I’ve got a couple of great stories to share with you this week, a tip for making sure your post doesn’t get eaten by snails (no, really…). Also, just a reminder that since it is a Bank Holiday today, there won’t be anyone in the office to answer the phones, but normal service will resume first thing tomorrow. Now, onto those stories…
A friend of mine shared a wacky story with me the other day, about a time when he’d heard a strange crackling noise coming from somewhere near his TV. When he investigated, he found that the noise was coming from the power strip that his TV and DVD player were plugged into.
Naturally, he switched it off at the wall and unplugged both devices. He then decided to try to test out a few things to see if he could work out what the problem was – is now a good time to point out that my friend is a licensed electrician?
He turned it back on at the wall (with nothing plugged into the power strip) and one of the empty sockets immediately started sparking and flashing. Uh oh. After switching it off again and taking the casing apart, you’ll never guess what had happened…
A slug had somehow made its way inside the power strip (through the holes in the back that you can use to mount it on the wall) and had managed to touch both the contact points in the socket at the same time. This shorted the circuit and killed the slug, but being dead didn’t stop the electricity from shooting through his body like Frankenstein’s Mollusc. This could have been a serious fire hazard if my friend hadn’t got to the bottom of it, so that was quite the adventurous Tuesday night for him!
And hot on the heels of that story came a short story on the news about a postbox in rural Northumberland that had to be taken out of commission because snails were crawling inside the slot and chomping away on all the post! You can read more about it here if you’re interested.
All of which leads me to mention Royal Mail’s free collection service, for if you’re ever struggling to get to the Post Office (or if the local wildlife has taken up residence in your nearest postbox). The collection itself is the free service, where you book a slot for the local postie to come to your house and collect your items, and you just need to pay for the cost of the postage.
You can book a collection here by filling in the “Send” box in the top right – it’s all pretty straightforward, just make sure you pick a time slot when you’ll be in and have your letters or parcels ready to go when they arrive.