I had a great weekend with Damjan, the last one for six few weeks because he’s going back to the southern hemisphere for a while. The only grey cloud on the weekend was discovering that I had lost my driver’s licence.
I had taken my licence out of my wallet at Paddington station so that I could pick up my pre-paid train tickets. I must have lost the licence somewhere in the station or on the train. I am extremely absent minded. I’ve been getting better but I’ve lapsed a few times in the past couple of months.
Mostly, I was worried about having my identity stolen. As the weekend went on, I started to regret not signing up for the identity insurance that my credit card company tried to badger me into buying.
Today, I made phone calls to the train company, the Paddington ticket counter, customer service, Heathrow (because I had loitered at the Paddington Heathrow Express counter), and the pie shop where I bought my dinner on Friday night.
Finally, I was given the phone number for Paddington’s left luggage service. Not only do they store luggage for a fee, but they also collect lost property and release it back to their grateful owners for a ransom.
My desperately crossed fingers must have done the trick because the person on the other end of the phone line said, ‘Yes, we’ve got it.’
Hooray!
After work, I took the Tube to Paddington and scurried to the left luggage office next to platform 12.
‘Hello! I called today and the person on the phone said that you have my Australian driver’s licence.’
The boy went to the back of the room and came back with a small rectangle. My heart leapt as I recognised the month and year of my birth date at the back of the card.
‘Is this it?’ he asked.
‘Yes! Thank you!’
‘Do you have any ID, a driver’s licence or something…’ He caught himself. ‘…besides this one?’
‘No.’ As I’ve written before, ID is not something I have in the UK.
‘If it helps,’ I added, ‘that licence has my photo on it.’ I smiled a big smile, the same smile that’s on my licence.
He swayed, uncertain for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Okay. Here you go.’
(As a bonus, he didn’t charge the £3 normally due for reclaiming small lost items.)
It sound all so very frustrating!!! But I noticed that you seems to have some luck (touch wood) about getting your lost items back.
A smile makes all the difference. :oD But then why do passport photos have to be so dour (unflattering)? Perhaps they assume everyone at the airport is in a bad/neutral mood.
Hi misscipher. Yes, I’ve been very lucky recently. I’ve lost only one thing permanently (my Railcard, which gives me discounts on train tickets). And I’ve found three things (my gloves, my earring and my license).
ftalk, I have an extremely ugly passport photo. I think it’s because I was quite ugly that day. I didn’t put any effort into it.
On the other hand, I really like my driver’s license photo. I’m glad VicRoads have it electronically and seem happy to reuse it for each update 🙂
Hi! I just had to tell you that your posts make for some really interesting reading! Keep up the good work!
Thanks, warrior. I’m glad that strangers to my blog take the time to read and comment!