We get a stamp

A neighbour called me all excited. His wife was a satisfied customer and had found her new self-employment thanks to our CLASSIC, but that was not the reason for his call. Did I know that our vehicle would get a stamp? No, I didn't. Yes, it was very special: people who are still alive very rarely have a stamp. It was really something special. He was a philatelist and knew a lot about it. "Phila... what? Stamp collector, he explained. Aha! Yes, my parents and especially my grandfather, who worked at the post office, had tried to make the hobby palatable to me, but without success. My neighbour told me that it would be a great honour if we received this stamp. I called my contact at the post office, a little puzzled, and he confirmed the story. He also said that we could have a small celebration for the occasion and have a formal presentation of the stamp. I could do something with that. Celebrations are always good. We helped organise the event. We looked for a very nice restaurant in Bern, invited all the guests who had been involved in the project and sent out the invitations. Of course, our friends from Grindelwald were not to be missed. An oversized stamp was made and for the delivery I had a special idea: I wanted to deliver the stamp with a drone. Drone deliveries might one day replace our DXP delivery vehicles and I wanted to anticipate this step into the future. As I was involved in the handover myself, I could not fly the drone. I looked for a professional pilot, who also immediately obtained a permit for this flight. The event started and the aperitif was good. We wanted to come to the handover and Dominique Freymont, a member of the Board of Directors of Swiss Post, wanted to hand over the stamp to me. What now? The agreement was that the drone with the stamp would take off from behind the restaurant and set it down in front of us. Instead, all we heard was the sound of engines and nothing happened. A staff member got to the bottom of it and saw behind the house how the drone pilot was struggling with the strong breeze, causing the large stamp to oscillate due to the wind effect. Every time he took off, the drone began to lurch dangerously and he had to land again.

On the spur of the moment, the employee grabbed a DXP that we had brought with us, picked up the stamp and handed it over to us. It will probably be a while before mail is delivered by drones, especially in strong winds.

Lesson learned:

• A celebration is sometimes really good for you.
• A nice celebration stays in the memory for a long time.
• It will be even longer before drones deliver the letter post.