2nd May 2018 PostNord's innadequate nerds!

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Wednesday 2nd 48-58F, 9-14C, bright and breezy, though not without cloud. The roads and fields are well puddled from the previous days of heavy rain. An early ride, to catch up on the shopping, instead of a walk. Bit of a cold breeze so I wore fingered gloves but went bare legged. The long drag up to the forest went much better than expected. I was maintaining upper 90s and topped out at 106rpm but was hardly breathless.

I turned into the wind after that but was still going well. None of this makes much sense because I ought to have lost my cycling fitness by now. Only ten miles so far but I'm to be allowed out again. Another 14 miles after lunch with, and against, the wind. I was cruising at 20-22mph going. Down to 10mph on the way back.

A raving lunatic overtook me at 80mph in a village and nearly hit a speeding, oncoming car. Only half a mile later a lorry carrying a JCB overtook me right on a blind bend. Straight into the path of a bus! The bus came to a standstill and somehow they missed each other. So life could continue without international headlines.

Thursday 3rd 45F, 7C, grey and dark but almost calm. I had better check whether I have lost the ability to walk after yesterday's hiatus. Slept in this morning until 7.30am. It must be all that cycling.

I had completely misjudged the weather this morning but had taken my winter jacket in case of rain. There was a cold westerly wind and I was grateful for the protection of the jacket with my hands safely in the pockets.  Some two hundred, fidgety rooks were out on a newly sewn field beside the road. They seemed unable to decide whether I was a serious danger and kept lifting off, moving away and then coming right back again. There is a well established rookery in a small wood to the west. So they may well have come from there. Too busy for a ride.

PostNord sins again: When you send a packet [parcel] in Denmark you must use one of their silly sticky labels. You know, the one with the tiny little address boxes. Where you must quickly scribble. Legibly because the postman is going to read it to see where it is going from the handwritten address. The vital label which must be filled out on the spot. While more customers breathe down your neck in the long queue waiting behind you.

Of course the label is made of thick paper and is duplicated [badly] for your own copy underneath. The parcel is given a tracking number from the serially printed number on the label. The label, where the tracking number is separated into short groups.

Now, guess what? No, you wouldn't believe me even it if I told you. But here goes: If you religiously/pedantically enter the number, exactly as it is printed on the label, with all the gaps. Well, PostNord's very own tracking website can't cope. You must manually delete the gaps for PostNord's tracking to instantly recognise the long, continuous number. I told you, you wouldn't believe me. But it's true! Dugh? Even with the finest army of workers in the world if the leadership makes these sorts of pathetic decisions what hope is there for a decent service?

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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