Wednesday, February 17, 2016

It’s Been That Kind Of Day

It’s Been That Kind Of Day

In the middle of an exotic winter vacation the God of Reality reminded me that there are still a lot of things that can be a problem. Today, was that kind of day, where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong!

I was earning my Laundry Badge for the Senior Retirees of Bangkok Association by washing and drying the weekly supply of socks and shorts. At the same time, Sawyer and I were hanging out as everyone else was out and about running errands or shopping. 

Sawyer was watching a movie on his computer so I headed home next door quickly with the dry laundry to put it away. When I arrived at our apartment I couldn’t unlock our apartment door. I wiggled, jiggled, squiggled and wiggled the key in the lock some more. To no avail! The lock on the door was broken and I was locked out.

Panic mode hit me. I knew that it was no use trying to explain the problem in my limited Thai (three words) to the front desk. Instead I decided to phone the lady we had rented the apartment from. Since I did not have her number, I had to phone my son who had her number. He sent me her phone number and then my phone informed me that I needed to add more money to my account before I could make another call. Of course, I had no idea how to do that, nor any money, as my wallet was inside the locked apartment.

My sharp mental acuity then reminded me that I could text her and tell her to phone me immediately as I had an urgent problem. She did call quickly and informed me via her cell phone that there was nothing wrong with the lock. She must have been a practising psychic and repeated that observation several times before telling me she would come by in an hour. 

Sawyer and I waited patiently, and lo and behold when she arrived her key would not unlock the door either. She just couldn’t understand that, as it had always worked before. She phoned the maintenance man and in a show of solidarity he tried to open the door, but he too failed. In the middle of our struggles, Darlene called and my phone went dead as it had not only run out of minutes, but had also run out of power. Our misfortunes just went on and on.

Finally, it was agreed that a locksmith would be called and he arrived surprisingly in ten minutes. After fifteen minutes of repairing the broken lock, we had access to our apartment. All that was left to do now was recharge my phone, top up my phone minutes, get my wallet and take two aspirin!


A broken door lock in Canada would not have been a problem. In a foreign country, where you don’t speak the language, and the three other adults with phones are in outer space, and your phone is dead and has no minutes left, and you have no money on you, that becomes a whole new ballgame. Think about it!

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