Stuff Arrives

It feels like Christmas! – Well not in the weather sense – way too hot for that. Some MONTHS ago, I did a Tesco on-line shop as well as getting a few bits from Amazon and Argos. I failed to make a note of which ship the said shopping was likely to arrive on though. Anyway, my Saint colleagues took me to the Catalogue Shop where, once the ship has left Cape Town, you can check to see if your name is on the manifest. Hooray – 12 boxes of ‘stuff’ were listed as on the ship 
When the ship arrives it is a bit of a free-for-all approach to collecting ‘stuff’ from the shipping agents and I am (wisely) advised to wait a few days until the containers have been opened and the packages sorted. Andy and I decide on Tuesday as collection day. I have already been told by Tessa that she’s seen boxes with my name on!
Tuesday comes and we drive to the Wharf. Having found John (one of the shipping agents on St Helena) in a shed, he checks the manifest and leads us to a hot airless container still stacked with goods. In the far corner we find a range of boxes named ‘Standen St Helena’. Some of the workers carry the boxes outside to the quay area and we are allocated a Custom Officer. Another worker ask if our name is ‘Standen’ and when I say it is, he walks over to another open cage (air-freight) and starts hunting through the packages – ‘I am sure I’ve seen your name in here’ he tells me as he hunts through a hundred or some smaller packets. Low and behold, 2 packets are found and handed over. Meanwhile back at the boxes, there’s only one Patio Set box when there should be two. ‘Don’t worry’ I am told,’ the other box is in the shed’. Someone else appears from the shed carrying the other box. The Customs Officer hands me a knife and asks for the invoices. Fortunately I knew I needed invoices so had printed them off to hand over, but I did not have one for the online shopping at Tesco (it seems to change depending on today’s stock availability) The Tesco packing schedule was found on the side of one of the boxes and we went through the content of each box with the Customs Officer. Once everything was accounted for we were about to go to pay the duty, when John overheard us saying the webcam hadn’t arrived. ‘I think that’s in my shed’ he pipes up, so off we go to the shed to hunt for the missing parcel. Eventually it is located. We have to pay just under £100 in duty to get our ‘stuff’ but it was just like Christmas opening up boxes, not knowing what exactly would be inside. Andy has already taken advantage of the delivery, by making loads of cakes.

On my return from work that evening, we ticked off the items to make sure we got what we thought! Who would have believed that the late night on-line shop I did at Tesco in August, would be delivered in November to the remotest place on earth!
Another Tesco shop is due to be delivered the week before Christmas, the last contact with the outside world until January 2014. Just in case there’s any doubt – Christmas Day will be spent at home with family with lots of Skyping back to the UK and cold beers on the patio – it is forecast to be 26 c or above! Boxing Day will be spent with neighbours’ Hazel, David and Deanna, where we are having a Piccolo Hill BBQ, in the sunshine of course. I am sure we will get used to this topsy turvy weather. It’s set to last now through to May so many walks and picnics to come.
Patio set put together can only mean cake and bisquits on the veranda :-)