Struggling to find the key to not losing stuff we need

Fiona’s visit to her mum’s house turns into a mammoth search which finally ends with a new lock being fitted to the front door

It starts with a key. I arrive at my mother’s house to take her shopping. We lock the door and I put the thing in my trouser pocket. When we return the pocket is empty. The key has obviously slipped out. Most likely when getting in and out of the car. No worries. There is a spare one hidden in a safe place. I find it. We open the front door and take in the groceries.

The next day I return to her home on the loch.

“Mum, I’ll need to go into town to get another key cut now we only have one left,” I say.

She agrees. I put it in my bag and we settle down to a cup of tea while watching the swans on the water.

However, when it’s time to get in the car and set off to the locksmiths, can I find the key?

Back into the house I go and we both search high and low. Mum may be in her ninth decade, but she is still eagle-eyed. We scour plant pots and drawers. We look suspiciously at the MacNaughties. Have they swallowed the thing? They do look guilty. Then they always look guilty.

We even empty out the rubbish because I put a teabag in there.

In the end I return to the supermarket where they have a box full of misplaced keys, but not ours.

To misquote Oscar Wilde – to lose one may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness.

The problem is, we now have a lock that is useless without a key and two keys that are worthless to whoever finds them. In desperation we call our handyman to ask his advice.

Kevin has saved our bacon many a time, but on this occasion he cheerfully suggests that we may need to buy a whole new door.

What is it with things that go missing? Apparently, the average person will lose more than 3,000 items during their life.

We misplace at least four things every month. Mobile phones, umbrellas, pens, glasses, gloves – and, yes, you’ve got it, keys.

Drivers can spend up to 14 hours a year looking for car keys. One in four of us has even managed to temporarily lose a car. Two in five of us admit to mislaying house keys – and sorry chaps, but you are more likely to do that than we ladies are.

Young people lose more sets of keys than older ones. Yet whatever age you are, it is stressful.

I once lost the key to a car which unfortunately had the original MacNaughty in it. Poor old Jack the cocker spaniel was locked in for several hours until the man from the garage came to free him. He was not known for

We misplace at least four things every month. Drivers can spend up to 14 hours a year looking for car keys

his patience and he howled the street down.

Anyhow, back to mum’s front door. A new lock has been fitted and she can sleep easily at night.

Good old Kevin. He has bailed us out once again.

The average person will lose more than 3,000 items during their life.