But that is exactly what happened this week when a card from a close friend from Harrogate dropped on his doormat '” a year and a quarter after he passed the milestone. William, of Milward Crescent, who turned 92 in May, said: "It was certainly unexpected. "I know the post isn't as good as it used to be but I would have thought they could have got a card from Yorkshire down here a bit quicker than that!" The birthday card was from his old friend Wilma Prinz and her family and coincidentally she was paying a visit to Hastings when the card arrived on Monday. William added: "We had a bit of a laugh about it." A spokesman for the Post Office said they could only speculate on why the birthday card was so late. She said: "The card may have gone to the wrong address and then got put back in the system. "With 82 million items being sent each day it is impossible to trace every single item."