Well, my parcel got a new number and duly re-entered the maelstrom (or should that be mailstorm?) that is “international logistics”.  I went back to the DPD tracking service and, lo, my laptop had been  “Collected” and then, later, it was at the “Sortation Facility” (a.k.a. Hub 3 in Birmingham).  That’s priceless.  “Sortation Facility”!  Do they mean sorting depot?  That’s almost as good as Amazon’s use of “Fulfilment Centre” – which is actually a warehouse, although it sounds like a house of a different kind.

Anyhow, after being sortated (sortate must be the verb from which sortation is derived), its status changed to “In transit”.  This might have meant it was in a Ford van on its way to Deutschland but, this evening, the DPD tracker has it back at the “Sortation Facility”, so maybe it just went round the block.  Sic transit gloria mundi seems all too appropriate!

Wait! I grumped too soon!  The second visit to the  “Sortation Facility” is to one in Raunheim.  I don’t think that’s near Birmingham.

05:19 28th – It’s on the van for delivery at the other end – Kesselsdorf, Germany (not to be confused, like I did, with Kesseldorf in Alsace!)

I looked up both places on Wikipedia and Raunheim is close to Frankfurt Airport.  The flightpath takes ‘planes over the town at 300m, so my apologies to the burgers there.  Kesselsdorf, on the other hand, is not far from Dresden (formerly East Germany) miles away – so it will be a while getting there.

09:45 28th – It’s there!