Passport Panic!

[West Ender]

I've just spent 2 hours searching frantically, rummaging desperately and doubting my sanity. My mouth was dry, my heart was in said mouth and beating fast and my hands were shaking.

Why?

Well, in 9 days time I'm taking my granddaughter to Malta for a holiday. Everything is together, in a folder; hotel reservation, insurance documents, Maltese taxi bookings, airline tickets, Laura's passport........ So I went upstairs to get my passport and put it with the rest. I keep my passport in a small safe in my room. It wasn't there!

Right, be methodical. Empty every drawer on to floor and search under lining papers. Wipe sweat from eyes. Empty large drawers under bed where spare bedding and Winter jumpers are kept. Drink glass of water as tongue is sticking to roof of mouth. Find "Malta wallet" where left-over Lire and small change are kept, tip out LM5 note and 79 cents change but no passport. Take deep breaths and tell self it has to be somewhere as self got back into England last time self went away. Come downstairs and search through every envelope, scrap of paper, stack of CDs, credit card bills etc. on computer desk. Tell self, if self doesn't calm down, self will have a heart attack and what good will that do anybody?

This isn't like me, I'm an orderly person for God's sake, but not this time, apparently. I wonder if Liverpool Pasport Office will issue a replacement if I go, in person, tomorrow. I have Birth Certificate, driving licence, NHS card, Civil Service ID card; surely they will?

I made my way, wearily, back upstairs to put everything away. I opened the wardrobe door to put the safe back. My suitcases are in there, and my flight bag. Hang about! I opened my flight bag and, lo and behold, there was one passport still languishing in the side zipped pocket. Halleluyah!!!!

You know what I'm going to ask you now, don't you? Have you ever lost/thought you've lost something important and, if so, what was the outcome?

[shillelagh]

I either lose my mobile phone or my door keys on a regular basis.
I cant even ring my mobile because its normally on silent just vibrate but that does make a noise and moves the papers or coat pocket where it is. Keys thats a different one - i can never find them when theres someone knocking on the door. Tis always the case - you cant find them when you need them but 5 mins later you find them normally where you've been looking for em and youve moved them with something else. That reminds me where are they?

[WillowTheWhisp]

Yep done something very similar quite often and had mad panics looking for the flippin thing which I know has got to be in the house somewhere but has either become invisible or secreted itself somewhere I couldn't possibly have put it.

[MITZY]

One year we went on a driving holiday to France, I thought my husband had put our driving licenses in and he thought I had, we drove round France for two weeks without them, on our return we looked for said licenses which we couldn't find, we applied for new ones and the day the new ones arrived we found the originals, in a place we were both supposed to have looked.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes Westender, though not me, but hubby. We were in Oz and my niece and I were going for a girly week away....the flight tickets were e-tickets and for this you have to have photo ID...so i was taking my passport. Hubby and my nephew and a gang of men were going up to Mildura for some car racing events.
Hubby was adamant that I should not take his passport with me when I flew off.......although at all other times I am the responsible adult who gets to take care of them. OK.....I said, no worries.....and gave him his passport to look after. I told him in no uncertain terms that he had better take good care of it.
We still had a few weeks of our Oz visit left and we went and visited family all over the place......mostly on buses and trains......nothing that required a passport.
Anyway the morning of our departure from Oz arrived......all our stuff was packed into the cases, and with only four hours to go before we flew out....i got out my document holder to check that we had all the tickets and flight times etc...and to check the passports. My passport was there tucked into its little slot.....where was hubby's? I could see him blanch and then go very red......he couldn't find it. He had no clue where he had put it for safe keeping. My nephew and niece have a really big house, so the search began....they looked everywhere.....in some most impossible places too, like bathroom cabinets. I got on the phone to the British Embassy in Melbourne...prepared to take a taxi into the city and get an emergency passport if necessary....only to realise that it was a public holiday and the place was closed until the following day.

