A SNAIL-MAIL postcard sent by a St Albans holidaymaker in the 1980s has finally reached its destination. Dr Robert Wareing of Claudian Place sent the Southbourne postcard to his brother-in-law Chris in the summer of 1989 and, after a wait of 20 years, ei

A SNAIL-MAIL postcard sent by a St Albans holidaymaker in the 1980s has finally reached its destination.

Dr Robert Wareing of Claudian Place sent the Southbourne postcard to his brother-in-law Chris in the summer of 1989 and, after a wait of 20 years, eight months and one day, it miraculously arrived at Chris's Northampton home on March 18.

Robert, 62, said he was stunned when Chris rang to thank him for the postcard: "I thought he was winding me up!

"We have not been on holiday since last September and I just couldn't understand where on earth this postcard had come from.

"Luckily my meticulous wife Linda keeps her diaries from years back, so after a bit of investigating we worked out that I sent Chris the postcard from Cobbs Holiday Park in the seaside town of Highcliffe on Thursday, July 13, 1989, exactly!

"It redefines the word tenacious to me - I can't believe the Royal Mail hung on to it for so long."

Robert and Chris, who had to collect the postcard from his local post office because the 19 penny stamp was out of date, have worked out that the postcard, which recorded the very sunny weather enjoyed by the Wareing family, travelled an average distance of 24 metres a day over the lengthy period.

Robert said that a lot has changed in the time it has taken for the postcard to arrive: "Mobile phones in those days were like bricks and over the 20 years that have passed, my wife and I and Chris and his wife Trisha have accumulated five grandchildren between us, with another one on the way!