The key

SMO, as i think I have said before, does the shopping 1st thing Saturday morning as the supermarket is opening. So he set off early and walked in to town past a local council building site. The paths have been blocked so temporary wooden bridges have been built to bypass the works.

The bridge was iced over and he slipped and fell, unknown to him losing the house keys. He arrives at the shops and digs in his pocket for £1 for the trolley and discovers they are gone, so we know for certain they are somewhere between our house and the shops.

When he gets back with the shopping we all go out and search everywhere. The troll that lives under the little wooden bridge (aka site security guard) even came out and searched on his side of the fences in case they had been kicked underneath. Nothing.

I spend a cold Saturday afternoon at the out of town DIY store buying a new lock. Which includes a phone argument about the size because I ask SMO to check the measurements and he says its about 5cm. The locks are in very precise 45mm and 57mm sizing so against his nature he was forced to make a firm decision!

It happens to be 10% off DIY day and as its not too busy I have a look around and find one of those nice metal cake stands for storing craft supplies in (will photograph when I get time).

Decide the lock is the right size but that the door will need a bit of adjusting and arrange for help with it on Sunday (thank you Charles).

Call mum that evening to update her on my day and she says she saw some keys on a wall on the way into town. Off goes SMO with a little lantern to investigate where he manages to fall over again and find nothing. I'm surprised he didn't manage to get himself arrested. He went out again as soon as it was light but they were definitely gone.

We have a nice new lock now and surely that means that the old keys will turn up anytime now. I've bought SMO one of those clip chains to attach his keys to his trousers. He says he has never lost them before but he only counts losing them if you never actually find them again, so apparently the day we had to collect them from the police station doesn't count!

I think it was my niece the other day who said "Why can't I live in a normal family" or words to that effect!!

HS:MS:HS - Advent - could this be the start of some seasonal photo prompts?

** Kate **