An exciting weekend

phew! What a weekend that was! I missed the quidditch for the fact I was working on a presentation in one of today's classes (another story!). I can't believe that some of the information in quidditch was pertaining to me. Of course I'd miss it when it was something to do with me, typical!

Even though I missed quidditch, I did manage to get to Hogsmead for the fact that I had to write up a presentation about a government body. I would love to write about my father, but his job is so top secret I don't even think he knows what he does! So I settled for the post office.

Now the post office in Hogsmead is one of the biggest around for miles because it serves Hogswarts when the students owls would be overwhelmed at peak times such as Halloween or when owls take a rest (they too get holidays!), and the surrounding districts.

So Hogsmead PO has 438 owls ranging from your typical barn owl to the small elf owl. Each owl is placed in specific categories, not according to bird, but according to the parcel, the delivery method, and the weight. Now some parcels are really heavy which is where the PO staff come in by putting a charm on the parcel to make it smaller or lighter depending on the original parcel.

The owls are trained because you have to have stamps proving that the owl is government approved agent and the specifications that the bird can handle. Each bird is given courses in the best way to handle the parcel, best times for flying, best ways to deal with certain adverse weather and the like. Once the owl has taken all the required courses, the owl has to take a test both written (well use of pecking for the correct answer) and a trial flight with different parcels, situations, and customers.

Each category has a lead bird and he/she is in charge of making sure his/her group meets the targets set for the day, week, or month depending. When targets are met, each bird has the opportunity to move onto a better route within the PO district. Most birds develop a lovely relationship with the customers' on its route that most birds stick with the same route for their life within the PO. Each bird is only allowed to be employed for 5 yrs and enjoys a retirement courtesy of the government.

The birds are given strict diets in which to obtain the best flight and speed for each bird. These are athletes to the fullest and take their job seriously! As I said, each bird receives a holiday each year in which to relax and visit friends/family.

I was very fortunate to sit in on a training class, and a test flight. I also witnessed that size doesn't matter. Some of the smallest birds carried larger parcels than their larger co-workers, I was surprised at that.

So I had such a lovely time at Hogsmead PO that I decided to adopt a bird. With an adoption you help the bird by taking it for its holiday time if the bird doesn't have any family, friends close by, you can also donate food, and you can visit your owl on its day off. As well, you can help provide comfort when it becomes ill (which usually doesn't happen since it is on a great diet!).

So I adopted an elf owl because Ollie said that they usually eat moths, beetles, and crickets so he figured he would be pretty safe for being a spider if he came along. Ollie and Rollie (the owl) seemed to get along quite well in fact that Ollie convinced Rollie to get him some fruit.

Rollie soon figured out that giving Ollie fruit was the worse possible idea he had in a long time. Ollie was so out to lunch because of the fruit that he ended up spinning poor Rollie into a big mess. It took me ages to untangle the poor thing. Lesson learned by Rollie about Ollie's fruit habit.

So after saying good bye to Rollie with a promise to come back on our next Hogsmead trip, and an open invitation to visit Hogwarts at any time Ollie and I made our way to The three brooms so that I could have a butter beer after the unwrapping incident. By this time it was time to go back to Hogwarts, and do up my presentation using Magic point (which I'm horrible at!) all the while dealing with a severly annoying spider coming off fruit!