Send for the waaaaaaahmbulance!

My dress for the ball at Waltz on the Wye appears to be lost in the post. As it's from a highly reputable dressmaker – Able Grable – whose shipping and quality of workmanship I am already familiar with, I fully believe it went in the post in plenty of time and is utterly wonderful.

Royal Mail's web site told me that the item's status will only be updated when it's been delivered. That's right, they're only going to tell me where it is when I don't need to know any more.
I rang up, quoted my tracking number and they said, "That's Guernsey Post, you need to try them."
Guernsey Post's website automatically redirected me to Royal Mail when I put my tracking number in.
Parcel Force's website told me it's been 'Processed but not yet delivered'. This seems like a step forward, right? But no! I phoned Parcel Force, only to be told, "That's a Royal Mail tracking number, you need to call them." I have to say, while the chaps at Royal Mail and UK Customs and Excise were both polite and helpful, suggesting other people I could try talking to and actually listening to my concerns, the woman at Parcel Force stuck to her script to the point of being obstructive, refusing to say anything other than "That's a Royal Mail tracking number, you need to call them." No wonder everyone I've spoken to is critical of Parcel Force.

Anyway, that's the benefit of privatising bits of the mail system - look at how much more choice I have about who delivers my parcel, and how much more efficient it is!

As I said, this is in no way a criticism of Able Grable, who are brilliant, more a rant about the postal system going awry at probably the only point in the year where I'm desperate for a thing to arrive on time and don't have the time or money to go out and get a substitute.

On the plus side, my daytime outfits for the event have come together better than I'd hoped (the seamed tights I ordered from What Katie Did at 2pm on Friday arrived first thing on Saturday morning, so the Royal Mail aren't eating ALL my post) and my prep for my talk is going excellently – I should have the knitting pattern I'll be giving away completed by the end of today, and my samples finished and blocked by Wednesday. If I have to wear last year's ball dress again, worse things have happened.

Photo: Last year's dress. You haven't seen the back of it yet!