Sustaining Rural Communities (And Parcel Delivery And Autumn)

Parcel Delivery And Scams

Parcel delivery happens every day to thousands of people without problems. But, if there are problems, how do you unravel them?

The thought occurred to me only because my daughter had said to me a fortnight ago that she had sent me a parcel that I haven't (yet) received. Then I received an email from DHL saying that a parcel had been sent to me and would be available at my local collection point, without indicating where that collection point was. So I went to the Post Office and asked if they had the parcel; they didn't but said there was a local collection point in the stationer's in Buis. So I went to the stationer's in Buis and asked if they had a parcel for me and they said no. So.….……….Later I opened my post box and found a letter from Chronopost, the French Post Office parcel service, with a reputation among the French of my acquaintance for unreliability, saying that they had a parcel for me but needed a phone call and extra information from me within 14 days or they would return it to sender. I duly phoned them and all they apparently needed was my phone number. All this happened while there was apparently a scam going on related to parcel delivery, of which I was aware, which sought to elicit personal details for the use of the scammers (which I was anyway never going to divulge for simple parcel deliver)y. Initially, I couldn't understand why Chronopost, even given their apparent reputation for unreliabiliy, hadn't simply left the parcel at the Post Office in Mollans, having apparently failed to deliver it to me.

So what, I asked myself, was going on? Where, for instance, did the email from DHL fit in? Was this a scam? I gradually came round to the following probable explanation (the problem is not resolved at time of writing). I surmised that when Chronopost tried to deliver my parcel it was the afternoon, when the local Post Office would have been shut; so they couldn't leave it there. They could have left it at the Post Ofiice in Buis (open all day) some 8kms away but apparently chose not to do so. So why didn't they leave a note in my letter box saying they had tried to deliver? That I can put down only to Chronopost's own procedures and reputation. The notification arrived by post some days later. But what about the DHL email? Again I can only surmise. But what I think must be the case is that Amazon (from whom the consignment was purchased) ordered DHL to deliver the parcel. Had they done so the parcel would have been at my local collection point in Buis. However DHL (again I surmise) decided that it would be cheaper or more convenient to delegate that task to Chronopost.

Two things disturb me. If delivery fails and the parcel is returned to Amazon, who accepts responsibility and picks up the tab (or whom do I threaten to sue, if it comes to that)? If Amazon did not accept prime responsibilty (and I have no idea whether they would or not) I could see a lot of finger-pointing and blame evasion going on, a long drawn-out process. Legally (according to UK law) I think the prime responsibility lies with Amazon, who impose this by inference on DHL who then........…. But I'd hate to have to go down that path. Whatever the case, when Amazon ask for feedback on this transaction, they will get it. Thus does a simple transaction become a potential saga.

The Village Butcher And Local Support

My heading sounds like a potential title for a French film from this region (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife.........…....….) but is more important than that, if I have been informed correctly. What I know is that the village butcher's closed earlier this year. I'm told it declared bankruptcy for reasons I won't go into. I'm told that the village council then decided that a butcher's was needed in the village and so the council bought the business. I know that the mayor promised a new butcher and one has recently been installed, presumably as a tenant. Whatever the case, the village now has a butcher's again.

What, for me, is important in all this is that the village council has the concern, and the budget, to keep the village alive as an entity. A couple of years ago I posted an account of how the village kept a Post Office when that was threatened with closure. The important point, again, is the encouragement and means provided, directly and indirectly, by the gouvernment here to keep small local communities alive and thriving. In the brief time in the late 1990s when I was important enough in the UK for at least some people in relatively high places to pay attention to what I was saying, I came up with a proposal to keep British villages alive through protecting the local Post Office and making it the hub of village communication and activity. There were people interested in this proposal and, indeed as it turned out, those who had made similar proposals; but no one in central or local government. If you want to know why local rural communities in the UK are dying (and will continue to do so) that is why.

