A Christmas Gift From Across The Pond

A Christmas Gift From Across The Pond

The Martiniinthemorming.com (MITM) hand of friendship stretches the entirety of the globe as anyone who listens in or visits the chat room can vouch for.  Mother Miriam is the metaphorical gel that keeps everyone in the MITM community happy, smiling and feeling a sense of togetherness. Even though we are all thousands of miles apart but close together because of our love for the magical music played 24/7 across the world.

Let me tell you a story about just how wonderful the people at MITM really are and in particular Mother Miriam who came to my rescue without any hint of doubt as to the actions needed to make my plan work.

You see ever since we travelled to New York at Christmas Holiday Season to celebrate my Wife Debra’s Birthday, take in the Christmas atmosphere of the bright lights and shopping in Manhattan and go see Steve Tyrell perform his outstanding show at Cafe Carlyle we have been hooked on collecting the yearly crystal christmas tree ornament sold by Tiffany & Co.  Unfortunately we don’t have the resources to hop on a plane across the Atlantic every year to purchase one from the 5th Avenue shop so we tend to take a trip to London for the weekend and pop into Tiffany on Bond Street there instead. This year I noticed that the ornament wasn’t showing up on the Tiffany online (UK) website so I telephoned customer services and was informed that due to a supply problem our precious little ornament wasn’t being distributed to any other worldwide Tiffany retailers except the USA! The race against time was on. I needed to get my hands on one of these crystal trinkets somehow.

First port of call was the US Tiffany Website, which had them for sale and available. I thought all my worries were over. I placed one in the basket and proceeded to the checkout, only to go through the process and find out they don’t ship internationally…...arrggggggghhh!!

Second port of call was a telephone call to customer services in the USA. After hearing my plight and agreeing how frustrating it was that I couldn’t get my hands on this tiny chunk of crystal she apologised and told me there was no way they could ship it overseas as they have no ability to do so on their system…...arrgggggggghhh!!

She did however suggest that I could have it delivered to a US address and they could then post it on to me.  Who do I know and trust in the states that would be willing to go through the trouble of waiting for a delivery from Tiffany then take it to the post office and send it to me. My plea went out to the only people I know….  Miriam and Brad of course.  The call went out the the dynamic duo and Miriam got right back to me telling me that she would be only too happy to help out, especially as it involves Tiffany & Co.

That was it I had the green light and was raring to go. Straight onto customer services in the states and gave them my order and US address to post it to. An confirmation email was waiting for me with all the order and delivery details, which I promptly forwarded on to Miriam. All I could do now was wait for her to

let me know when it dropped onto her door mat.

After a few days Miriam pinged me informing me that the package had arrived.  I asked her to please open the package and make sure my fragile crystal was intact before she posted it on to me.  She did so and told me there were two blue boxes…. had I ordered two?? I told her yes I had ordered one for a good friend and asked her to open them both to check they were intact.  In them both they had a message card.  One of them was blank the other had a message written on it that I had asked Tiffany customer services to include in the order.  It said on the card

To My Dear Friend

From Across The Pond

You Came To My Rescue

For Which This Gift

Will Be Our Forever Bond!

Thank You Miriam

Happy Holidays

Steven

I think it may have taken a minute or so to sink in but then I got a message back saying what a wonderful thing to do and how thrilled she is with her gift. I think she was a Happy Lady!

No time to waste Miriam. Get a picture of you and Brad holding it up and then get my little blue box to the post office post haste!  She did just that and it was on its way across the Atlantic on the 10th of December with Miriam being informed upto 14 days for delivery to the UK.  WoW it is cutting it tight but fingers crossed for delivery before Christmas Eve.  every couple of days Miriam would check in to see if it had arrived and by the last post on Christmas Eve nothing had dropped through my door. I was disappointed but pragmatic and hopeful it would arrive before the tree was turned into firewood for our log burner.

Ironically it actually arrived the morning after the tree was chopped up, which I was totally gobsmacked about but hey it had arrived, which I was delighted about. A message straight across to Miriam confirming that we had received it and just how beautiful it was to hold it in our hands. Next I had to give it Debra as her very belated extra Christmas present.  While she was upstairs I set up the camera to take a video of her opening it  and hid the postage box under some of the Christmas tree branches. I called her down and told her there was something under the foliage. Me being a bit of a practical joker and her usually being the butt of those jokes she was obviously very apprehensive about lifting the spiky branches off the table top but eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she did so. Her face was a delight when she opened the package, which made the most expensive Christmas Tree gift I’ve ever purchased worth every penny!

Hopefully Tiffany & Co will be supplying them to the UK for Christmas 2016 otherwise I might just have to call upon Miriam again for her help…… or we could take a trip to 5th Avenue of course!! ;-)

Steven Mangini

Mancunian

Martini Fan

MITM Fan

Miriam’s Friend