I have taken the piss out of the Argentine postal service, but it turns out that the New Zealand Post beats it hands-down for ineptitude.

L sent me a box of nice Easter goodies, I'm told. They never arrived, and I had been blaiming Correo Argentino for months. But then I received a letter from a nice lady at New Zealand Post, following up the fate of the wayward easter eggs. The nice lady had spelt my name wrong, and L's, and also L's address (you'd think postal workers would be sticklers for things like street names, but no). But the best thing was the address she sent the letter to.

The following is my address, which L correctly mailed my package to:

Santiago Del Estero 159, Piso 2, Departamento 6
Monserrat
C.A.B.A. 1075
Buenos Aires
Argentina

...but this is how NZ Post sends me mail:

Piso Department
2 - 1075 Buenosaires Street
Monserrat
Santiago 1 5 9 C A B A
Argentina

I thought there was a general principle of 'conservation of words' at work, but no. At least she didn't invent any words or numbers, I guess... You'd think postal workers would be sticklers for things like addresses.

But no.

However, the big ups go to the nameless Argentinian postal officials, miracle workers that they are, for deciphering this work of creative reinterpretation enough (getting past the facts like 'there's no Santiago in Argentina', 'There's no Buenos Aires Street in Buenos Aires', 'Buenos Aires is actually two words', etc.) to somehow get this letter to me. Perhaps they'd just seen the Da Vinci Code...

AR 1, NZ 0.