#missing laptop

Okay, fun story time! So remember how I promised I was going to try and post at least once a week every week? Well that exact same week, I had somewhat of a disaster.

On the Thursday of that week, I was heading to college on the bus. It was a normal Thursday, nothing special, no different to any other college day. Except I was absolutely exhausted. I can't even remember why, I think I must have been up late working on something or just completely tired out from weeks of college. Anyway, I was headed to school and on my way, I realised that my backpack was too heavy for me to carry around on my back all day so I took my laptop out to carry in my hands instead. So I walked to my bus stop, carrying my laptop and my backpack with me, and as I walked past I noticed a sign for a job on the window of the local cinema and I've been wanting a job there for ages. When I got on the bus, I spent the whole bus ride just thinking about applying for that job and going in after college to pick up an application form. As soon as I got to college, I went straight into the common room, thinking "I'm sure I've got my CV saved on my laptop, I'll just find it, print it off and hand it in straight after college." And as soon as I'd thought that, I looked down at my hands and thought...where is my laptop? And then, I freaked. I instantly threw my backpack down on the table and ripped it open, desperately hoping that I'd put my laptop back in there even though I knew I hadn't and lo and behold, it wasn't there. I left it on the freakin' bus.

So I ran back outside and continued freaking out, screaming at the bus app on my phone to open so that I could call the Customer Services number and finally, after what felt like forever, it finally loaded. I called the number, pacing back and forwards outside of college as I went through the damn menu thing in Welsh and English. After about five minutes of automated menus, I finally got through to a real person and she was really lovely as I explained the whole situation and she helped me fill out a lost property form over the phone and told me that if anything comes up she'd call me back and let me know. And then she made my heart sink. She said "it'll take about three to five working days". Three to five working days. I lost it that morning, literally about ten minutes before I called her and it's going to take three to five working days!?

So I started to, guess what, panic again. I decided that the very next thing I needed to do was call my mum so I rang her. And...she didn't pick up. I tried her again, and again and again but nothing. Which meant that I'd have to call my Dad and I was really nervous about doing that because he was the one who bought the laptop for. I knew that telling him I'd stupidly lost it on a bus. But when I rang him, he picked up straight away and he didn't yell at me or get mad. Okay, he yelled at me to calm down but he had to, I was going into freakin' hyperventilation mode. He told me to brace myself for the very likely chance that it's gone and I completely agreed with him. He then said that he was going to look into what we could do about the situation and I gave my mum another go. She called me back about two minutes later and I went back into hyperventilation mode, to which she replied in the same way as my dad did: by shouting at me to calm down. Then she started calming me down and mentioned that it might be covered under the household insurance and to ask my dad about it. So I called him back and IT WAS! IT WAS COVERED UNDER THE INSURANCE.

So, I'm just going to summarise the rest of the day and the next few days as otherwise this is just going to get really long winded and repetitive. So basically, in order for my laptop to be covered under the insurance, I had to get a crime number from the police, so straight after my first class of the day, I called the police to report it, to which they said that they couldn't give me a number because technically no crime had been committed yet. So I had to wait. And wait. I called the bus company everyday for three days, my dad visited their depot and I spoke to two different bus drivers, asking for their advice but in the end I got nothing. I called the police three times as well and each time I was either directed to another force or was told "no crime has been committed" which is total BS as it's obvious someone stole it if it hasn't been handed in. Eventually though, I got through to one guy who gave me the information I needed: my particular force do not give out crime numbers for missing/possibly stolen items but they do have a form on their website which can be sent to insurance companies to confirm it. So we sent that, along with all the receipts which luckily my Dad kept and, after two weeks of desperately hoping for my laptop to be returned and sadly realising it wouldn't be, my dad took me out to town where he surprised me by taking me to PC World and picking up a replacement which he reserved ordered online!

So, long story short, I lost my laptop through my own stupid carelessness but everything worked out in the end and I'm back and waaaay more organised and prepared than before! I even bought a proper £30 16in laptop case for it even though mine's only around 10.5in!

I promise to keep my posting promise this time! And I have news to tell you guys about too which I will on Sunday! Thank you for sticking with me even though I'm so awful at keeping up with my blog and replying to messages!

Love always,

Rhiannon.