WHEN an Ipswich woman received a Christmas card from her mother-in-law a week into the new year, she was more than a little surprised.But she could hardly believe her eyes when she checked the post mark which revealed the card had gone from Ross Road in Rushmere to her home in Bramford Road…via Taiwan!Linda West had to look twice when she picked up the card, carrying details of a stop in Taipei – the capital of Taiwan.

WHEN an Ipswich woman received a Christmas card from her mother-in-law a week into the new year, she was more than a little surprised.

But she could hardly believe her eyes when she checked the post mark which revealed the card had gone from Ross Road in Rushmere to her home in Bramford Road…via Taiwan!

Linda West had to look twice when she picked up the card, carrying details of a stop in Taipei – the capital of Taiwan.

The 52-year-old stock controller instantly logged on to the internet to find out where the far away city was.

And she was completely baffled when she realised her mother-in-law's message of festive cheer had come via south east Asia.

Linda said: "My mother-in-law had posted it on December 20 with an address but she didn't put a postcode on it.

"When I saw it laying on the doormat I thought it was a bit odd, so I looked at the envelope and it said it had been mis-sent to Taipei, where it arrived on December 23.

"When I found out Taipei was all the way in Taiwan, I was totally shocked. I am amazed that it managed to get all the way to Taiwan within three days with an ordinary first class stamp and no airmail."

Rather than forget about the Christmas card, Taiwanese postal staff sent it back to England and it dropped onto its intended doormat exactly two weeks after Christmas Day.

Linda said: "They must have realised it was from England because of the Queen's head on the stamp, but I couldn't believe they bothered to send it back."

Linda said she did not often see her mother-in-law but they always kept in contact through letters and cards.

She said: "I haven't told her yet, but she'll be very surprised.

"I can only imagine that it got to the sorting office with no postcode and they put it to one side, then it got caught between other cards going to Taiwan. It baffles me though."

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said that all the mail they processed was sorted by machines and if any was not properly addressed it got separated.

She said: "There is always a danger that if it gets separated, it might get incorrectly sorted. This is just a mistake that can sometimes happen.

"We would urge people to always use the postcode."