Lost
I had almost forgotten about our glorious postcode system.
I was reminded the other day when I was ordering something or other online and there was a little box prompting me to enter my postcode [if applicable]. I ignored as usual but it decided that a postcode was applicable and I was fucking enter it whether I liked it or not.
Now I haven't a fucking clue what my postcode is. I did my usual thing of entering "00" as my code and the order was accepted, but it got me thinking. What the fuck happened to this great and wonderful system that the gubmint landed on us? I decided to do a brief bit of research.
The first thing I discovered was that the system cost us the princely sum of €50 million. They officially claim €38 million but that doesn't count the cost of all the various departments having to change their stationary, computer programmes and that kind of shit, so that brings it up to the €50 million mark.
We were told by our magnanimous leaders that the postcode would be given free to each household. Wow! But of course the dumbfucks choose to overlook the small fact that householders don't get the code for free – we have to shell out €50 million, but then it does illustrate perfectly how they think that tax revenue is theirs and not ours.
The system has been officially in place since last July. To date I have seen the code used just once. Yes – I have received just one item with my postcode on it. Naturally that was the card telling me what my postcode is.
Normally my full address is Name, House name, Townland, Village, County. The nearest big town [Skobieville] is optional but rarely used. Since July I have received letters that omit the Townland, some gave the Townland but omitted the Village while nearly all omit Skobieville [eminently sensible]. I did get one large package [from the gubmint] that had name, house name, townland, village, Skobieville, county and country, and the damn thing was covered in stickers telling me to use the full address. Maybe that was because there was no postcode?
I see that no one is using the fancy postcode, simply because it is so fucking confusing. Courier companies, emergency services, police, no one uses the useless things so it is a perfect example of €50 million down the drain [presumably just so we can keep up with our “brothers” in Europe].
A while ago I was chatting to the postman out at the gate. I asked him about the codes and whether anyone uses them. He sniffed.
"Sure why would I need postcodes for" was his laconic reply.
"Don't I know where you live?"
Coming from a country that has had nation-wide post codes (ZIP codes) for over half a century I can't imagine not having them. It's probably due to the US being so damn big the poor postal carriers kept getting lost? I mean there's 50 towns named "Newport" in the US alone. No wonder the mail got lost.
I have memories from my single digit days seeing ZIP codes mentioned on the backs of comics. They were on application forms to buy BB guns, which I thought very cruel as it was U.S. only. I really wanted one.
Cruel indeed. My father gave me an old 1940's Daisy BB gun that was very legal in the 1970's as it could punch out the half inch think glass of a stadium light at a distance of 10 to 12 feet. Imagine what it could do to kid at that distance or less.
It was a pump action with a really long barrel that I had to stick the butt on the ground and use both hands to pull the pump down to cock it (pressurize the air chamber). And I was a young-ish teenager at the time. Probably best that it eventually stopped working and was lost over time as I have a neighbor I would be more than tempted to use it on.
We have had postcodes for years and years of course and they are a pain in the arse. Because they indicate only the Post Office sorting office areas they don't follow county boundaries, boroughs, regions or even well known geographical areas. So I live in county X but my postcode relates to a town in county Y while my mate lives in county Y but has a postcode indicating he lives in a town in county X.
Before the days of satnavs it created chaos for parcel deliveries or visitors and even now it causes difficulty because people who are firmly part of one community have postcodes relating to another. The police and ambulance service still haven't sorted out who covers what bits, utility companies keep denying responsibility for leaks/power cuts because the postcode indicates a town outside 'their' area and many people have to always explain where they live because the postcode is contradictory.