Hubby (who has high blood pressure) was becoming more and more stressed....and he could see me leaving on the flight as booked with him having to pay to get another flight the following day.
We had looked in all the cases...everything had been taken out and repacked...but one of the cases had an outside pocket.......which I NEVER,EVER put anything in.......it was worth a shot......I unzipped it and there....lurking at the bottom was Hubby's errant passport. Big panic over...and 20 minutes to spare before we left for the airport.......I did some cussing under my breath that day.
He swears that HE didn't put it there....and I know that I didn't...so how did it get there???
Anyway, from then on he has let me look after the documents....that way if anything goes missing he always has someone to pin the blame on

[West Ender]

Well I sympathise with him, Margaret, after this afternoon's débacle. I have high blood pressure too and I'm sure it went off the scale for a while.

I recall a few years ago, in Malta again, there were 2 elderly ladies staying in my hotel. One of them lost her return flight ticket, swore she had looked everywhere for it and ended up paying £35 for a duplicate which she got the day before they were leaving.

Needless to say, when they did their packing that evening, there was her original ticket at the bottom of a drawer. She obviously didn't perform the sort of search I did today. I may have sweated off a few lbs in nervous energy but, at least, the drawers in my room are a damn sight tidier than they had been.

[Margaret Pilkington]

It is certainly something that you don't want to repeat. I know that when I travel I am meticulous in doing things in some kind of organised way....and i have travelled a lot so it grieves me when someone else messes up my careful planning.

I know a few months ago I went away with Ma and she was having a mad panic on the bus because she though she had lost the keys to her home....and at that time I didn't have a key to her house.......we were on Burnley bus station with the cases unpacked before we finally found it in the pocket of one of her pairs of trousers.......she would have been in a real pickle if I had done my usual trick of getting a taxi back to my house and putting her in a taxi to her house.......anyway, now I have a key.

[cashman]

i lost me passport once when i lived in spain, couldn,t find it for about 2 weeks,so i asked my soliciter what the crack was,was told i would have to travel to malaga to the embassey to sort things,didnt have a clue where in the city that was,cos directions dont mean much when you dont know a place, was just sorting out when to go n me cider went,so ordered a barrel, next day when delivery came, i disconnected the empty,moved it n there on the floor was me passport!! still do not know to this day how/why i ever took it to me bar,but certainly caused great panic,snarling n knashing of teeth.

[mrjdallen]

how much is a passport now a days

[MargaretR]

My half-Iti ex and I drove to northern Italy to visit his relatives. On the second day after arrival our car keys could not be found. Ten of his family joined in the search of his uncle's apartment - no joy. At great expense the locks on the car were changed.
Next day they were found - under a tray on the bedside table. His aunt had placed it there when delivering us morning coffee.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by mrjdallen

how much is a passport now a days

nearly £70 it was a couple of weeks ago.

[expat]

My parents once tried to lose me in Blackpool,

[mrjdallen]

£70 now - thats a joke, oh well thanks for the post

[fc:stanley]

I remember when we was in samos in greece a few years a go we had a really good digital camera and in them days they where the latest thing and had cost alot of money. We went to this restaurant and he guy who owned it looked really dogey, we had are meal fine , left the place , then walked back up to the hotel , when we got back to the hotel i asked where the camera was and the camera was no-were to be see , we searched round the room to see if we had put it down but it had like vanished so i went we must of left it at the restaurant so me and my mother walked down to the restaurant to see where the camera was there and the dogey looking man said that they had not found any camera , but he had a suspicious look. So my mum had a bit of an arguement with him saying that if he gave it us then we will just leave it and forget about it all. And he said once again he didnt have it, so we walked back up to the hotel the next day i went under my bed to get the sandels and it was there,, it must of been put there then dropped down But that morning dad had just bought a new camera for alot of money and had another word with the dogey looking guy. He was quite embarrased. One saying that comes to mind is never judge a book by its cover

[Mr Aleks]

I lost my mind once and never seen it again. Dont know where it went it might be behind the fridge.