Find my suitcase, my toddler, my family, my mother, my passport, my home doorkeys, my hotel doorkeys!

 Lost People

My friend lost her mother for an hour. My friend's mother made a mistake and thought they were going directly to their later destination for lunch. three of them were due to go to the lunch place eventually. 

Meanwhile the mother was missing. Eventually my friend was able to contact her mother.  But by then my friend was on her way to pick up her mother at work. My friend was in a Uber and they are not allowed to change their route. You are quoted for a price to go from a to b and that is qhere you must go. 

How can you find someone or something which has gone missing? The find my phone tracker has lots of uses for travellers, and items and people which go off travelling.

Key Finder

I had a device for finding keys. If you shouted, the keys bleeped. However, the keys bleedped when the phone rang, the doorbell rang, you argued too loudly, called to someboody in another room, turned on the TV. Then you had to run to the keys and turn off the bleed and re-set it. 

It went off when a car alarm rang in the street outside and you were sleeping. The car alarm turned off but the key alarm stayed on. Eventually we got tired of this and disconnected the bleep.

We solved the lost key problem by attaching a lanyard to the inside of the handbag or tote bag or rucksack, wtih the doorkey attached. 

A lanyard round my neck worked well for doorkeys with a large hole, including hotel doorkeys. 

Key Card

However, this went wrong when I was at the Writers' Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, England, UK. The bedrooms had a key card which you had to put in the slot by the door to operate the lights.

I managed to work out how to operate the card. So far so good.

On day two I went out holding the books I need for the workshop I was giving on promote your books. When I returned just before midnight, I realised that I must have left the key in the slot.

I phoned the emergency helpline. They told me that the man on the reception desk handed over to the night porter at midnight. He could not leave and take the ten minute walk to me, then back again. So I would have to wait for the night porter, who would be informed of my predicament. 

I sat on the floor of the corridor outside my room. I was tired. I felt foolish. 

Luckily, a girl who had been on my course came along. She knew me and seeing me sitting on the floor took she pity on me. She invited me into her room to wait. We had a very jolly conversation about my course, books, flowers, and all sorts of things. 

Then I walked back to reception to be sure they had my message. It was soon sorted.

Afterwards, other people told me that often you can use another card of similar size to turn on the lights. Providing it is the sort of system which operated simply on the pressure, not on reading a specific card.

Find my suitcase

Find my bag

Find my jacket

find my hat

Find my passport

Find my tickets

Find my doorkeys

find my toddler

Find my hotel.

Find my cat

Find my dog

Find my parrot

Find my tortoise

Find my lunch

Find my boots

Find my skis

Find my guide

Find my taxi

The hotel may stay where you left it, with your suitcase inside your bedroom. But if you are in Hong Kong and get into a taxi and the driver does not understand you, it would be handy to show where on the map you need to get to.

Useful Websites

https://www.lazada.sg/products/smart-mini-gps-tracker-anti-lost-finder-itag-tracker-alarm-gps-locator-wireless-positioning-wallet-pet-key-wireless-40-i2251302956-s12963545725.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201439790

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldTracer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keycard_lock

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Airline and Holiday Horror Stories Told Over Supper: Lost Luggage & cameras and keys, buying property and a dead body a dead body

"Don't get me started!"
Around the table at supper we all told our stories:

Airline Horror Stories
Everyone has a favourite airline and a favourite airline horror story. Walter prefers Easyjet to Ryanair.  However, he complained, 'Luggage allowances are getting smaller and smaller. I was asked to pay for luggage. I had bought a cheap ticket with NO luggage allowance!' When dealing with an unknown airline, the moral is, check the luggage allowance.

I asked, 'What of the early days of plane travel? Was it always so much better?'
Walter said: 'Years ago we got on the plane and a family who had never travelled before got on with us. First they changed from their clothes into their night clothes. Then they unwrapped their cooker and prepared to light it to cook supper!
'I called an air hostess who came running to stop them.'

Nicky, a hotel owner warned us about the hazards of buying property abroad in Asia.

Warnings About Buying Property
Nicky said: 'I went to buy a property and I could see from the plan that it wasn't the area they claimed. When I asked the girl, she replied: "The common area outside the lifts is divided between the six flats on that level so that counts as part of your floor area."

'I then asked about the swimming pool. She said, "The residents can use it free for five years. After that you have to join the club owned by the management to use it." '

I asked Nicky, 'Have you heard the story about the hotel guest who mistook the bedroom door for the bathroom door and locked himself out - in the nude - in the hotel corridor! Do you think it's a true story?'

Nicky said, 'Of course it is. Lots of hotels have self-locking doors. If you have a hotel with fifty or a hundred rooms, somebody locks themselves out every day. Once a week somebody is in their underwear or semi-dressed. And every month or year somebody will be completely nude. This happens all over the world. What is surprising is that once somebody thought it wasn't a true story. You don't believe anybody was that naive, do you?'

Hotel Horrors
The Dead Body
The story goes that a man checked into a hotel, collected his key, and found a dead body in the bed. When the living guest returned to reception, the receptionist didn't seem the least bit bothered. He simply handed over another key and said, 'Try this room.'

I am told that deaths in hotels, as well as on planes and coaches, are something staff have to prepare for. You can cover a body with a blanket and pretend the dead person is sleeping or resting. Or move them behind a curtain, in first class. Or down into the crew sleeping area.

Hotels wheel out dead bodies, covered with cloths, like dinners, on the large dinner trollies for room service, or wheeled tabled used for conference catering.
When a relative of mine was in an old people's home we were asked to stay in the room with her for ten minutes. Later, I asked the supervisor why. She explained that they were wheeling out a dead body, not unusual in a home for the elderly, and wanted all the living in their bedrooms so as not to see and get upset.

