The first person to publish my writing (and even pay me for it!) was Roberta Beach Jacobson when she and Alf Meier were running an e-zine called Kafenio (kafeniocom.com, not kafenio.com, which is a totally different animal).

She has kindly dug into her archives and sent me this story, which I am publishng here for AuraGem, who enjoys a bit of whimsy.

I am a child and we're all running after the postman. He always talks to us. He likes children, so we like him. He takes his spaniel with him on his rounds. She sits on the carrier on the front of his bike, and jumps off every time he stops to deliver a letter.

I'm in the highlands of Scotland, near the Brig o' Turk. It's shearing time, and I'm learning to help with the sheep. My future wife is tough and understands the job to be done. Once you learn the rhythm, you grab a horn if it isn't loose, twist a fistful of fleece around the fingers of the other hand, then frog-march the beast to the waiting shearer. A quick judo flip across the knee will land the sheep on its backside at his feet - sometimes.

One of the shearers looks about 70 years old and uses a Cumberland stool to lay the sheep in front of him where he can work without straining his back. He is one of several who spends the rest of the year as a rural postman - delivering letters, packages, gossip and the occasional lost relative to isolated families.

I'm in the Tyrol and the post buses are an important service. I shouldn't be surprised if many a mayor served his apprenticeship as a 'postie' because it must be one of the best ways to meet people.

I'm at home in the Limousin region of France. Three or four English families each live among French neighbours in a different isolated 'hameau' of two or three houses. Our postman is not known for being chatty. One of his identifying characteristics is a rather inaccurate style of driving, which is why his van looks older than it really is. There's also his face. We all refer to him as Benny Hill.

E-mail may be a great boon to modern society, but it doesn't get delivered by Benny.