Since I like to sell stuff through my Tamagotchi shop and eBay, it isn’t very surprising that they know my face at the post office. Whenever I want to ship expensive dolls or Tamagotchi’s I like to opt for Internation Package Plus. This is about the only way to ship a package with insurance and tracking number from the Netherlands. And believe me, it isn’t a cheap service to begin with.

But this Friday, for the second time around, the employee told me it was of no use to send a package with International Package Plus to the United States. I wondered why they would even offer that service in the first place if they weren’t willing to sell it to me… He told me that a refund -with a maximum of $180- was determined by the weight of a package. Great way of determing the value of a package isn’t it? Next time I’m going to ship a brick stone along!

His second argument was that it would -and this were his exact words- reguire a SUPER computer to be able to track a package that far. So I explained to him that this sounded odd to me, since I had shipped a Blythe earlier this year with the same service and could clearly follow her whereabouts online. Even across the magic borders of the Netherlands.
He asked me what numbers I had to fill in on the website in order to trace the package. I thought they should know that better than me… I was becoming a bit impatient since I had to catch a train, my hubby and I were planning on spending the afternoon in Amsterdam. So I said to him; “please send the package with Internation Plus”. By that time he had given me the form which I began to fill in. He mumbled that he was told to discourage clients in choosing this service for the United States. He thought it had to do with America’s blame-and-claim culture.

Well I can tell you that whenever a package does get lost, I’m always the one responsible. The only thing TNT does is answering my $1-per-minute phonecall and starting a half-hearted investigation which can take months. Gah, I hope this package will arrive safely. But by now I understand why their profits have dropped.

According to the mysterious Random Number Generator from random.org, commenter #6 can call herself the lucky owner of some cute stationery. So congratulations Lu!

Please don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time around. I’m planning on having a new giveaway soon, because it feels so good and I love reading your sweet comments. If you are badly in need of some stationery in the meantime, I can recommend these shops (or just do some “window shopping”, it is an economical crisis after all ):

• Artbox - lovely shop that offers Hello Kitty, Artbox, Cram Cream and more brands.
• Janetstore - huge collection of cute items for a very reasonable price.
• Japanese Gift Market - if you’re looking for Decole and Cram Cream goodies <3
• Phoophie - in this kawaii shop you can find Crux, San-X, Q-lia and much more.

Your Wacom tablet is mine!

First of all thank you for your big response to the giveaway! Feel free to still leave a comment there, I will draw a winner tomorrow.

Some days just work out differently than you could imagine. And as long as I don’t have a migraine attack or major deadline, that’s okay with me.

First of all my hubby had to go see his uncle who lives in another part of the Netherlands. And even though the Netherlands is relatively small, it ate away his whole afternoon. So I was sitting at home alone when Kuchi -our cat- came to take over my desk so I would let him sit on my lap. Which, believe me, is not the best postion to work in. Especially since he grew up to be HUGE. Not long afterwards the window-cleaner showed up. He and his colleague stared at the glass back doors wondering how it could become this dirty. I had to smile inside, cause little did they know. Kuchi has taught himself to “knock” on the door with his dirty paws when he’s outside. He still doesn’t know how to miaow properly and this is his ticket back in.

Later that day my brother in law decided to join us for dinner. So whe went to our local Sushi take-away and had a nice meal, while watching a documentary about time. I still don’t understand exactly what the theory of relativity is about, but now I do know how an atomic clock works. Just Google it, you don’t want me to explain it to you…

Now on to the most interesting part, we always “force” visitors to play Buzz -a Playstation quiz game- with us. And I won the second time, joy! I also won Abba Singstar, which is nice because I can’t stand losing Singstar, sad isn’t it?