Double Dipping into the Well of Joy

After a string of mornings on which I had had to get up in minus five degree temperatures, to cat-sit my absent son's kitten, I was looking forward to a sleep-in when life returned to normal. But the very next day I was woken at 7am (minus six degrees this time) by a persistent knocking on my front door. To my considerable surprise it was a parcel deliveryman. I was busily telling him I wasn't expecting a parcel from anyone, when I looked at the sender's name: Herman Price. And slowly, through the fog in my head, came the realisation of what was in the box. 

Back on April 30, I was included in an email from Herman telling fellow ETCetera board members that their copies of issue No 108 had been posted. Herman's email said "Special mailing to Robert", which I just assumed to mean my copy was coming post haste to Canberra via air mail. So for three weeks I eagerly checked my mailbox, only to be daily disappointed that the familiar envelope had not arrived. Enviously, I read the emails of other board members, saying how much they had enjoyed reading issue 108. Where was my copy?

Herman, of course, hadn't used a large box just to send my one copy of ETCetera. There was something else in it.
I can't say which was the greater thrill - receiving the news that Typex editor Mike Brown and I had won the 2014 QWERTY Award, or receiving the wall plaque in the real mail. We'd celebrated the announcement in Canberra back in October, and my friends went to a lot of effort to cover for the absence of the plaque back then. But now that the actual plaque is here, it feels like I've double dipped into the well of joy.