Bad Luck Gets Lucky !!

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Your bad luck needs just one chance to get lucky, this is all that I can say at the end of an eventful day.

The Day

It was the last day of Christmas break, actually the holiday was till yesterday but all of us had taken a day off for tuesday as well. It started just like any other day, woke up late, made my breakfast and was surfing and blogging. I thought of making lunch, took out the chicken from the fridge to thaw, shifted my laptop to kitchen table to surf as I prepare the lunch and then went for shower. After shower, I had to do the weekly laundry, which I had postponed for today. Our washing machine is kept in the basement, and is used by the six flats (3 flats in each floor) of our building and we pay 2 Euros for each wash.

The Event

I was thinking of many things, scheduling the rest of day in mind, took the laundry basket and stepped out. I was out, the door clicked and closed, at that very moment,I got the shock. I had left the key inside!!!

It took a moment for me to comprehend the situation, and then the reality sunk on me. I had locked myself out, the incident which you will find mostly on TV soaps. I didn’t know what to do? It was a grave situation and my brain started racing.

The Aftermath

I remembered once during our office chat, one of the colleagues was saying that if you lose your key, the house company will come and provide you one, for a charge. So there was a ray of hope, but how to contact them? I didn’t have my phone with me, not even my wallet, worse I was in a T shirt and Capri with pair of slippers on my feet. The temperature outside would not have been more than minus 10 C. I was on the stairs inside the building so the area was heated. The only persons I know in this town are my colleagues, and their phone numbers are stored in my phone (ah, so good were the days, when we had to remember the phone numbers rather than saving them in phone memory). Out of the remaining 5 flats in the building, in the last 15 months, I have not seen any neighbour. Though, occasionally I hear the doors being opened and close. Since it was a working day, so there was little chance any of them would be in their home at noon.

Groundwork

I took my chance and knocked on the flat opposite to mine, no-A6. Nothing happened, after few minutes I could hear some one opening the door and a guy was there. Great after 15 months, I was face to face with one of my neighbour; he was a guy around the age of 20. I explained to him that I live in the flat opposite and have locked myself out. He understood me but was not able to speak English, so he called his girl. They were a couple living there. Luckily the girl could speak English and she told to me the house company people can come and open the door for me. It was not difficult for her to understand that I don’t even have the phone with me, she volunteered to call he house manager from her cell phone, and talk on my behalf as I can’t speak Finnish. She called the number, but it was not of house manager, seems the house maintenance company had changed. I had the number of our house manager but in my phone. Whenever I need to talk to my house manager, my nice colleagues do it for me, and so I didn’t have the faintest clue about the number. We checked in the notice board, the number was correct. The issue was still hanging fire. I was feeling so embarrassed to land myself in this situation. I think the girl sensed this, and said, they too had once locked themselves out this summer.

The Solution

We were now discussing what to do? Just then an old man entered from the door of the building, carrying many of grocery bags. I discovered, he also was one of our neighbour, infact next door to me, no –A5. The girl explained to him, in Finnish, the situation and he pointed out to a different number on the notice board. He called the number from his phone and voila! it was our house manager. She replied that someone will drive there and the charge is 10 Euros, for night time it is 20 Euros. Money was the last thing on my mind.

Result

15 minutes later, the guy from House Company came. He had a bunch of keys with him and I was praying that he does not ask me for ID. He didn’t, since I am the only Indian in this whole town, so the guy was pretty sure the flat belonged to me. He opened the door and I was so happy to get in, and thus the whole issue was solved.

Learning

I knew of the possibility of locking myself out, so I always made sure to carry the keys, even if I step outside to throw the garbage. Never in past 15 months, I have forgotten it, but once was enough for my bad luck to get lucky. No problem, atleast I got to know my neighbours.