Mystery Box

About a week ago I had a mysterious email from DHL, notifying me of an inbound shipment. This, in itself isn't unusual (just this week alone I will have received a dozen or so shipments from DHL), so I initially thought little of it. But hang on - I don't opt to receive tracking messages because I'd have so many...and not to that email address...hmmmm. Somebody signed me up for those messages. So, I checked the tracking to see it had left Coleshill, Birmingham, which incidentally is near to where a lot of my family live... hmmmm. Unusual, nobody said anything...and I would be surprised if my brother (who lives on that side of Birmingham), of all people, would have paid shipping...

Mysterious. So I mentioned it to Mrs ahopkins767, whose ears pricked up and made a mental note to get status updates daily. A few days later, I had a message from Mr. DHL summoning me to the building foyer for "5 Amazon shipments". Amazon, being more a description of the colour of the box than anything else as it turns out that the mystery box was from Selfridges, who disguise their box in "Amazon colour" and save their bright Yellow finery for the safety of the inside of the box.

I took it upstairs, where the family then gathered to open this mysterious box whose sender was "Selfridges". Inside, we had 2 lovely glass catcus paper weights (we have been looking for good paperweights for some time - Mr ahopkins767 and Mrs ahopkins767 both being entrepreneurs and thus office keepers). Also, a lovely umbrella with a map on London on the inside. As it happens we are in the throws of getting visas for a planned summer trip (just got the French visa returned today - next visa will be a UK one) and I wonder how well this map would work for navigating Central London (from recollection it actually seems fairly accurate)...we will test it out! My son was thrilled with the magic set and has taken possession of the camping mug for "Grandma's" (Cadbury's) "chocolate tea". It was a total surprise and we loved it! Thank you.


Thank you Secret Santa

This was a lovely an unexpected surprise. Thank you Secret Santa. As a British expat in Asia, who hasn't been "home" since 2019 due to COVID, it was lovely to receive this box and remember the space ship (or humpback whale according to my Lovely Lady) Selfridges of Birmingham and the box of goodies. It made me think of Birmingham and look forward to our planned return late Spring.

I have tracking for 2 other Santa Shipments. One has the tracking of CH176514771US - this seems to have gone into the USPS blackhole after doing the obligatory orbit of NV and perhaps the sender of this should claim for loss. It hasn't left the US in the month USPS has had it. The other shipment has appeared in Manila and I'm waiting for it to be passed through Customs and over to PHLpost.