As Drunky has effectively reminded us Christmas is on its way... Although all the shopping centres here are all decked out AND have the music on already... Will be screaming by the 20th December. After 2 years of not getting my secret santa present, I'm loathe to try again but I'm willing to give it one last try, if others are interested. So all those wanting to exchange a gift... I think the limit is 10pounds or your currency equivilant plus postage, need to say yay or nay and we'll get this organised as soon as possible, so I can get my pressie this year (And Om I'm sure it'll take less than 3 months this time round.)
I'll be in again. I'd like to give it a second try, my gifts to Lipi also got lost in the post somewhere in Slovenia (or maybe London) I think - but I did receive a nice book of poems from Avi, so it wasn't all bad.
I'm usually very unlucky with the post, and also lousy at sending things at christmas or birthdays, even to family Yes, I know, I'm a bad bad person... But hey, maybe participating in this will get me going for once... I'm in !
Could I mention a few things beforehand, and in big bold letters, that might increase the chance that everything goes right? You can and should add. Those things might not be necessary in every case and not at all when you are sending things within your country, but in any case, they won't harm. 1. Do not send herbs or food or anything organical. Some countries won't let those things pass their borders at all, some just feel inclined to have a closer look at things like these; if it is not inside the EU, don't risk it. 2. Just in any case, mark your presents as gifts on the outside. 3. Pack them in a way that secures them, but isn't too hard to open for a control check either. Any experiences of your own?
I'm in! And as Hsing says, please do mark them as gifts - otherwise the person you're sending to may well get a bill for custom duties. We often have to pay £10 for presents sent to us by people in the US.
I'm in. Even though I didn't get a gift last year and my gift to exian got lost somewhere. it probably ended up in the ocean or in antarctica. :roll:
Yes; I don't want to discriminate the Aussies, but we should think of either pairing them up, which would be very limiting, or do some research on private delivery services like UPS and their fees.
[quote:8964f301f7="Electric_Man"]I'm spotting an aussie theme here... I'll play too.[/quote:8964f301f7] I would be offended at the implication that the Aussie icon of Australia Post sucks...but it does. For some reason half the stuff I receive from overseas I never get, and most of the stuff I post no matter what method I pay for takes 3 months to be delivered. I would say UPS or Express Post but they are stupidly expensive for overseas... Maybe the Aussie ones can be not so secret so we get told beforehand whose sending it and when so arrangments can be made that Aus Post can't screw up.
Sorry its taken so long but to get this rolling ASAP... COuld all those that are in pm me their address so I can pair people up? I'll go as regional as I can to keep postal costs down. And remember <10 pounds or equivalent presents.
Me too! Everything within Europe (not EU, the whole continent) won't make much of a difference, anyway.)
and where I come from we only have two fees, national or international so it doesn't really matter how far away I have to send it, it'll cost a bunch anyways.
FInal call for participants before I start matching people up...I will be doing the matching on wednesday (which is Tuesday night for most people here - silly timezones) so get in quick if you are up for sending and receiving a present...
I checked and to be sure that the gift I send will get there before christmas I need to post it the 1st of December. I am in no way insinuating that the postal services around the world are slow. I'm telling them.
Everyone involved needs to check their pms now as secret santas have been allocated and I have sent the addresses. Fingers crossed that the postal service doesn't go postal on us this year...
My present arrived today(friday, December 8}, thank you, Sophia. I will open it at Christmas because it might be my only present this year.
So will be mine... I expect it to be a between-the-years-present. One of the reasons is that we spent the last week being sick in turns. I got my present in turn, though, but I'm not going to say who sent it just yet, that would spoil the surprise for the rest... Thanks! Presents are handed out on the evening of 24th here. And the pair of snowman socks were just the right size and became part of my handing-out-the-presents-outfit. The big Christmas sock got to contain a few of the presents for my daughter, and she's now jealously guarding it.
Thank you, Sofia, I love the rune stone. My mom was very impressed that you sent such a heavy thing, she was a postmaster so she knows something about it. We all thought it was very cool and I know just where I'm going to place it, right on top of my monitor. I've been thinking of getting it it's own teddy bear,but maybe this will be to its taste. I'd love to hear the story it tells. P.S. the latest Information I read about the Kensington runestone , dug up abouy 75 miles from here, is that it is probably [i:d93e0ff3a5]not[/i:d93e0ff3a5] a fake. The weathering of the rock exposed by the carving appears to be as old as it is dated. The thing is dateed 1360something, and talks about Norse explorers in Minnesota.
[quote:932fff764b="Buzzfloyd"]Mine will also probably not get there till after today. Sorry![/quote:932fff764b] Thats cool I will look out for it and chase Australia Post to get it right...
What with finals and christmas I have had no time until this week to send the gift I need to be sending. It is sitting on my desk glaring figuratively at me, so I shall get it sent by the end of the week. Might not make it by new years, but I remain hopeful. Silly life getting in the way of the important stuff!
