With my various gadgets fully charged when I left Australia – and a spare camera battery in my cabin bag – I had packed the chargers in my suitcase. That is what you do to lighten the load on the cabin bag, always in danger of being declared “too heavy”. Imagine the mounting panic, then, when my primary method of communicating with those whose job it is to locate and redirect lost luggage, teetered on the brink of expiry. What good is a mobile phone with a flat battery?
It was a beautiful morning in Where-is, so I put on yesterday’s and the day before’s clothes (sans knickers), flung open the balcony doors and, since there was little to be gained from kicking the wall, I sat down with the trusty laptop and wrote instead.
Aaah, the joy of doing what makes you happy. Writing mends and rejuvenates, massages the soul. The words flow freely regardless of the sense they make. Or don’t make.
Engrossed in this activity, I was shocked that the screen dimmed, the first indication that all was not well with my darling laptop. The battery wasn’t charging and power was down to 32%. Worse, the little green light on the connection plug was out. A quick check on cable, clunky UK plug, switch on wall, everything was as it should be. Don’t tell me that my lost suitcase wasn’t the worst of my worries, please! I quickly switched off. Like the mobile phone, conserving what remained of the battery became the first priority.
I lay on the bed with the latest Lee Child book, bought in Auckland. It wasn’t long before exhaustion and/or jet lag kicked in and I was soon fast asleep. Afternoon heat competed with a ‘sticky’ fly to wake me later, and I closed the balcony door and switched on the air-conditioning, flopped back on the bed and soon realised there was no background hushing noise.
Lack of air-conditioning in a hot climate hotel is probably worse than failing batteries and lost luggage combined. Worse, even, than jet lag.
The obvious then dawned on my befuddled brain. I hadn’t put the keycard in the slot inside the door. Without the card nothing in the room would work. No kettle, no lights, no air-conditioning, no power points.
Power points!! Duh! Idiot!
At least the laptop is now fully charged and the kettle is boiling again. The air-conditioning is humming and hushing in the background and all is well once more on the island of Where-is.
Perfection would be the return of a lost suitcase, but…