Couriers. Love them, hate them, can't do without them.

My Hermes.
I am currently on parcel number 197, a relationship that goes back two years.
For the most part, I love them.
But sometimes, just sometimes, they drive me cuckoo.

Over the years I've learned I'm a creature of habit.
I like the routine of a courier you can set your clock by - same person knocking at the door, same time for every parcel.
And as for the parcel shop - I only ever use the same one.

BUT...nothing stays the same forever, and two weeks ago my courier not only bumped me off his collection with no email/text/communication but couldn't guarantee picking it up the next day either.
Hmmm...
I swapped my allegiance to the parcel shop, which never lets me down.
For two weeks I lugged boxes to the faraway parcel shop rather than back down and get them collected.
For two weeks everything went smoothly.
Until yesterday.

Yesterday I turned up with a particularly bulky parcel, in the welsh drizzle.
I was met by the smiley shop owner informing me that it was not possible to drop off a parcel as the machines were down.
Technology meltdown!
I had no intention of lugging this parcel around all day, so with couriers  also being creatures of habit, and the pickup van being due in half an hour I decided to hang around outside to catch him and his (hopefully working)  all important scanner.

Thirty minutes of wandering up and down and lurking on various street corners I was happy to see the van arrive.
And a working scanner, but red tape prevailed, and with a defunct shop scanner my parcel was refused.

Grudgingly admitting defeat I left with the offending parcel, only to be accosted halfway down the road by the smiley man waving his scanner at me and telling me ''quick, quick - we have two minutes of battery!''
SO...parcel successfully checked in, ready to languish on the shop shelf till pickup today at 12.20pm on the dot.
Mission accomplished!

However, sitting on the sofa today, with a parcel in the hallway awaiting pickup, the courier I used to set my clock by is now two hours late, and I'm having deja vue...