Chapter Nineteen: The Lost Wallet Strikes Again (~jinghan)

Note from the Author: Ron was saying that he was talking to another blogger who was saying they were discouraged/guilted-away from blogging when the by my proliferate blogging. Haha, please blog anyway! Don’t even appologise for not blogging, just jump right in like it’s quite natural to throw a blog out there after not blogging for six, seven, twelve months. (I don’t… =p) Sometimes you have to live real life for a bit, is all.

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Sometime around this time last year there was the story of The Lost Wallet. Well it seems that as much as I have tried to learn my lesson, The Lost Wallet strikes again!

The Lost Wallet Strikes Again

AKA Hectic Adventures of Jinghan on the Melbourne Public Transport System

I’m enjoying reading The Big Issue*, though perhaps I should have made better use of my time for sleeping…

I get off the train at Melbourne Central along with the jostle of other passengers. Instinctively (perhaps a habit from after the last strike of The Lost Wallet) I pat my pocket to check for the bulge of my wallet as I head towards the elevator. Nothing. Oh, perhaps its in the other pocket… Just my phone. I have half a second to make a decision before I’m swept by the current of moving bodies onto the elevator. Do I head back onto the train and check my seat at the risk of being taken one station too far? Plus if I had lost my wallet (hopefully not!) it might have been the train platform I lost it at anyway… Ah it’s probably in my bag like all the other times I’m worried that I’ve lost my wallet!

As I reach the top of the elevator I rummage in my bag – lunch, books, Berocca from when I was sick… Wallet? Wallet? Wallet?

No wallet.

Really????

Really.

My dad happened to be on the same train as me and was about to rush off to catch the tram, seeing my hectic expression he comes to shake his head at me and passes me his last two (precious) metcards** and $20.

My best bet is to head back to my train station where I might have left my wallet on the bench while tying up my shoelace. In the meantime while I catch more trains: I text my friend: “sorry won’t make it to class, lost my wallet…” I freeze my bank account, I call and after pressing 4 for lost property, pressing 1 for metro trains, pressing 0 for the phone number to be repeated so I can write it down, and doing it all again and holding to speak to a customer service agent because I can get through to the number I leave my details with metro lost property.

My train station is disappointingly empty of lost wallets. I guess I did all that I can. Wait for another train to uni to get to my next class I guess. I jealously glare at all the people with their wallets and their Myki’s. As I ride the train back I calculate how long and the costs of replacing all my ID cards. I even grab a copy of my concession card application form from the student center when I get to Uni, resigned to the worst new. If someone had handed my wallet in wouldn’t they have found it by now? Well at least there’s no incentive for anyone to steal it: there was no cash in there – not even a measly five cents – in my wallet.

I’ve sat myself in the middle of the lecture hall for Discrete Maths. A choice I am questioning as I put my phone next to my notebook making a plan for my escape route if they call me.

And then,

about 40 minutes in,

my phone buzzes!

Yes! I leap up. Hurdle over some students while blocking the view of some others (sorry!!) and run out into the alcove of the lecture hall.

“Hello?”

They have my wallet!

Hooray!

“Yes yes. I’ll come pick it up this afternoon. Thankyou!!”

I sneak back into the classes with a shamelessly massive smiling as I jostle past the same students whom I disturbed before. I thumbs up to my friends. Yes!

Well that was an emotionally exhausting morning. There’s a chinese saying: “with danger but without disaster.”

Hope you all had a more relaxing day than me!

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*A non-for-profit magazine sold by the homeless community of Australia to support the homeless community of Australia. They always have really good articles, especially if you don’t enjoy the hype and politics of main-stream media.

** Melbournians will be aware that these pragmatic paper tickets are being phased out and can no longer be bought, in favour of Myki’s which are electronic swipe cards that cost $9 to obtain a new one at short notice- which is what the customer service agent recommended when I asked about having just lost my wallet and needing to travel without my myki… Though I can wait a few days and have my Myki replaced and mailed to me while I fare evade? Ah Melbourne Public Transport…