Friday 22 August 2008

Moving house

John and I have moved, just round the corner, but are having a few issues with connecting at home - BT has the monopoly on the local exchange (won't let Virgin play), and, as it appears that the previous tenant(s) never connected the phone, BT also want to charge us £125 for connecting. Which we don't really have at the moment, given that this time next month we will be in New Zealand for the best part of 3 weeks. So I'm investigating options, probably involving a mobile broadband dongle stuck into the USB port... (slower connection, but at least it will be cheaper!)

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Lost...

Once more a long while since my last post - I was going to write all about my visit to Tewkesbury Medieval Fair, and how I ended up holding a carpet python:

(sorry about the fuzziness - this is a photo of a laminated photo...)

However, events have overtaken me, and I wanted to have the opportunity to tell my family (both direct and the in-laws) before I broadcast it on the internet.

I've lost my rings. My wedding ring, my engagement ring, my eternity ring, and the amethyst ring that John's mum gave me (through John) at the wedding. They were looped on my watch (a 21st birthday present from my grandmother), and, as I was rushing out of the door (being late for work), I ended up with one of those horrible mix ups - I thought the bundle was in my hand, then it wasn't, so it had to be in my pocket, then it wasn't, then it had to be left in the flat, so I went back in and it wasn't, so it had to be out on the grass or path outside the house, and it wasn't, so it had to be in my bag, and it wasn't. The whole thing seems to have vanished completely into thin air :-(

And there is nothing I can do now - I've filed a lost report with the police, I've stuck a notice up outside the flat (offering a reward and with my phone number on it - I've not even had drunken idiots call me! The only thing that has happened is that someone stole the plant pot (with a dead gladioli in it) which was holding the notice down), and I have a number of searches up on eBay. The insurance company has been informed, and I had an evaluator out last week; thoroughly professional and nice about it, but I still don't expect them to be very sympathetic!

The sickening thing is that someone had to have picked it up in just a few minutes between me going into the flat and coming back out again. There are only a few people who walk past in the mornings; commuters and dog walkers. And they do it every day. So I have probably met the person who took it, and they've seen my reward notice, but still not contacted me.

At the moment, I keep on flashing between the unsentimental "It's just jewellery - whilst it has huge sentimental value, particularly the wedding ring which John made, the vows we made haven't been broken, we are both still alive and well(brought home with a thump by these two stories - the second of these happened at the building site opposite our offices), and everything I have lost is replaceable," to wanting to curl up in a ball, scream and hit things. And I think that I will still have that sick feeling at the bottom of my stomach until the day that I die.

But - hey - now that I've told the entire globe (or the miniscule portion of it that still reads my blog!), I'll probably find the bundle hidden in plain view when we move flat at the end of the week....