Saturday today...

...but yesterday Friday morning I sat camped out by the window you can see on the right. I was expecting a small packet from Amazon by Royal Mail. I had paid first class postage to get it yesterday. I had the flashing doorbell (I had checked earlier that it was working okay) and carried it with me if I left the window to make a cuppa tea. When I came back with a cuppa there was the usual Royal Mail card saying 'We tried to deliver but your parcel was too big etc etc...and come and collect it from the depot on Saturday.' I knew what was in the packet was small enough to go through the front door anyway...so the postman hadn't even bothered to bring it out in the first place...as usual. The postman must have crept up the path commando style, made the drop through the letterbox, and made a hasty retreat... This was about 10 am.

The only thing is Saturday Sunday or Monday, I am expecting a large parcel by carrier. And if I miss it, the card only has a telephone number to ring to rearrange delivery. I cannot do this with being deaf, I cannot hear on the telephone. So I cannot afford to miss them.

The Post Office Depot this morning, Saturday, was open at 8am so I drove down. But they will not let you enter the site any more and it says on the cards that customers cannot park on site. But what about disabled people who cannot walk far, and have no able bodied person to do it for them. I have Arthritis among other things and use crutches. And it is tiring.

I drove to the barrier but I couldn't get through. The nearest car parking space was a few hundred yards up the road. The post office workers park on the side of the road. I couldn't double park because I would have blocked the road. I was getting out of the car, on my crutches and wondering how tired I would be when I had done this. Then a Post Office van came past and the postman in it told me to get back in my car and drive to the barrier and press the button. He said I was entitled to do so. So I did.

But when I got to the barrier and pressed the button, the barrier didn't lift. I pressed it a few times then tried keeping my finger on the button for a moment. Then I realised there was a grill so maybe this was an intercom? I wouldn't know if any one was speaking to me with being deaf. I can speak so I said I was deaf and disabled. The barrier still didn't lift, maybe I was speaking at the wrong moment. Tried again. But nothing. The barrier remained firmly down.

But by this time there was a queue of red Post Office delivery vehicles waiting to leave the depot but they couldn't because I was in the way. By this time they were making gestures at me to go away, do a u/turn etc. I waved the blue disabled badge which entitles me to park in the disabled spaces on the site. But to no avail. They got a bit vociferous shouting from their vehicles and the lady from the large Post Office wagon was making ruder gestures and getting angry at me. So I held my Disabled Blue Badge out of my window and it could be clearly seen by them. But they still motioned me to go away shaking their heads at me.

So I just sat in my car holding my Disabled Blue Badge in sight. This has been an impasse for about 5 minutes by this time. I was not going to be bullied.

Eventually one of the guys in a small Post Office van sorted it for me and opened the barrier. And I drove in, and into a disabled space. But the lady van driver was still angry with me.

Finally I got in the sorting office. Rang the bell but no one came. I have no idea if bells I ring are working. So I rang again. Then someone came. And I got my parcel which looked suspiciously like it would have gone through the letterbox anyway. But I had a bigger issue to deal with. Checking that I was within my rights to enter the site because I was a disabled person.

Yes he said, I can enter the site if I have a disabled badge. All I have to do is press the button at the gate. I explained I did. But the barrier did not open. So he said I had to speak to the intercom. I explained that I was deaf and was unable to hear intercoms, neither do I know when to speak because I cannot hear it, neither do I know the exact moment to press button to open door/barrier because I cannot hear instructions. I think this was a bit much information for him to process because deafness is not an experience of most people. When I have said in the past simply I cannot hear to do something then I am told again to do it, whatever it was. They have not listened to me. In the end the guy said I was entitled to be on the site to collect my parcels and just wait at the barrier until it lifted.

So this means I have to go through all this time wasting aggravation each time I go?

I drive home via the expressway to get home as soon as possible because of the large parcel due today. Then I approach an American Diner which does amazing breakfasts. By this time after what I have been through to get my parcel, I am tired and weary and I need a break, so I think why not, so I turn in.

The first thing I did was push the Amazon packet through the letterbox. It went through easily....grrrr.....

So the first pic is my packet slotting through my letterbox.

The second pic is me camped out sitting by the window with my devices and mobile Wi Fi and cuppa tea so my eyes are glued out for any large parcel delivery person......

I get problems of one sort or another with my disabilities and deafness on a daily basis, and the worst part is the tiredness trying to sort stuff out to do with this. I have to make far more effort than an hearing able bodied person, and this is what wipes me out totally.