snail mail

If you're thinking about mailing me something, I'd say STOP. Email me instead. There's a very good reason. Because of its location, Bermuda isn't the most efficient when it comes to its mail. Outgoing mail from Bermuda reaches its destination far quicker than incoming mail. All incoming mail to Bermuda first makes a pit stop in the US before making its way here & that really does prolong the time mail gets to you. Especially packages. A friend told me that it took months for a Christmas package to arrive from her mom. In the meantime she had already made a trip back home. Her mom would have been better off just holding on to it.

Courier services are another story too. That overnight shipping guarantee doesn't hold water when the packages are destined to Bermuda. It takes about a couple of days for a FedEx or UPS package to make its way to you. But at least it's reliable. If you're mailing something you'd best make sure that you've got the address right down to the house name - increases your chances of mail being delivered right the first time. What house name you ask? Every house in Bermuda has a name. And this along with a postal code was how mail was delivered. Street numbers & addresses were only introduced about five years ago. Even so if you've got a house name on there preceding your street # & address, you can bet your mail will get to you.

I never used to include the house name for where we live. I am definitely used to the concept. When mailing Christmas cards to relatives in Southern India or any Indian non-cosmopolitan city, street addresses are not used. Even to this day! So mailing address are like this:
Mr & Mrs ---
'Name of the house'
Opposite --- Church or Opposite --- Post Office
City, Postal Code
State

I'd often ask my mom - how on earth would mail even get delivered to these places. Her response: Oh! the postman knows which house is which. Damn, that's what I call putting your training to practical use. Imagine your first day on the job as a postman. You'd have best read your training manual or paid attention to the mail route.

So, it's the same in Bermuda, or at least it was until five years ago. Of late, however, I have started to include the house name when giving out my mailing address. Turns out there's a bunch of apartments named after the same street that we're on & often their mail turns up in our box. And the postman will not bother to take the mail back & deliver it to the right address. MsStopYourNoise has had to drop it off at the post office one to many times. Not like it's going to take the postal worker extra time to do it right. Mail is delivered on a scooter for Pete's sakes. Anyway, I've included an example (courtesy of the Bermuda Post) of how mail should be addressed. FYI: Parish in Bermuda is the equivalent of Province (Canada) or State (US). Just in case you didn't know!