Hospitals, in the UK, move bodies on covered trolleys in separate lifts to the basement.

The Wrong Key
In a New Orleans hotel I could not get the door to open. The bell-hop arrived with the luggage. He tried the key and the door opened, a man in a bath towel frowning.

I gasped, 'What are you doing? This is my room.'
He retorted, 'No it isn't. It's my room!'
The porter shrugged, resigned, 'Oh, no. They can't get the keys right. They do this to me all the time.'

Let me move on to lighter subjects.

Video Lost
A honeymoom couple returned and showed their video to the whole family, including me. The husband turned on the video and proudly announced, 'This is our honeymoon video.' The opening shots were blank. He wound on. Still blank. He wound on further. Still blank. He would to the end. Still blank.

It could have been a tragedy. Luckily one of the audience had a sense of humour. She said, 'It's all censored. You just have to imagine it!' She burst out laughing and soon the whole room was in hysterics.

Camera Catastrophes
Finally, a mixed blessing story. Tom dropped his camera on a stroll up a mountain near a friend's house in New Zealand. The pair retraced their steps several times but could not find it. A year later the New Zealand friend reported, 'I found your camera. It was broken and unusable but I have retrieved the memory card with all your holiday photos!'

As Shakespeare said, Alls's well that ends well.

About the Author Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. What are your favourite memories?

Got your passport? Lost your passport? Door keys? Sunglasses?

I bought a black silk skirt on eBay. The crestfallen seller says she can't find it. She will refund my money but keep looking and if she finds it shall contact me again.

I know the feeling. My own notable losses:
1 PASSPORT COVER HIDING PASSPORT
I bought a pretty silver cover for notebook and put it on my passport. I missed a press trip to a theme park in France because at the last minute I could not find my passport.

Moral: If you place a cover on a passport, make sure the word passport is visible - either written on the outside of the bag or wallet or cover, or listed elsewhere in a list called something like VITAL INFORMATION, or your packing list.

2 FORGOTTEN PASSPORT
Many taxi drivers before setting off for the airport all ask: Have you got your passport(s). Have you got your tickets? (Get them out and check in case you changed your coat at the last moment into something warmer or lighter, or changed to a bigger or smaller handbag.) The taxi driver's reason for asking is usually, "Yesterday we were half way to the airport when ..."

3 PASSPORT STORED IN SUITCASE
I once left my passport in my suitcase. Next year or next trip I forgot. I always look for my passport first. No point packing if you don't have a passport. You need the time to get to the passport office to get a new one or hunt for it. Eventually the family said, pack now, get something done, and look for it later. I got out the suitcase and found it. After a stressful time worrying and searching. I needed the holiday.

My mistake was a classic case of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'. I had thought, I'll leave my passport in the suitcase so I can't go without it.

Well, is it in the outside pocket or in the inside pocket (and the suitcase key lost). How many suitcases do you have? Will you have forgotten where it is by the time you take your next trip?

No point hiding it in the suitcase so burglars won't find it. A policeman told me: One of the things burglars do is look for a suitcase or large bag in which to conceal or carry items from the house.

4 MISSING KEYS IN SUMMER BAG? BEACH BAG
My late mother returned from holiday and lost her flat's front doorways. Luckily my father had his. My mother worried. (About that and another problem. You could blame either worry. Or the fact that she had too many worries, or was a worrier. She had a stroke and died a week later.

My father then worried about the missing keys. Should he change the locks and pay for new locks and new keys?

I dealt with the easy problem first. Collect mother's clothes and bags. I went through each of her bags checking the pockets inside, before taking them home or giving them to charity or throwing them away. My father watched as I went through each bag. At least half a dozen. He got impatient. "Don't bother - they are all empty."

I got to the last one. Guess what I found? Yes, my mother's door keys inside a straw beach bag.

Moral; Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before storing them.
Search through the pockets of clothes and bag and suitcases before giving them to charity. Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before going them to another member of your family or a friend.

On holiday: Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases if you have lost your passport or door keys, sighted glasses, sunglasses, hotel bedroom keys, or anything else.

5 SEARCHING SYSTEM
You've lost it?
I presume you have run through the checklist of:
1 Is it parcelled/packed up and ready to go on the hall table? In a plastic bag ready to be folded and labelled?
2 Did I put it in the car boot to go to the post office? Is my missing item pushed or fallen under car seat? In the car side pockets?
3 Is it hiding under something else - larger / same colour. Another skirt. A pile of newspapers.
4 Is it in the room where I photographed it?
5 Is it hanging in my wardrobe? (Check under other garments from both hanger level and skirt level, hidden under another coat, jacket or skirt?)
6 Is it hanging behind the door on a hook such as in the bathroom?
7 Did my tidy-minded spouse take it to a charity shop or throw it away without telling me.
8 Have I worked clockwise around the house, tidying as I go.
9 Have I checked below and behind all flat surfaces and between all furniture (eg bedside tables and chairs, bookcases).
10 Did I leave it in a suitcase from last year's holiday for security or storage or out of season clothes?
11 Is it somewhere else outside the home: - shed, garage, conservatory, lobby, hall hat rack, car or van, home of parents, children, friends, home office, work office, study, attic, basement, inside washing machine or tumble drier or behind them? In airing cupboard? On ironing board?)
14 Have I left food in the fridge, or in a large cool box or picnic box?

Also have a system. Always keep your passport and keys in the same place. Tell another member of your family. Keep a note - even if it is coded or encrypted. One day you'll be the one who has everything right and you'll be able to quickly sort out everybody else's problems and forestall disasters.

People will wonder how you do everything so well. Experience. Like the taxi drivers, learn by your own mistakes - and the mistakes of others.

Angela
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In. (Lulu.com)