For ages I have been really paranoid about losing things. I guess it stems from going to an all-boys school where people will steal things out of your bag when you aren’t looking so you end up going to class without, say, your pencil case, under the impression it was funny (well, actually it is pretty funny, and I have a few stories to tell on that front which I’m sure I’ll bring out at some point).
Anyway, paranoid. Whenever I get up from a public location, such as the train or a cinema or the likes, I will pat down every pocket to make sure nothing has slipped out whilst I’ve been sitting (actually I can trace that quirk down to having a two-week-old iPod fall out of my pocket whilst sitting outside a London café, something I didn’t notice until some time after I’d walked off).
Even whilst sitting on the train, I will suddenly have a ‘oh crap my pockets feel empty’ moment and worry that I’ve left my keys or my phone (which also looks after my Oyster card) at home, despite the obvious evidence that I’m on the train, meaning that I’ve managed to unlock my bike, relock it at the station, then touch in through the barriers to get on the train. Then, when getting off the train, I’ll turn around and have a good check of the seat I’ve just gotten up from to make sure nothing has fallen onto it.
I even have those moments with things in my rucksack. A couple of weeks ago I had one such incident, I was walking from work to the station and suddenly thought, ‘shit, have I left my iPad in the office?’ I was reasonably certain I hadn’t, but I had to be sure. In order to avoid having to rummage through my bag, I did one of the most technologically augmented lazy things I’ve done in my life – I got out my iPhone, fired up the Find My iPhone app, and asked it to ping the location of my iPad to make sure it was in the same place I was.
Similarly, if I’m standing in close quarters with people on a packed train, I’ll worry that someone has picked my pocket and made off with something. This is also something that I worry about even in the face of all available evidence – such as the fact that someone would have to have had a really good fondle to dig my wallet out of my front pocket, or the fact that I’m still listening to music from my iPhone so if someone’s stolen it they can’t have gotten further than a headphone cable’s length away from me. Same too with my rucksack, if I feel someone making contact with it in a crowd I’ll shake it a little so make sure no one is having a rummage.
You know, on reading all this back, I’ve realised I appear to be pretty fuckin’ paranoid.
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