Winging Your Way Now!

I wanted to take a photo of the actual parcels at the post office, but I was getting in other people’s way too much, so I gave up.

It’s taken longer than I expected – just like everything about this project has – but I’m happy to say the first batch of overseas orders was posted via Expedited Mail Service yesterday. We have to do them in batches for reasons of practical logistics: (a) there’s just Lionel the Cat Herder and me to carry these 3.3kg bubble-wrapped and manila-swathed bricks about, and (b) only so much room on the post office parcels desk to accommodate them; not to mention (c) other customers in the place staring daggers at us and our time-consuming transactions. But we got them off anyway, after sacrificing one to the nice lady behind the counter who wanted it opened so that she could see what was inside. Obviously that one did not go off yesterday, so my apologies to Mr T.A. of Castle Hill, NSW, whose nude and blue-bushing copy we brought back home for rewrapping. It will go off in the next batch, sir, I promise. All the first lot are bound for Australia – which, unsurprisingly, is where the most overseas orders for Thomia have come. We’ve emailed copies of the EMS receipt to all the intended recipients, so you know who you are. To the rest of you I say, please be patient; it must be frustrating when you see the comments and reviews from people here in Colombo who’ve already got their copies and dived right in. To be honest, the delay in getting round to processing foreign orders has – literally – been keeping me up at nights. The latest impediment to our efforts, believe it or not, has been a shortage of suitable wrapping paper at Colombo stationery shops. But we’re making progress... Out in the Customer Universe, I notice that the balance of new orders is tilting away from Old Thomians towards a wider readership. As I’ve been keen to emphasize before, and as Rohan Pethiyagoda writes in his review of Thomia in the Island, it’s a book that’s largely about Lankan history, with the history of STC serving as a doorway through which the story of our recent national past is told. I’m happy about this slight change in customer demographics, but I hope there’ll be more Thomians buying, too. It’s a small print run and it’s just about half sold out already, so if you haven’t already ordered your copy, now’s the time. Here’s a link to the order page on this site; and for customers overseas, a link to a table of postage and packing charges. They’re extortionate, but that’s the Post Office, not me...