Saturday December 14th 2024 "Has YOUR life been changed by a chance meeting?"

Think back, dear Reader! Has YOUR life been changed and, maybe also, YOUR life's perhaps closest relationships been started, by a chance meeting way way back in the past? 

Most of us would hold our hands up and say a big fat "Yes!" to that question, wouldn't we, and now there's new science available from the States that backs that suspicion up, so it's not just "hogwash", as some would have us believe (!) [Source: Onion News].

And before you give the old knee-jerk response to my question, "Yes, but that's the States - it couldn't happen here!", just take a look at this story from the hard-working local journalists at Onion News's West Worcestershire Desk:

[That's enough Onion News stories! - Ed]

And this morning, thinking back over our own 2 year residence in Malvern, here in deepest West Worcestershire, my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I believe that one of the strongest bonds we've built up here is with another ageing couple, David and Judith, who live about a mile away from us, and who (for their sins!) are the proud recipients of all our Amazon purchases (!).

I've got enough pictures, proudly taken by the local Amazon delivery guy, of David and Julian's doorstep with some brown package or other, clearly addressed to us, and confidently and proudly misdelivered and misplaced there, that I could fill a big photo album with them, or even stock a shop with them (!) if that need were ever to arise (!).

Look at the latest one (photo above) - it's quite a "doozy" as a photo, isn't it - and the mystery package on David and Judith's doorstep contains the dark chocolates that I ordered as an "extra", somewhat naughty, Christmas present from me to Lois. Don't tell her, by the way - it's meant as a surprise (!).

What madness !!!!

Since October 2022, when Lois and I first moved to Malvern, we've got to know David and Judith, the recipients of all our Amazon mis-deliveries, quite well - they're a lovely couple, a lot like us in many ways, which is nice!

And it's clear that Amazon don't give a damn about the problem, to put it mildly. In the early days of our relationship with David and Judith, I actually used to spend a lot of time on the phone, talking to some of Amazon's most charming "chatbots", thinking that it was surely in Amazon's interest to keep their customers happy. 

"Well, ha bloody ha!", as people say around here!

I haven't tried to contact Amazon over the issue since January, when, in despair, I even tried chatting in Scottish to them, as a possible "way in" - seeing as how many UK companies have their head-offices in Scotland.

(1) English:

(2) Scottish:

flashback to January 2024: my last effort to get our Amazon

mis-delivery problem fixed: I tried using both English and Scottish

- many UK companies have head offices in Scotland

"No bloody dice", however, as people also say around here (!).

It's obviously a big problem. Just today there was a message on our "nextdoor" web site feed about an Amazon misdelivery: and the picture clearly shows the guilty delivery guy's shoes, which should be a clue to somebody, we're guessing!

another local Amazon mis-delivery, this one clearly showing the

guilty Amazon delivery-guy's footwear - what madness !!!!!

Still, in our case, we've at least made some good local friends in David and Judith, so all is not lost (!). 

And this morning, we make good use of one of our "package pick up" visits to David and Judith's "doorstep" (haha!) to do some more local history research. Just across the road from their house, we find what we're looking for: the premises of a local prestigious private girls college. Malvern St James:

"Why are you and Lois so interested in looking at the premises of a prestigious private girls college?", I hear you cry! [Not me, I lost interest, like, a billion lines ago, and I'm just going off for a nap! - Ed]

Well, I can assure you that there's nothing prurient in our curiosity (!). Okay, we're hanging around the premises a little suspiciously, I admit, but the girls aren't even around, anyway - we think they go home at weekends, and also they've probably already "broken up" for Christmas. 

No - this is what we're hoping to get a glimpse of, is the "porte cochère" on the side of the main college building.

[What's that, when it's at  home? No, on second thoughts, don't tell me! - Ed].

Well, seeing as how you're "gagging" to know (!), here it is - it's somewhere that, in the olden days, was a little shelter so that people could get on or off a typical "stage-coach" without getting wet, if it was raining or snowing. See? Simples, as an idea isn't it, but so useful in those crazy far-off days, to put it mildly.

the "porte cochère" on the side of the Malvern St James Girls College

It looks a bit odd "grafted on" to the girls college side-wall, doesn't it, and there's a reason for that. It wasn't there when the college was built.

Originally it was on the side of a big Victorian mansion Blackmore Park near Hanley Swan village. The house was so grand, that it needed a team of 13 servants to work for its owners: a butler, a cook/housekeeper, a lady's maid, two footmen, four housemaids, a kitchen maid and a scullery maid. plus a valet and an "odd-job man":

What madness !!!! And quite the mini-Downton Abbey.

Blackmore Park mansion in its glory days, with

its porte cochère on the right-hand side of the building

Blackmore Park mansion staff in 1915

The owner, who was, randomly and quite weirdly, the godson of King Alfonso XII of Spain, became crippled by the payment of death duties and eventually the house was sold to developers in the 1920's, before being destroyed in a suspicious fire (insurance scam?). The only part that was preserved was the porte cochère, which was salvaged and re-erected at the Malvern St James Girls' College. 

See? It's all beginning to make a crazy kind of sense now, isn't it. 

[I wouldn't go that far! - Ed

And 20 years later, in World War II, the massive but subsequently "unwanted" mansion grounds became the ideal spot for the US Army to build three hospitals to cope with the expected casualties from the invasion of Europe, planned for D-Day, June 6th 1944., and its aftermath. 

the World War II US Army Hospital base built on the old

Blackmore Park mansion grounds - the 700-,million-year-old

Malvern Hills can clearly be seen in the background

wounded US soldiers being taken off trains at Malvern (Hanley Road) 

railway station, before being taken by ambulances on the short trip to

to one or other of the 5 US Army hospitals dotted around the Malvern area

The authorities considered the Malvern area to be "too far west" to be at risk from attack by German bombers, and not only the US Army were here, but also the British Ministry of Defence chose to site their radar research unit in the area. And the house where Lois and I live, was actually built on part of this old M.O.D. unit, as well. See? There's a pattern here, isn't there!

Lois and I even had our Valentine's Day lunch this year at the Swan Inn, Hanley Swan, which during World War II was crowded with US Army guys - it was their "local pub" at the time.

flashback to February: Lois and I have our Valentine's Day lunch

at the Swan Inn, which in World War II would have been crowded with US Army guys

Isn't life funny that way?!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!