Wow, that's been a long lull. Apologies all around but my husband surprised me with a vacation trip last minute. Needless to say that given the past few months, I needed it.
I guess I owe you a couple of posts. And boy do I have them! The first one is going to be a rant about the ASH CLOUD AND THE VOLCANO in Iceland. Folks, let's be realistic. Your bag is going to be delayed if the entire world is delayed and if the airline industry lost billions of dollars due to the ash cloud. I'm no genius but I'm pretty sure the airline industry does not want to ground flights, cancel flights and keep people in airports while they wait for the ash cloud to subside. So given that scenario, I'M PRETTY SURE YOUR BAG IS GOING TO BE DELAYED IF THE PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN AIRPORTS FOR OVER A WEEK AND A HALF!!
Sorry I don't mean to scream, yell or be bitchy but I'm pretty sure the ash cloud is not a mystery to any of you. Most of you live near an outlet with news. I know you send me 3 to 4 emails a week asking about your bag and that tells me you have internet which tells me that you have access to BBC, CNN, CBC, Reuters, Associated Press, etc. Again, not being bitchy but folks, when the world stops due to an earthquake, hurricane, flooding, A VOLCANO WHICH IS STILL SPEWING ASH AND STILL CAUSING FLIGHTS TO BE GROUNDED 4 WEEKS AFTER IT FIRST ERUPTED, then here's the scoop, YOUR BAG IS GOING TO BE DELAYED.
I write all the above with a smile on my face. I know that most of you get this and most of you have been just great with even keeping me apprised of what is going on as far as mail in the UK (the major hub for mail that comes to North America from overseas). Thank you UKers for letting me know.
I'm more amazed at people who write to me after I explain the ash cloud and ask, "what volcano?". Seriously?
*jaw drops to ground*
Okay, I get that keeping up with news may not be a priority with some people. So here goes: around April 20, 2010, a mostly dormant volcano in Iceland erupted and caused MASSIVE amounts of glass, ash, rock and all kinds of crap to enter the atmosphere. This ash cloud then floated from Iceland northeast to the wonderful island of Great Britain. London is the capital city of Great Britain. London is home to probably the busiest airport in the world: Heathrow. Heathrow is the MAJOR HUB and I do mean MAJOR HUB for all the mail in the world that is coming from almost any other country to North America. I live in Canada. All mail (this includes your bags and boxes and any thing else you can think of) coming from China definitely goes through Heathrow. After the volcano erupted in Iceland, all flights from Heathrow were grounded for over a week. OVER A WEEK. People that I know personally lived at Heathrow for about 3 to 4 days before giving up and going to a hotel to take a shower. Others went back to stay with the friends or family they were visiting. When flights did resume OVER A WEEK LATER, the airlines were not concerned with mail, boxes, bags, and all that other stuff. They were under the gun to get people moving from the airport to their homes.
Then guess what happened? Just as the airlines cleared the initial setback from the volcano ash cloud, the volcano decided to spew more toxic dust into the atmosphere, causing a secondary and tertiary delay with airlines, people and of course, you guessed it, your packages, mail, whatever you can think of that is transported by mail.
After all that, where are we? We are at a point where most packages should be arriving this week, mid week, with fingers crossed and prayer and sacrifices to all Gods. I have even shut the site down for the past 2 weeks and have not taken any new orders to ensure that we get through this hump together.
Where does that leave you? Waiting. With everyone else. It's not personal. The volcano apparently doesn't like any of us.
Happy Shopping...in about a week or two.
