My travelcard ...

February 14 is Valentine's Day. Of course, I realise that as reminders go, this is pretty dreadful as it is now March 11. If you had forgotten to send a card to your beloved, or admired, it is now woefully late.

No, I mention this fact, because, ever since I joined the telecommunications industry, Valentine's Day has usually fallen during Mobile World Congress, probably the biggest tradeshow for our industry.

Of course, it used to be called GSM World Congress and happened in Cannes, then the name evolved to 3GSM World Congress to reflect changes in technology and now, avoiding any partisan suggestions from the name, we have Mobile World Congress, or MWC to the cognoscente. And for the last few years it has been held in Barcelona.

But such detail is not essential for this tale. All you really need to know is that, for the last few years, I have not been at home to swap Valentine's cards or affections on the day. My darling wife has made a point of sneaking a card into my luggage before I travelled and I looked forward to finding and opening it on the day. But this year, unusually, I was not at home before MWC and so instead she mailed it to my apartment.

For my part, I had arranged for a card to be delivered through Moonpig (thoroughly recommended) as well as roses and chocolates from Marks & Spencer (also recommended). But when I called home that evening, my beloved was somewhat distressed to hear that her card had not arrived in time for me to take it with me. Of course, I don't need a card to know that she loves me (though I recommend to male readers they they don't try the same line if they forget to send such tokens to their beloved). But, we both assumed that the card had been lost in the post and thought no more about it.

So, I was a little surprised to find this card on my doormat this evening when I got home from work. I guessed at once from the colour of the envelope that it was the missing Valentine's greeting. But what I hadn't expected was the inked stamp above the address (parts of which I have masked for reasons of privacy). It says "MISSENT TO THAILAND".

My wife trained as a teacher and has, at least to my eyes, clear and atttractive handwriting. But someone, presumably in the Royal Mail sorting office in Southampton where the card was franked on February 8, decided that my card was intended for Thailand, rather than Finland.

Though I am rather jealous that the card had a rather more exotic journey than I did in February, I would not want to be the postal worker now facing the wrath of my Mrs!