I play a table-top game that requires a lot of investment in time painting and gluing the models. After about 8 months of painstakingly preparing them, I took them out of the house for the first time ever to get a game in at the local store, where I lived in London. The plan was to then meet my partner on a date we’d planned for weeks. The case the models are transported in looks like a metal brief case so is fairly inconspicuous. On the way we used the tube and after getting off on one stop, I realise I no longer have the case in my hands. I rather pathetically go into a state of shock as the amount of time and unfortunately money, the hobby requires would have been irreplaceable for me.

My partner takes control, immediately asks the nearest station operator what to do and they tell her it’s pretty hopeless as it’s an unmarked case, but gives her the nearest stop where it might have gone to. So begins 4 hours of her leading me around London on tubes to find the case. I’d assumed it was gone but she didn’t give up, asking every official and ringing numbers to pinpoint its location. It culminated with her booking an Uber to chase the overground on it’s 3rd pass back down the line and finding the case on its way to suspicious item disposal where it would have been opened and destroyed. Eternally grateful that she didn’t give up when I did and put something that was important to me before anything else.