Regular readers of my FACEBOOK page will know that I have been in correspondence with the manufactures of Tingly Mint and Tea Tree products. Earlier letters are below - but here is my reply which is now winging its way to Manchester:
21st September 2018
Team Original Source
PZ Cuzzons (UK) Ltd.
MANCHESTER M22 5TG
Dear Lads and Lasses of the Team Original Source,
Forgive the familiarity, but having received your parcel of goodies and your highly informative, amusing and helpful letter, I feel that we are friends already! Your generosity almost brought me to tears and the goodies are the envy of all who know me – and some who would like to.
How very kind of you to reply. You will not be surprised to know that I shared my original letter with a few friends and one or two enemies (who shall remain nameless) on FACEBOOK and in my blog (which you may access at justanessexlad.blogspot.com if you are of the mind to do so – but it is up to you and I will not feel hurt if you decide that you are far too busy counting mint leaves to read the meanderings of an 85-year-old whose daughter threatens to put him in a care home unless he behaves). Most of my friends doubted you would reply and will be red-faced to learn that you did so; they will be pretty peeved when they see the box of goodies you have so generously sent to me. Yum, yum!
I have noted that some packs display the number of mint leaves in the product. The 250ml Tingly Mint & Tea Tree Shower Gel has 7,927, whilst the 500ml pack has 15,854, precisely twice the number (I checked this on my calculator, in case you think I am some sort of mathematical wizard). However, the pack for the Foam Shower Gel Mint & Tea Tree 180ml does not state the number of mint leaves, whilst it is the same for the smaller Tingly Mint & Tea Tree Shower 50ml packs (which I will use with great pleasure when fly out to visit my youngest son who resides across Oslo Fjord with Stine, his Norwegian wife, in a log cabin with a view to take your breath away. And, also, of course, should I be fortunate enough to travel to India – about which see later). Why is there a lack of leaf numbering? Is there some slacking in the counting department? If so, I am sure Team Original Source will soon sort them out, putting them back on the straight and narrow. A good talking too and threats to stop their lunchtime Marmite and Peanut Butter sandwiches should do the trick.
Last evening I tried the 250ml Tingly Mint & Tea Tree Shower which has 7,927 tingly mint leaves in each pack. I came over all a-tingling, so much so that I had to sit down on the seat we installed when we converted our shower to one suitable for the aged. It took me some time to recover, I can tell you, but I will be back for more this evening. Yipee!
Until yesterday I had no idea that you produced such a wide range of Tingly Mint & Tea Tree products. In the past I have purchased the hand-wash from the Pound shop and used a variety of shower gels, but from now onwards it will be Tingly Mint & Tea Tree for ever and a day. I will trot off to Boots the Chemist as fast as my little legs will carry me to stock up with Tingly Mint & Tea Tree Shower Gel, although a friend tells me that the Foam Shower Gel Mint & Tea Tree product can take you unawares if you are not careful. And that could be dangerous when you are galloping towards 86, so I will take suitable precautions (but, like your leaf counting procedures, these are a closely guarded secret).
I have immediately and forthwith entered the competition to win a trip to the source of your mint leaves. I have selected India as my destination of choice for I understand that the climate is more suited to those of advanced years.
You may be amused to know that the Vicar at St. Peter’s here in sunny Aldborough Hatch was the first to volunteer to carry my bags if I am off to India, closely followed by one of our Churchwardens. But I told them to hold their horses for as my Old Mum used to say as she wound the handle on the mangle on washday, ‘Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.” My Old Mum also used to sing an odd little ditty at the same time which went something like this: “I have no pain, dear mother now, but such a terrible thirst. Connect me to the brewery and leave me till I burst.” I understand that My Old Mum’s Mother taught her that when she was knee high to a grasshopper – as they say in these parts.
But enough of my ramblings for I am sure that all of you at Team Original Source are working your fingers to the bone and have very little time for reading the many letters you must receive daily from satisfied customers. In any case, I need to make sure my passport is up to date and dust down my travelling baggage in readiness for the possibility of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Mint Belt of India in the Himalayan region. I have done my research (where would we be without Google?) and discover that the Himalayas are inhabited by 52.7 million people (that’s a lot!) and are spread across five countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Pakistan. I guess we will not have the time to visit all five and I will gladly make do with India.
Finally, you mention in your letter that you are enclosing a postcard for my fridge as you wouldn't want me to forget about you. I searched the packaging and the cardboard box in which the fine wooden box containing the goodies arrived – but could not find the postcard. Perhaps you would be kind enough to drop it in when you are next passing this way. No hurry. The wooden box, by the way, will now grace my bathroom to be topped up regularly with Tingly Mint & Tea Tree products.
Take care. Enjoy Autumn, the 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' as Keats would say.
And thank you again for your kindness, generosity of spirit and good humour which I am sharing with my friends, some of whom tell me they already enjoy your products whilst others are going to try them.
Yours sincerely,
Ron Jeffries
