Fractal Blog

We went to the beach again, to hone our bodyboarding skills. I use the word 'skills' loosely, at least in my case. It turned out a very short swim (30 mins) as the life guards kept making announcements about "large numbers" of bluebottle jellyfish being swept ashore and what you should do if you got stung. (Suffer through the pain, mostly.) When I actually saw one of the jellyfish I decided to heed the warning and get out of the water.

I went back to where we left our bag. No bag. No shoes. No surfbag. Panic. Went to water's edge to find the Burblechaz. Couldn't spot him. Thought about it, then concluded that thieves might have taken the bag but would surely not bother with sandals and an empty surf bag, so most likely explanation was that the Burblechaz had also left the water and we missed each other, so he went to get a shower. This turned out only partially right: He thought I'd taken the bag to get a shower, and picked up the shoes and surf bag to follow me. To cut a long story short, neither of us had the bag. Containing not just towels and a change of clothes but also both our mobile phones and half of the Burblechaz' life: credit cards, house keys, driving license and a bit of cash. (I left my credit cards, house keys, driving license and cash at home but between us we do need to take one set of house keys and some cash, it's unavoidable.)

So, there we were in rash vests and shorts, dripping wet with salt water, no money, no ferry tickets, no house keys, no mobiles. (But with two bodyboards.) The only solution was Manly Police, who were so exceptionally nice and helpful to us, we were truly impressed. They gave us a travel warrant so we could get home for free, the estate agent lent us his duplicate set of keys so we could get into our flat, and once we were back home our greatest fear had not materialised: Considering that both driving license (with address) and house keys were in the bag we thought they might have burgled the flat. But they didn't. Phew.

Hence the problem was now reduced to tedius admin. Cancelling credit cards and mobile phones. Half-way through the credit card problem (why does it take an hour on hold to various call centres to achieve something this simple?) a neighbour who works for the estate agent told us that a life guard had found our bag, told Manly Police who called the estate agent (as we had no mobiles). The estate agent asked the neighbour to drop in to tell us at the end of her shift. How exceptionally nice and beyond the call of duty is that?

The Burblechaz is off to collect our belongings. We lost the cash (not a lot), one irreplaceable but largely symbolic item that was in the wallet that the thief probably threw away after having taken out the cash, one set of house keys and the Burblechaz' mobile phone. But the credit cards and the driving license are still in the bag, as is my mobile phone (its screen is damaged hence they probably didn't want it).

Moral of the story: Don't take anything to the beach you can't afford to lose, keep your keys with you even in the water on a chain, take some cash in notes and tuck it into swimming shorts (Australian money is made of plastic and hence washing it or immersing it in salt water does it no harm). Not much we could have done about the mobile phones (when looking for jobs one can't be unreachable all day) or the ferry tickets (they're not washable) but the driving license and the credit cards needn't have been with us, nor the one item that money can't replace.

Second moral of the story: While some people steal their way through a beach holiday, others are truly exceptionally nice if something really bad happens to you. Irene at Manly Police station was helpful well beyond her job. And Karen at Croll First National Estate Agents treated us with such kindness and practical efficiency she ought to get an award. A lot of the quick resolution of the majority of our problems is due to Irene calling the estate agent, Karen's quick thinking on how to get hold of us, and her colleague who lives close by walking all the way to our flat to give us the message that the bag has been found. All of this on the last working day before Easter.

I'd say "Happy Easter" but frankly I don't feel much like it.