23rd June 2007

What a laugh Frances and I had at the post office in Hastings. We had bought too many clothes and souvenirs so we thought it would be a good idea to post parcels back to ourselves to save the extra weight charge at the airport. I must have parked at the wrong Priory Road parking or taken a wrong turn heading out of the parking garage, but it was a huge long walk to the post office and then a huge long line-up and then my parcel was over 2 kgs to the tune of one nightgown and I could unpack it all and take that out and then it would have been 10 GBP instead of 30 GBP! I'm afraid those jeans were just not worth it. So I unpacked my box and threw it out and took the jeans and the nightie back to the car. Frances was still at her cashier grappling with her parcel and was just about to cough up the huge amount of GBPs when they wouldn't accept her credit card (because of no chip) - she wasn't too pleased. We didn't have enough cash between us in pounds and then he said he would exchange her dollars for her but when she came to cound out the dollars at something like 130 she balked and wouldn't do it so he had to get the parcel back round the side and retrieve all the forms she had filled out and we set off back to the car with the parcels!!! Luckily it only cost a pound to park because we hadn't been longer than an hour (although it felt like it) . I nearly died laughing.

Then when we finally got to the airport the next day, Frances was horrified at the final cost of the car and they had the nerve to charge her more at the airport desk because the airport taxes had gone up (but luckily they didn't charge her extra for her luggage, so that saved the day). She was pretty peeved by the time I left her at the second tax return counter (she had to go to a different one because it was a watch she was claiming for !!!) so I'm glad I wasn't travelling back with her, even though she was first class. I didn't have to pay extra for the airport tax but I didn't dare tell her that! My flight was an hour late and then Kate was late picking me up but it was nice and breezy and I found a seat so I did another puzzle Paul had saved for me and relaxed.