Problems
Your hotel catches fire. (Or damaged by flooding or earthquake.) Even if you are nearby in the restaurant downstairs, or at the swimming pool, you might not be able to get to your vital documents. You are not allowed back into the building which is cordoned off. How would you order food if you were kept out of your building for an hour, and you wanted to go for coffee or to order pizza for yourself or your family?
I read about people caught up in a fire situation, who were by the pool. Fortunately one of them had a credit card in his shorts. He was able to fund long distance phone calls, buying clothes and food for himself and his family, and pay for the new, temporary passport.
(My new replacement British passport, to replace mine stolen in Singapore, cost about £100 and I needed lots of documents to prove who I was and where I lived in Singapore and the UK. The temperoary doucment was taken from me when I arrived at the airport in London, England. I then had to gather all my UK documentation - costing over £100, including passport, replacement travel card, travel, fresh passport photos, and travel up to the passport office in London to get a new permanent passport, which again, with the two or more photos, three or four photos I had to get, ...
University Certificates
I could get a job in Singapore as a teacher but had to provide the original University certificate showing my qualifications, not a photocopy.
If it was lost, I had to write to the university for a replacement.
If all your documents were lost if you moved house, and one box went missing, or all the items went missing, or you could not find where you had packed the certificate and needed one in a hurry for your new job?
So, you see, it's really handy to keep records of where you have kept your documents, the dates you passed exams, which school or college or university or issuing authority to write to for a replacement. It's also handy to know which office in your city supplies replacement documents such as passports, whether you can just turn up or need to make an appointment (which could take several hours - meanwhile you are waitlisted for an urgent flight home).
If I Were You
As the old Irish joke goes, If I were you I wouldn't start from here. If I had to start all over again, I would keep a list of everything on the wall, at home and overseas when an expat staying in another country.
I've heard of people listing their successes on the wall as a morale booster, to beat depression or increase productivity.
If you have a child or grandchild, you could have a record on your wall of each milestone. You could e have a set of same size frames (buy a set of 12 at a wholesale discount. If you prefer, buy them in three sizes, eg while at college or university, making a cumulative list of achievement.
When a child is born, you are keen to record at what age he or she took their first steps, spoke or learned to read. This is a handy comparison with succeeding generations. Take a positive view. If Dad did better than son, you can boast about Dad's amazing achievement. If son did better than Dad, you can boast about son's achievements.
This week my husband was awarded reviewer of the year by the Market Research society. Today, at last, finally, I received my certificate for ALB, Advanced Leader Bronze, from Toastmasters International. I shall hang it on the wall. That's what made me think about listing all my achievements. Going through a family deed box, after my parents' died, I had found that I took speaking exams as a child. I've forgotten all about that. So long ago. But my parents kept those certificates.
Happy Results
Be organised. Feel smug. Feel satisfied. Learn from other people's mistakes and mistakes you made in the past. Keep tabs on all those documents. You never know when you might need them.
If you don't have academic success, you can list other milestones. Learned to drive a car. Learned to ride a bicycle. Learned to cook a pancake. Learned to make an omelette. Learned how to sew on a button.
Medical Records - Jabs
You need medical records. I tried to get out of a car which stopped because of no parking place. I opened the car door and put my foot out. Then the driver saw a car drive off - and accelerated suddenly towards the place! I scraped my foot. I was bleeding and in pain. I needed to go to the hospital, in Cyprus.
The nurse asked me, "When did you last have a tetanus jab?"
No idea. I wished I had kept a record of all my jobs inside my passport.
Recovery
Another story. When I was recovering from multiple injuries in a road traffic accident, every time I sat up, I felt dizzy and the room swung around multiple times. But I was unaccountably happy. (In the hospital I didn't know it, but I was on morphine. When I told a friend's husband, an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, that I thought I hadn't had a bowel movement for a week, he told me that I was right, because it's a side effect of morphine.
When I got home, despite being near paralysed, I was deliriously happy every day. I was getting better every day. I knew it. I counted the times the world, the room, swing around when I tried to raise my head off the pillow, every day. Something like this: a hundred, eighty, Fifty, thirty, twenty, ten, five, two, one, NONE!
I could not lift my right hand and write, so I never wrote a note. I wish I had one now. Just think, I could not lift my arm, nor sit up, let alone write. Now I am typing.
Yes, every little step is handy. Just recovering from a cold or flu, a record is handy. You visit the doctor or speak to the advice line for the NHS (National Health Service) in London, England. They ask you: How many days have you been running a temperature? What is your temperature? How long have you been ill? How long have you had this cough? It makes a difference to the diagnosis and whether you need to see a doctor or a hospital.
Keep records. Good moments. Bad moments. It all helps keep you alive and happy.
What's the first thing I'm doing after writing this. I shall take my own advice and photograph my certificate. Why? In case I spill coffee on it. In case I need the know the shape or size when buying a frame. In case I need it overseas. To send to family overseas to cheer them up with good news. To cheer myself up when I am stressed. To remind myself that every little step you take, brings you further to success on every journey.
Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
