Have you ever been to a pleasant post office? Pray tell, because I would love to know how post offices operate in different parts of the world. I certainly remember very pleasant post office visits in England. I don’t know if they are all like that or just the ones I visited.
Firstly, the people who served you were usually jolly old folks who didn’t have durians up their arses. They were prompt, efficient and made posting a happy experience. And what’s more, they always had the most interesting postal accessories for sale. It was more a shopping trip than an errand to run each time I stepped in with a postal task. Post offices in England conveniently sold envelopes in all sizes and colours. They even sold boxes, bubble wrap, white paper or brown paper for wrapping your parcels. They had letter pads, greeting cards, stickers, stationery (really nice ones), toys, gifts, books, stamp vending machines….basically anything that they thought they could flock off to you. I welcomed it even if I always spent more than intended.
And the biggest thing I always took for granted? Clarity. If I wanted to buy a stamp, I’d head towards the stamp vending machine if I had change or queue at Counter X. If I wanted to buy a bottle of water, then I’d pay at the retail counter 10 feet away from the entrance door. If I wasn’t sure of something, then Mr Bald Red Cheeks at Counter B would help me. Everything was CLEAR.
Unfortunately, I’ve had 2 hostile experiences within a week of post office visits which spurred me to share this. My brother sent me a parcel which I had to collect from the Pudu Post Office. This particular branch is not new to me as I have previously visited several times before to collect parcels or registered mail. But each and every time that I have been there, I walked out with palpitations.
You see, there is this elderly Malay lady who wears a scarf around her head servicing the pick up counter and she really has her scarf on too tight, causing some slight brain malfunction. The last time I went, there was a lady in front of me who appeared to have been waiting forever. Before my turn came, there were already 5 more customers behind me, including a postman who was asking, “Hey, what’s up with the wait?”.
I made a few phone calls to track down the phone number of that particular branch and called to ask the manager why his pick up counter was moving so slowly. And his response? It usually takes 40 minutes because they have SO much mail to sort through.
Are you kidding me?
How fortunate then that I had to go there again to collect my birthday present from Australia. With my baby and a helper in my illegally parked car, I rushed in to grab my gift.
“Wow, no queue today!”, I thought as I approached THE counter. I smiled at that same old lady and handed her my card. She had her glasses on and was busy taking down some notes from one book to another. No smile back. She didn’t even look up. She must’ve been deaf. Or dead.
I consciously waved the card in front of her to get her attention and chirped in a friendly Malay tone, “Hello Makcik, I’ve come to collect my parcel.”
Nothing.
I looked around to see if there were any notices that I’d missed. There was this open journal of lined columns with writing on it. I picked it up to have a closer look thinking perhaps I needed to fill my details in before the wretched woman would entertain me.
“What do you think you’re doing?” her commanding voice threw me off.
I explained that I was there to collect a parcel and if she could hurry up. She said she would get it for me once she was finished.
No way!
I pleaded that I had a baby in the car and if she could get it now, I’d be forever grateful and used the baby citing more examples. (Sorry Tee, but you do come in handy sometimes.). She finally dropped her pen and turned her back on me and walked away from the counter. That’s it. I’m screwed now. She’s going to take forever deliberately. But thank goodness, she came back within seconds to deliver my long awaited gift. I spent the next half hour trying to decipher why that woman acted the way she did. Why is she still there? Gosh, if I didn’t have so many other priorities in my to do list, I’d get to the bottom of it.
A few days later, I walked into the Bangsar Post Office at 9am, bright and early, one of the firsts there. There was a number machine which said press A if you want to do ABC and press B if you want to do DEF. Hmmm…what about G, which was simply buying some stamps? My eyes scanned 270 degrees to look for clues to this riddle but alas, I pressed A to get a number intending to just ask the counter girl for some stamps when it came to my turn. I sat and waited as the irritating bell ‘tinged’ each time the numbers turned over. Just before my number ‘tinged’, a few customers walked in and formed a queue at one of the counters. I knew straight away that I should be in that queue but decided against getting my ass of the chair as my number was next AND all the counters said MULTIPLE SERVICE COUNTERS or something to that effect. There were no hints whatsoever that you should queue at counter X if you wanted to purchase a stamp except for some distorted footprints that led the eye from the entrance straight to counter X. I thought that was decoration.
You can never tell in Malaysia.
So where in this world does it teach you that if you see footprint stickers in a post office, you should follow it if you wanted some stamps. Did I go to the wrong school? The lady behind the counter refused to sell me some stamps even though she had a whole book of stamps in front of her. I swear they were trained with one purpose – to make your life difficult.
Imagine my horror when I found out that our post office is privatised when I bitched about the Government not having better postal services.
God, please help us.
Oh and I forgot to add that Post Offices in England are also clean and aesthetically pleasant which is the damned opposite of ours.
**************************************************************************Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. She sets out to prove to all that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!
Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.
She is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything with anyone, as she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.
