Around the Village: Daniel Pilecki (October 2005)

Always at your service, Daniel "The Post" finds time beyond the stamp sales and the pension payments - to reflect on his life and work in Girton.

What brought you to Girton?
After the stress of fifteen years' service with a Japanese TV production company - filming, editing and directing - I wanted to have more time with my wife, Yoko, and my two children, Maddie and Kitty, and to be more self-reliant. Running Girton Post Office provided me with suitable accommodation at a then affordable price and was an opportunity not to be missed.

What job satisfaction do you have?
Being with people and enjoying the interaction - particularly with older customers - and trying to put them at their ease. I'm a people person, and within months of moving to Girton realised I am not a business man. Being so scatty, untidy, unorganised and unforgivably rude (to those who I believe deserved it) is a recipe for chaos - but village life is akin to living in a soap opera - there can be a crisis, or maybe someone needing help. Invariably there's something interesting going on - and plenty of opportunity for laughter. There's no point in taking any of it too seriously.

How do you escape from work?
Not easily. It's a matter of planning ahead well in advance. Once a month, if possible, we try to get to the opera at Covent Garden. You see, I've always loved music, having started to learn the piano at the age of 4(1) and reached Grade 8 at the age of 16. My parents had wanted me to go into banking, but I went to the University of Manchester instead and did a degree in drama. Then when I was 20 I wrote a musical for Manchester Youth Theatre, and subsequently, working in London, I wrote the music for "Wednesday Matinee" performed at "Theatre Space", just off the Strand. All that explains why I look forward to going to the opera. We also try to get away occasionally for a short break but it's not easy.

What about your interest in care work?
That's a part-time commitment I've got into recently. I may have to call on as many as ten different people in one session, giving whatever help is needed. It's an absolute eye-opener into the problems all of us will face when we reach old age. It makes me realise that none of us knows what awaits us.

What motivates you generally?
I believe in responding to people in the manner in which I am treated, and - with regard to the Post Office - I make no apologies for my Basil Fawlty Customer Service Skills. Fundamentally, however, I am driven by the desire to help. Hence my enormous fulfilment from working with the infirm and needy and my increasing involvement in care work. You learn the value of a few kind words and the pleasure that elderly people (and Sub- Postmasters!) get from feeling wanted and respected.

How do you feel as you get older?
I see life as a learning curve. I'm discovering things about myself all the time through doing something so completely different from what I did for 20 years before moving to Girton. It's quite exciting not to know what lies ahead. It's enjoyable to have moved in a completely different direction and to go on learning. And equally within my family I'm learning as a parent as my children grow up into a highly competitive society.

What will you do in retirement?
I can't envisage total retirement - just another change of direction - working at a slower pace. I'd really like to settle abroad in either France or Italy, so teaching music and/or English as a foreign language would help pay the restaurant bills - and enable us to continue the annual pilgrimage to Glyndebourne.

How will the Girton Post Office survive?
I think, in the long term, there will always be some sort of service here in Girton, but it's difficult to predict because of all the changes in technology that will affect the nature and distribution of postal services. Our present lease has another seven years to run, so we have to wait and see. I can't imagine the village without a post office in some form or other.

Interviewer: Kenneth Hastings