The runestone is a copy (of course) of a runestone found not far from where I live. Only one thing differs, apart from the size, and that is that the text is a wish of good health and happiness, rather than the usual 'this stone was raised in memory of 'blah' who went here and there and there and over there too, he also killed that person, and that person over there, he will be missed by us' Also, postage was the same for all packages up to 2kg. it's size that matters more up here.
[quote:a22d3ebff9="Mynona"]The runestone is a copy (of course) of a runestone found not far from where I live. Only one thing differs, apart from the size, and that is that the text is a wish of good health and happiness, rather than the usual 'this stone was raised in memory of 'blah' who went here and there and there and over there too, he also killed that person, and that person over there, he will be missed by us'[/quote:a22d3ebff9] So what do you mean is equal to the original?
[quote:3ea068aba8="spiky"][quote:3ea068aba8="Buzzfloyd"]Mine will also probably not get there till after today. Sorry![/quote:3ea068aba8] Thats cool I will look out for it and chase Australia Post to get it right...[/quote:3ea068aba8] Now that I have arrived in Adelaide it turns out that my secret santa has been here for over a week without me knowing it. Thanks! The chrissie decorations went straight to the tree and are now out-classing the rest of the tree Australia Post finally got it right! Third times the charm
Hooray! Glad you liked the present, Spiky. It's just occured to me that, since Garner and I are away in the US at the moment, the postman might have attempted to deliver already!
Eminently probable. Postpeople in England have this really irritating habit of not bothering to actually call with the parcel, but just to stick the "I called and you weren't home, please collect it at blah on blah" note through the letter box. Or at least in Central London where my aunt lives they do.
[quote:35de2eed38="Angua_rox"]Eminently probable. Postpeople in England have this really irritating habit of not bothering to actually call with the parcel, but just to stick the "I called and you weren't home, please collect it at blah on blah" note through the letter box. Or at least in Central London where my aunt lives they do.[/quote:35de2eed38] This isn't an English or British thing, our postperson does this too, although sometimes he doesn't even bother to leave the sslip, so if we are not expecting the parcel, it can get sent back... :roll: Going Postal eh... yeah.
Oooooh, Reg has just msn-ed me to say we have received a parcel from germany !!! So unfair, I've been home for a week and no parcels, and now I have to wait hours before opening it knowing it's there ! Hmmm... Germany, I wonder who it's from
I'm guessing you got a small vial of virgin blood, Kat. Or a garlic-detector. Or a cloak. Perhaps a coffin.
Yay !!! Thank you Hsing, it's perfect ! KK was right, there was a vial of (blue ink-like) virgin blood, plus a nice caligraphy pen and a beautiful green note book with a pretty metal and cristal kind of decoration on the cover... Handy to keep track of one's victims, I guess Reg said "wow, that's great... but where's the slab of Milka chocolate ? "
[quote:b6eabd9acf="Katcal"][quote:b6eabd9acf="Angua_rox"]Eminently probable. Postpeople in England have this really irritating habit of not bothering to actually call with the parcel, but just to stick the "I called and you weren't home, please collect it at blah on blah" note through the letter box. Or at least in Central London where my aunt lives they do.[/quote:b6eabd9acf] This isn't an English or British thing, our postperson does this too, although sometimes he doesn't even bother to leave the sslip, so if we are not expecting the parcel, it can get sent back... :roll: Going Postal eh... yeah.[/quote:b6eabd9acf] This is definitely how Aus Post operates. Hence 2 years of missing secret santa presents... I'm glad it seems to have worked out for everyone this year... Fingers crossed that Grace's present is still there when she returns from holiday.
Well, there was a note from the postman to say he tried to deliver a parcel week ago - I've just called and asked them to redeliver, and I'll get it tomorrow!
Yesterday I recieved a parcel in the mail, well I had to go and fetch it but still. It was from Tolouse, which I believe means that it's from Katcal and it contained a pretty blue box with flowers on. The pretty blue box, in turn, contained an empty plastic bag and loads of crumbles. From the look of some of the bigger pieces I assume they were cookies in a former life. Thank you.
Damn... poor cookies... I only thought of adding some extra packing stuff inside the box to cushion their ride once it was all packed up. Oh well, at least the box got there ok, I wrote a little greeting on the bottom, as it was home made, and then completely forgot to add a card, like the extra packaging, until the whole thing was wrapped up. Sorry about that... Ok, so, for next year : don't send biscuits, and include a card. I'm getting better ! this time at least I remembered to post it before Easter.
And this is why I refrained from sending you a slab of Milka - the thing that would have arrived in Toulouse would probably have put you off chocolate forever...
[quote:fabdb3e517="Hsing"]And [i:fabdb3e517]this [/i:fabdb3e517]is why I refrained from sending you a slab of Milka - the thing that would have arrived in Toulouse would probably have put you off chocolate [i:fabdb3e517]forever[/i:fabdb3e517]...[/quote:fabdb3e517] Meh, excuses excuses
Well, [i:957f18fa15]two[/i:957f18fa15] parcels arrived this morning, and neither of them was my secret Santa, unless someone other than BT decided to send me a wireless router for Christmas...
