What went wrong?
Simply - I lost/mislaid/dropped/suffered pick-pocketing of/misplaced my passport! I can still hardly believe it. We searched high and low and in the end had to give up. I feel as miserable as sin about this.
We were all set to go and then - when I began to check in online - I discovered that my passport was missing from our little "Travel" drawer where our passports and foreign money etc. are always stored. I feel dumb. I feel stupid and above all I feel sorry to both Shirley and Ian. She was so much looking forward to the whirlwind trip to Hoorn. It was going to be an adventure.
I offered to take Shirley to Humberside Airport so that she could travel to The Netherlands on her own but she declined. In past travel adventures, I have always been "the leader" when it comes to making arrangements and simply leading the way in foreign places. She would be extremely anxious on her own.
Let my passport calamity serve as a lesson to all you blogmates out there. Be doubly careful with important travel documents. Zip up. Pat. Check and double check. I wouldn't want to wish this problem on anybody. I suspect that the only saving grace in this is that nobody died, nobody was injured and in the grand scheme of things it is just a happening that you have to shrug your shoulders about and move on.
Remember the last blogpost and those daunting tower blocks where some people have to live? I was in an impoverished part of Stannington which is a western suburb of Sheffield. I had gone there to visit a designated "Pay Point" shop in order to purchase an international driving permit.
The general purpose shop is cramped and filled with stuff and the area around the till is especially tight. I might be entirely wrong about this but I suspect that I was pick-pocketed. As I was completing my transaction and talking to the friendly shopkeeper, two men came up behind me - invading my personal space. One of them had a dog on a lead. I think this could have been when one of the men put his hand in my deep coat pocket and pulled out my passport. If I am wrong I apologise most sincerely to those two gentlemen who both looked as though they had seen troubles in their lives.
Anyway - just in case - I have reported this matter to the police. There is CCTV footage of my visit but I have only seen the first part of it - not the part where the two men come up behind me with the dog and get too close. No doubt if the police do ask to see the video footage at some undetermined time in the future, the tape will have been wiped by then. That's how these things usually go.
I couldn't sleep last night. I felt so stupid and so guilty and this morning it's pretty much the same. In my sleepy-headed state maybe the pick-pocketing is a figment of my imagination. Anyway, now I've got to get myself a replacement passport before we next travel abroad - in exactly a month's time!
Oh woe is me!
Very very annoying. Assuming the passport was taken from you rather than you just somehow lost it, the especially annoying thing is the likely gain to the taker was far less than the certain loss/inconvenience to you. That's certainly how I felt when my getting-on* but just-as-I-liked-it bicycle was pinched from outside the front of my house a few years ago.
ReplyDelete*Meaning "elderly" rather than anything to do with Norman Tebbit.
I'm sorry to hear this. And you won't be able to fulfil your deliveries to your clients. I hope they don't get antsy.
ReplyDeleteTrust your instincts of what happened to your passport, although getting into a deep pocket requires a lot of skill to not be noticed, but perhaps you did notice something, which makes you think that is how it disappeared. I think most people who found a dropped passport on the street, would hand them at a police station or post office. Well, that is what I would do.
Here, a passport in a hurry costsalot.
Oh no! I'm so sorry this happened. How did you see part of the CCTV but not all of it? I wonder if it's worth contacting the shop and asking them to preserve the footage. This probably won't be a high priority for the police but pickpockets roaming around are nothing to sneeze at. Have you reported the passport lost so no one else can doctor it and use it to travel?
ReplyDeleteSo sad to read this, I instinctively reached over to confirm that mine is where it should be. Way back in 1990 my soon to be X had a pocket picked in London, the thieves took the cash and credit cards, but were nice enough to leave behind the passport.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame!
ReplyDeleteOh I know how you feel, and it's truly soul-killing. I've never lost a passport, bit I've had other last-minute mishaps that derailed plans I was looking forward to. Nasty sinking feeling inside. My sympathies...
ReplyDeleteWell, damn. Nothing to say except I'm really sorry, Neil.
ReplyDeleteNobody died. People lose things or they get stolen all the time. Don't beat yourself up.
ReplyDeleteThat must have given your heart a big thump of panic. Bad news however the passport disappeared. Bum bags are not a bad idea, though all the zips can drive you crazy.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks. I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteHope you can get another one quickly. You may have to pay more.
ReplyDeleteHave you checked every pocket of every bag or coat you used on your last trip?
Last night I wondered what had happened. I imagined all kinds of things.
ReplyDeleteA run-in w/ fascists ? In Glasgow they don black masks, wave the Union Jack.
Or that man who told you not to point your camera in the direction of his house ?
You'll be in Holland in July. And you'll be on the look-out for pickpockets abroad.
I smiled at your phrase :
TWO MEN COME UP BEHIND ME WITH THE DOG.
It's like the title of a James Kelman story, our most original fiction writer.
Jim can find humour in the bleakest moments. His dogs are like people.
I'm so sorry that happened. It's especially frustrating that you (and Shirley) are missing out on a special occasion. Losing my passport on an international trip is one of my biggest nightmares.
ReplyDeleteOh ffs. That really is awful. I'm so sorry for you all. Hope you can get a replacement quickly. Chin up chuck. Xx
ReplyDeleteOh no, that's such a frustration to lose an ID document, however it happens... I hope you'll be able to get it sorted before your next planned trip! --- Way back in the 1970s I had my handbag stolen - at my place of work back then, an office in the town hall, where I had a temporary job as secretary. I didn't have a locker for private things, but my office also wasn't a space where members of the public were supposed to enter. But one day after I had only been out of the room on a short errand to a nearby room - my bag was gone. I didn't keep a lot of money in it but the troublesome part was I lost my driving license - and also the keys to my flat. So the very first thing I had to do was get my landlord to change the lock in the door to my flat. (Luckily he lived in the same building.) I no longer remember how long it took me to get a new driving license sorted. (I think I had a valid passport at home at the time, though, so probably did not need to get someone else to vouch for my identity. And I did not have a car of my own.) ... Weeks or months later my bag was found dumped in the river (but I think minus the wallet). 50 years ago now, so details a bit blurred in my memory.
ReplyDeleteHow disappointing that you missed Ian's Iron Man. I know how proud you are of your son. How did he do in the event?
ReplyDeleteThat really is annoying. I can relate to how dismayed you feel for being a target. I had my bag stolen in Barcelona, probably by a fake waiter who was breezing between tables and who took the opportunity while I was distracted by a phone call. Luckily my passport was in the hotel safe and my phone was in my hand. The tragic bit was losing my camera with all the photos on it. I felt such an idiot for not being more alert but you have to remember how slick and practised these people are.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear of your loss. Don't beat yourself up on this incident . I know it's hard not to blame yourself and feel guilty about things. I hope it pops up in your house someplace.
ReplyDeleteI am so very sorry this has happened to you. I always keep important papers etc in the inside pocket of my jacket which is always zipped fully. Which doesn't help you of course. Pick-pockets are very clever and can spot an easy target within a crowd. Having a dog makes them seem more "safe" from victim's point of view.
ReplyDeletePS: obvious question. If two men and a dog, why cannot one of them wait outside with the dog? Or rather (pending your further investigations) why didn't he?
ReplyDeleteDo dogs generally get taken into such shops in Sheffield, or only in the rougher parts?