Items Missing From Our Luggage

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Bill -- A safe arrival does not necessarily mean that all is as it should be. Well Nancy and I made it safely to Prague, but not all of our personal items.

Nancy -- You already know some of the library materials almost went astray. But in our rooms after we had unpacked and put most things away I realized I didn’t have a single turtleneck sweater to wear. I had packed 3 but none were in the suitcases when we unpacked them. That got Bill to checking his things and he realized the two pair of shorts he put in for summer here were also AWOL. That started us on the search. No multivitamins, no aspirin, no Dove unscented soap, no black belts for my slacks, no toothpaste (neither Colgate nor Sensodyne), no Q-Tips. We are sure other things are missing but can’t identify them yet. We will realize when we go to get something that it is not here I suspect. There is one item we are not positive about. I had forgotten my wine wool hat and Bill got it into my hands just as we got in the car to leave the house. I hope it is in Melanie and Paul’s car. It was my WILD Wine hat that I need to keep my ears warm. One of our suitcases had a note inside from the Federal agency that checks for items in suitcases (for security reasons the note said). It said everything had been taken out of one suitcase and checked and ‘put back in’. We don’t know if that was the case with these things in it or not. So, either they misplaced the things (put them in someone else’s case?) or stole them or someone in Heathrow stole them. But one way or the other strange things are missing. They seem an odd selection of items to steal. My turtlenecks are not new, the shorts weren’t either, Q-tips aren’t worth your job to take and toothpaste is pretty cheap. We mostly are upset to lose the multivitamins and baby aspirin. Joyce our friend at the hospital told us to let her know if we needed anything. We plan to send an SOS tomorrow. We hunted for both items today and didn’t find them for sale. We will check again on Monday and hope. Locals tell us aspirin here comes in 100mg so that may have to substitute. We know where the local pharmacy is and it’s only a short bus ride away. I want the vitamin D to go with my Calcium. Oh, I had left three other turtlenecks here last spring so I won’t be ‘naked’. But I had tried to break the monotony my fellow workers must have felt in seeing Nancy in Green, white and pink over and over and….. The good news is I wore a wine T-neck & had a blue one in my backpack. So now I will have one a day for the winter! To make it even better I now have two polartech vests. Last winter I wore a red one (which my sister in law Joann had given me) everyday over green, white and pink! This summer I found a white one trimmed in black. It’s going to be like a Paris fashion show in comparison.

Bill - To me it is still an open question whether we are personally safer with the new rules and more stringent searches in airports … but it seems that our personal belongings are in greater danger of disappearing. In all of our travels through the years we have never lost a single item from our suitcases. This time, we know because of the governmental form/note in our suitcase that our things were checked, and for the first time, not one item, but a number of items are missing. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?

Nancy -- Bill bought a 15 day bus ticket so we can go and come as we wish this first two weeks. I figure once we get to working during these intensives we might not get a full value from them. So, we headed down to the grocery store. We went ALL the way to Dejvice instead of to the nearby grocery store. The air was so cold outside and the people so numerous on the bus that the windows were totally fogged up. I didn’t get to see any of the things I wanted to see as we went up from Jeneralka and down to Dejvice. But it was so much fun to do it! Then we walked to the Delvita grocery store and bought a lot of things. We needed to get spices, staples, etc. My sister Joyce gave us a rather clever grocery ‘cart’ that folds up like a purse. It has wheels on the bottom that are collapsible and can be out of the way until you need them. We carried that and a big bag we bought here last year. They were both stuffed with groceries. We could NEVER, ever have carried all those things down the street, across the street and onto the bus without the new cart. It functioned perfectly. The very heavy load was easy to pull. Boy, were we glad we had that new item. So, many thanks for your thoughtfulness, Joyce. Somehow or the other she is the Best on knowing what to buy for someone. The temperature was mild probably around 34-38F. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite different. A cold wave is coming down from Russia.

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Photos

Leaving Heathrow
As our plane taxied away from the Heathrow Terminal 1 I saw this interestingly painted British Air plane sitting at its gate.

In Our Apartment
Nancy at work on the computer.

Out One of Our Windows
Looking out one of our windows that is facing to the Northeast ... and yet, it is cold out there.

Comments

[joyce p-f]

glad you like the bag
I thought that bag would work for food trips. glad you are having fun! Keep warm!