Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The search for impossible

I have lost my oyster card. For those not in the know, this is a little credit-card sized, er, credit card thingy that one waves in front of machinery on buses and tubes to get one on to the things. It's connected to my bank account so that I never have to put money on it and it pays my way around London just fine thank you.

This is not the first thing I have lost in the last few month, oh no. In fact, I have lost a wide range of items ranging from flash drives to teddymouse to keys, lipsticks and pens, DVD discs, my sanity, endless pairs of the spud's underpants and enough toy cars to fill a garage the size of the teletubbies.

There is a theme to all this lostness in that all items, including my sanity, are Very Small. Madly, it took me a while to notice this - until yesterday in fact, when the loss of my Oyster card started a flat-wide hunt which turned to light absolutely every last little thing which has gone missing in the last few months.

They turned up in the bottom of un-used cupboards. They turned up 'posted' through the cellar steps, the back of the sofa, underneath drawers, behind furniture, between books and under carpets. It doesn't take much by way of grey matter to realise that we have a single culprit here and wily though our ancient rescue cat may be, I highly doubt he's capable of manipulating a flash drive between two jammed cupboard doors.

I don't know why I hadn't suspected my son prior to this point, I think it's because in general he isn't the sort of little boy to post remote controls into the bin on a regular basis. Not to say that it hasn't happened, just not for a long time.

Perhaps this is what he has been trying to tell me all week with his inscrutable sentences such as 'tuppy GONE!' and 'Rebus GONE'! I've looked high and low for Tuppy and Rebus and it turns out that Rebus was 'real bus', as in his toy double-decker which looks like a bus one might find on the street. Perhaps 'tuppy' is my oyster card, who knows?

Either way I will resume my search very shortly, in hopes of being able to get to a meeting I am expected at in London tomorrow morning. Perhaps I will also find my sanity.

Here's hoping...

9 comments:

Jen said...

Yep, good luck with that. The other day I searched the whole house for a "lost" sippy cup. I found it in a drawer with 2 day old milk in it. After that, I said, "Dylan, do you know where your sippy cup was?", and he ran over to the drawer! It won't always work, but I've learned to ask just in case.

Sandrine said...

Hi Spark,
There is a wormhole in my house and probably at the end of another galaxy, an alien is looking at the barbie shoes and puzzle pieces and is wondering what to do with them.
Did you try to ask your son where the card was? Maybe he knows.When my youngest daughter was his age (and not talking), she used to move things around all the time.We would ask her and she would go get the stuff (most of the time).
Good luck.
Take care.
Sandrine

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your search. I have an Oyster card so I know what a nightmare it can be if you lose them even for a short time. One friend lost her one year travel card - it had cost her over £2000. So things could be worse. (Can you register for a replacement?)

Michelle said...

Good luck in your efforts to find your lost card. I know how agravating it is to have to search for something important that you yourself didn't misplace! Even so, this ability of the Spud's is rather endearing, and proves what a smart little boy he is!

Helen + ilana = Hi said...

TEDDYMOUSE..............you lost TEDDYMOUSE..................excuse me but I am quite sure that this constitutes a veritable emergency! I bet Sammy is looking at you reproachfully at this very moment! For Shame.

Anonymous said...

When things go missing in my house I usually check the kitchen bin first - my daughter's new choice of hiding place, which is not good when it's your car keys or your mobile phone!

ADDY said...

I hate it when things go missing. Perhaps your son is innocent and it is the Borrowers - the little people below the floorboards!!!

Sparx said...

Jen - I did ask him if he'd hidden my oyster card and he said 'Yeth' but then when I said 'where is it' he said 'I dunNO!' so I'm guessing we'll never find it!

Sandrine - actually I'm finding things that clearly don't belong here, maybe the kids are doing some sort of wormhole swap and my stuff is ending up at your house?!

Rosiescribble - it's on an account so I can just cut it off and order a new one - nobody's used it but me so I'm not that worried... will have to get a new one if it doesn't show up this weekend.

Helen - actually we FOUND teddymouse, it had been missing for ages. He's gone mental since we found it, he's a totally new cat...

Tara - ouch! That is my biggest fear I have to admit...

Rosiero - now THAT I'd believe

Anonymous said...

Well I'm glad to hear it. Santa Bear took a day off to go the spa (read washer/spin dryer) and poor Fizgig was inconsolable..... Lord what would have happened if he'd been actually MiSsInG!