Episode 1458: Poor Show, Parcelforce

You know what the great thing about having dinner in the middle of the week with friends is at my age? Everyone needs to go to work the next day, so everyone's basically back home by midnight. Haha! It was great though, seeing Claudia, Dan, Derrick and Vaish again, and I've always loved the food at Shahi Maharani. (Also, I can't really eat Indian with my family.) In less happy news, the box of books I posted to myself arrived with such severe water damage that the portion of the lid with my address had been torn off, put in a plastic bag, and taped back to the damaged box. Most of the stuff was relatively unscathed, although three paperbacks and one chapbook from The Red Ceilings Press were badly damaged enough to require replacing. I have, of course, filed for compensation, and if I get the amount that I believe I'm covered for, I have more than enough to order the books again and have plenty left over for more. Still, I am most definitely not impressed with this experience of Parcelforce. I don't see how they could dispute that it's their fault, given that the tracking system shows that the parcel was already damaged upon arrival in Singapore (it even still felt damp), and the condition of both box and books is pretty damning in my pictures, but I'm sure they'll try anyway. Well, I'm not backing down until I get some money back, especially considering that I paid more to ship the box than what the stuff inside was worth!