Lost and found.

On a random Tuesday, I ‘m standing in the canteen at work, ready to have lunch and waiting to be served.
I reach for my wallet to pay the obligatory 70 cents for my soup, and… it’s gone!

No panic. It’s at home, waiting for me on the kitchen table. I ask the kind lady to give me a 70 cent credit until the next day, and forget about this minor incident.

At home, in the evening, I have some bills to pay, start up my computer and surf to the website of my bank. First thing I need is, of course, my debit card. Which is in the wallet on my kitchen table, naturally. And for the second time that day I reach for a thing that isn’t there.
This is the moment that I start to get a bit annoyed and worried. If it’s not here, where did I leave it??

Not only my debit card is in it, but also my ID-card and my credit card.

Slowly I start retracing my steps, to find out that I last used it at the pharmacy just around the corner. So it must be either in my car, or at the pharmacy.
I turned the whole car upside down, walked the way back to the pharmacy, asked the guy behind the counter, but my little purse seems to have vanished.

This is where a slight panic took over. I am leaving the country in less than a month. I will be travelling for 8 months, and how is one to do that without money and ID… No way in the world will a country let me in. I suddenly feel like a sans-papiers in my own country.

I can’t find it, so the only thing I can do is start the official procedure ASAP. This means calling the police to report the loss, and blocking my bank cards.I can see the complete Belgian bureaucracy falling on top of me. I can only hope that I can get everything arranged before I leave.

I go to bed trying to catch a bit of sleep, and at 2:30 am, I wake up with the smartest idea ever.
Whenever I step into my car with my wallet in my hand, there’s this small storage space where I put it. Did I check that? Hmm, don’t think so.
I hop out of bed, jump into the elevator, run to my car and yes, oh yes: there it is. It’s been waiting for me for two days there…

Never overlook the obvious, I guess.