is a real anti-climax, and I bet there are many readers who have desperately waited on a passport or other important document or item whose timely arrival was crucial, but which never made it. For crying out loud, they give the postal service Christmas Eve off and do not make the slightest effort to hire additional staff or the busiest period of the year, so what hope is there for the rest of the time?
I tend to order a lot of items online (things that I cannot really find out here or that are too expensive to buy locally), so I need to be on good terms with my post office to ensure that I do get them more often that not. I have to say that the lady behind the counter is helpful, polite and efficient. We are even on first name terms after all these years and she will always look to see if I have something, even if a slip has not been issued yet, so I have no complaints about her, but the situation with my postman is ridiculous. When I casually asked her why the postman only comes once or twice a week, she seemed surprised and told me that was not the case, so I didn't push the issue further, out of fear that if I rocked the boat, my once or twice a week deliveries would suddenly dry up completely. She seemed unaware that my postie has been designing his own hours, but he doesn't seem to be the only one…
…Apparently, we have it quite good in our area. I have friends who live in (big) villages who have to go down to the local post office (run by the local greengrocer) and ask if any post has arrived for them, otherwise they will never receive it as it is seldom delivered. I also have a friend who lives in a mountainous village of Limassol for whom post is non-existent because no one will go up the hills to take it to her!
We may be moving forward in some ways, but when it comes to the postman, unlike the famous movie title from 1946, ours never rings twice.
First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 09/01/15
