thomas and i locked ourselves out of the apartment yesterday evening.
it was one of those rare nights that we headed out for takeaway dinner at the nearby turkish place. i closed the door to our apartment, and as we trudged down our steep spiraling suicidal steps, we realised we BOTH didn't have keys. thomas has a habit of always bringing his keys with him; yet i have a habit of always asking him (don't ask me why). but yesterday was different - we both forgot our usual routine of 1. taking the keys and 2. asking if he has keys. and neither of us had our mobiles on us.
ugh.
so we knocked on our neighbours' doors to ask if they had any spare keys to our apartment as that seems to be a practice here in europe. the one on the 1st level (2nd to me..) has always been a bit...reserved and a tinge unfriendly and curtly replied 'no', so i apologised for disturbing him. the neighbours above us (a couple) were the total opposite - friendly, did everything they could to help us (which includes loaning us a sharp knife, a hair pin, scouring for keys, letting us try different keys). it was a whole operation, i tell you.
half of me desperately wanted to be able to break into the apartment; the other half was numb from thinking about the possibility of actually breaking into it (which means others could too).
in the end, we called a locksmith from our neighbour's mobile. we sat outside in the slight drizzle eating our turkish pizza and broodjes while looking out for any van that came along. perhaps from the locksmith's eye, anyone who's locked out is pretty easy to spot as he immediately waved to us while passing through our street.
i told thomas to be patient as he could try all different sorts of keys blahblahblah which could thus take him a while, but 20 seconds after he started on the lock not with sets of keys, but some dodgy apparatuses, it was opened and the familiarity of the apartment was a welcomed sight. damn, it's that easy to break into huh?
20 seconds was also all it took to make us €90 poorer.
it was one of those rare nights that we headed out for takeaway dinner at the nearby turkish place. i closed the door to our apartment, and as we trudged down our steep spiraling suicidal steps, we realised we BOTH didn't have keys. thomas has a habit of always bringing his keys with him; yet i have a habit of always asking him (don't ask me why). but yesterday was different - we both forgot our usual routine of 1. taking the keys and 2. asking if he has keys. and neither of us had our mobiles on us.
ugh.
so we knocked on our neighbours' doors to ask if they had any spare keys to our apartment as that seems to be a practice here in europe. the one on the 1st level (2nd to me..) has always been a bit...reserved and a tinge unfriendly and curtly replied 'no', so i apologised for disturbing him. the neighbours above us (a couple) were the total opposite - friendly, did everything they could to help us (which includes loaning us a sharp knife, a hair pin, scouring for keys, letting us try different keys). it was a whole operation, i tell you.
half of me desperately wanted to be able to break into the apartment; the other half was numb from thinking about the possibility of actually breaking into it (which means others could too).
in the end, we called a locksmith from our neighbour's mobile. we sat outside in the slight drizzle eating our turkish pizza and broodjes while looking out for any van that came along. perhaps from the locksmith's eye, anyone who's locked out is pretty easy to spot as he immediately waved to us while passing through our street.
i told thomas to be patient as he could try all different sorts of keys blahblahblah which could thus take him a while, but 20 seconds after he started on the lock not with sets of keys, but some dodgy apparatuses, it was opened and the familiarity of the apartment was a welcomed sight. damn, it's that easy to break into huh?
20 seconds was also all it took to make us €90 poorer.
Labels: daily life
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