Autumn

The autumn since the beginning of September has been brilliant. We still have afternoon temperatures of 22-23 degrees and it is still a pleasure to eat out at lunch-time in shirt sleeves, though it is too cold to do the same in the evenings, but you can comfortably eat outside then with a sweater on. What we don't have is rain. Thanks to the reduced temperatures and the hours when they apply, I now have to water plants only once every 5-7 days. But I've never seen the water level in the river Ouveze so low. It is reduced to a shallow, and narrow, stream in most places. I think I've already commented that the grape harvest as a result is smaller than usual, but more concentrated, promising some good wine albeit in reduced volume. The same cannot be said for olives. The harvest is in November and December and olives don't increase in goodness in the absence of rain to give them volume; they just get less flesh on them, to eat or produce oil. That could be a significant problem.

So I'll probably have to pay a bit more for wine and olive oil next year but that's not too much of a worry for me. What I'm most pleased about is that the front of my house is showing more colour than any others around. There is colour a-plenty in flowers in the shops but this is all chrysanthemums for All Saints'Day. The mounds of flowers look attractive but the plants have mostly been forced to flower now. In the past I have bought one to separate the plants and try to grow them on individually but with no success. The oleanders, the main source of colour at this time of year apart from from tree and vine leaves turning to autumnal shades, have finished flowering. However, my fuchsias, pansies and French marigolds, as well as the odd geranium and rose, are showing plenty of colour out front, as in the photo below. The fuchsias in particular are doing well, as below.  It's a small personal consideration but important to me.

English Conversation And Autumn Gardening

English Conversation Resumes

Last Tuesday was the first of the new term of English conversation classes and, as expected, the tournout of participants was sparse; just four in fact. At this time of year some of the regulars are on holiday and some still have summer visitors. One of the absentees has definitely been helped by our efforts, though, as he has now achieved his goal of getting a job in England and going to live there for a while.

Steve and I hadn't thought much beforehand about what we were going to do this term but have come to the conclusion that the synthetic conversations we created and used a lot until the last term have a lot more mileage in them. No doubt we'll get more ideas when we question the class more closely about what they find most difficult, as we have before. Pronunciation is one of the items we can work on, as well as the tonic accent, but the amazing lack of rules for these in English doesn't help. Vocabulary is certainly another consideration but is as long as a piece of string and, without a definite context, is difficult to bound. Steve and I have taken the view that what a visitor to England, for a holiday for instance, might need is the best guideline we can have.

Another problem, I feel, is how far to take the class into the English use of prepositions to qualify the meaning of verbs. We are concentrating on colloquial conversational English so verb and preposition combinations (verb plus, in, on, up, down, over, etc) inevitably occur frequently and the temptation is to extrapolate when one such occurs. The problem is that the possible combinations and alternative, context-dependent meanings with a verb such as «to put», for example, are so many that the class could well end up losing patience or being totally confused.

Anyway, time will tell what challenges the new term will bring; the one thing I'm sure of is that we shall have some fun along the way. We now have our old room back, the salle de réunions, renovation of the Mairie now being almost complete, which is a bonus, even if it comes some eight months later than originally scheduled. That's just a normal delay in these parts.

Letter To The Mairie

My letter to the Mairie (see a couple of posts ago) suggestung a narrowing of my road and installation of a toll booth has now been circulated to friends and neighbours and we've all had a good giggle. One neighbour seemed to take me seriously, though, and was at pains to explain to me that the Mairie didn't have the authority to make the road a toll road. Pity about that.

Autumn Gardening

The autumn gardening is just about done. I've planted about 20 or so of the irises I culled from the back garden to make an extra row in the roadside opposite my kitchen window. I've also planted crocuses around the edge of the pot by the wash-house and more in a pot in the front, plus around 40 narcissi and daffodils that I've found space for here and there. So the front is done and looking pretty good, as in the photo below.

You can just about see the cyclamen high up on the balcony. The French marigolds in the hanging baskets are still blooming, as are the fuchsias either side of the front door, and the rose arching over the porch (Penny Lane) has decided to start blooming again.

I have a bit more clearing up to do at the back, one or two more irises to get out and a cistus to cut back. I went to the market in Vaison this morning to see if I could find any perennials I fancied and bought a white buddleia and a cassia. I'll get those in in the next couple of days, plus some bulbs. All in all I feel quite pleased with what I've done.