Dear LPG,

I have just read what GK had to say on the subject of losing things (►►►) and wanted to offer a little addition.

I agree with GK and I can remember a time when I used to do it all wrong.  I would stress and worry about lost and misplaced items instead of asking myself what is to be done if I really can't find it, but something that happened to me, somewhat indirectly, and many years ago changed my mind overnight.

I was a lot younger, recently married and we were at that stage of life when there were not yet any children and the social aspect of evenings and weekends were more important to us.   The difference was that there was more inviting of friend’s round for dinner then than all this going out to restaurants, and we were no different.

This particular weekend we had invited my friend round and she arrived quite stressed because she had lost her keys and I remember her looking for them for quite some time.  She had lost the key to her flat although she found the one to the front door of the house itself.  She lived alone in the front, ground floor flat of a very big converted house in Dulwich with neighbours who had become friends.  We did try phoning a couple of the others without reply; those were not the days of mobile phones.  She was worried but dinner was there and ready so we decided to have that while working out what to do next. 

Getting her home was the first priority so our evening was cut short and we drove back with her.  It was winter and dark, although still only early evening, but we tried ringing all the bells of her neighbours without success and, in the end we took matters into our own hands and decided to attempt a break-in.    

I posed as the ‘lookout’ operative while my husband and my friend looked for a way in.  Luckily the front garden’s privet hedge hid a lot of ills but, as I was innocently standing at the gate, I remember wondering exactly what I would do if the police or someone from one of the neighbouring houses had become suspicious of the very interesting and worryingly loud tapping, creaking and groaning noises that were occurring as they tried to find a way in.  It seemed as if I was waiting forever but no one came, thank God.  We got in through the window in the end without breaking anything.  My friend had not locked one of the catches properly.  We then watched her search for what seemed like ages before it occurred to us to open her flat’s front door where we found the key outside dangling from the keyhole, the irony being that she had the key to the main front door, and it never occurred to us to use that.

As you can imagine, we then spent the rest of a relaxing evening being entertained by her and I think that all three of us learnt that there is not a lot to be gained from worrying. 

I think that had we followed GK’s advice to a degree and, without the cloak and dagger aspect of the thing ever having occurred since, the philosophy certainly does work…

LF, Croydon