Tuesday 11 June 2013

An Unfortunate Incident

Alighting from the Tube this morning (only public transport offers one the opportunity of  'alighting from' anything, so we should make the most of it), I realised with a sickening jolt that I was not carrying one of the bags I'd set out with. Not any old bag but the one that masquerades as a serious executive-style briefcase, though it in fact contains chiefly CDs and a Discman to play them on, a range of travel necessities (including bottle opener) and miscellaneous documents, notably - the only irreplaceable items, I think - two or three small notebooks that I've been using as commonplace books, noting down passages that catch my eye, for several years.
It had been an unusually complicated journey in, and, looking back over it, it seemed likeliest that I'd left the bag at a cafe where I'd had a quick espresso en route. As said cafe clearly had no intention of ever answering the phone, however often I rang, I took the Tube back after a while and, as they say, applied in person. No joy, the bag had not been left there. This narrows it down to railway Lost Property, and I can't say I'm too hopeful. Meanwhile, I swing between feeling strangely disoriented, as if I'd temporarily mislaid part of my body, and feeling resigned to the loss. I'll  miss those notebooks, but most of the rest can be replaced.
Or, of course, the bag might have been handed in  at Lost Property by some upright citizen. We'll see.

3 comments:

  1. Did you see that programme about the Tube's lost property dept a few years ago. Quite incredible the stuff that gets handed in - and an awful lot does get returned to the rightful owner, so there's cause for optimism.

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  2. My daughter left her bag in a pub containing all her rail, tube and bank cards, keys to her house, British Library card etc. Handed in at the nearest branch of her bank the next day , everything in situ. Some months later she left her iPhone on the bus - I was rung up by a kindly stranger who had found it. My good friend left her Apple Mac on the train and the accomplished rescuer located her email on the machine and kindly sent her notification that it was safe in his hands until he could get it to her. (I think she hoped there might be a romance in it actually but no luck.)

    The world is, surprisingly, still full of people of good will and empathy - underneath the hard-nosed surface all sorts of acts of kindness are going on. I do hope you receive some good news soon.

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  3. Ah these are hopeful stories - thanks! I'll be chasing it up today and will post the good news if there is any....

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