Parcel pals memories

I decided to take down two postcards from my bedroom today. Mainly because I have never been and never intend to go skiing - I tried snowboarding once at a local centre and it was one long anxiety attack for me! - and I have never been to Sri Lanka and the images on that card don't really mean anything to me. I hear you asking why I had these in my room in the first place?... Ok, so they do have nice memories attached to them. A few years ago I had signed up to a group on Facebook called 'parcel pals'. The idea was that you could make a connection with someone from the group and do a swap with them. You tell each other a little bit about each other, set a budget and then send each other surprise parcels. Sooo - I did a swap with someone from Sri Lanka (obviously), someone from Australia, then was going to swap with someone from the USA but they were trying to scam people!! Then I swapped with a lovely lady from New Zealand - twice!! At this point I decided to end my parcel pals experience.

I had really enjoyed getting the parcels together, trying to make sure I got things people would really appreciate. I made bits of things like bracelets, the lady from Sri Lanka wanted loads of chocolates and sweets that were hard to get hold of over there. I got local postcards, local or British sweets like Uncle Joe's mint balls and parma violets and even found a floral Union Jack tote bag at Primark! Some people wanted quite specific things that it was fun to search out - like Disney things, or vegan snacks. But ultimately I think the experience of trying to figure out the woman from the USA, spending time, effort and money putting her package together and then realising she was trying to scam several people really put a damper on things. It started to feel stressful. And expensive with the postage!!

It was mainly enjoyable getting things together for people across the world, getting to make connections with people and getting to know a bit about them and their culture. The lady from New Zealand even put a little booklet together with puzzles, maps and a list of fun facts about New Zealand - which really made my day! And I remember putting one together with local and British facts too. I really must see if I can find them both!!

So these postcards will now go into my little box of memories rather than on my wall. Oh, and the fabrics were from a swap with New Zealand lady - and I'd forgotten that's where they came from until today!! Even though I got them out last night. Strange what you forget!