What a comedy of errors this was! I was leaving late this morning to run a couple of errands, and needed to get back quickly as I was in the middle of doing some client work. As I was leaving my apartment, I was distracted trying to kill a mosquito, and without realizing it I closed the door — with the keys inside!

I went downstairs and sat in the lobby while I thought. We do have a doorman, but he is not always there, and besides he has been in hospital and is on sick leave. His sister is filling in, but I have no idea how to reach her.

Fortunately, I always carry the business card of my rental agency in my purse, so I was able to call them. The girl was very nice, saying she would call the owner and call me back. She asked for my phone number and I gave it to her. At least I thought I did. When I didn’t hear from her after a few minutes, I went to call her again, but when I saw my own number on the phone I thought, “That’s not the number I gave her.” No, it wasn’t. I had had the agency card in my hand, and had read their own number off to her as mine!!

OK, no problem, I’ll call again. Nope. My SIM balance had run out and the call wouldn’t go through! Fortunately, the phone company keeps sending me messages that they will give me a small credit in these circumstances, so I found one of those messages and followed the steps. Success!

I got back through to Vanessa, and she laughed when I told her what I had done. Anyway, she told me the owner had contacted the doorman and he would be down to fix the situation. Poor Julio. I don’t think I got him out of his sick bed, but I felt guilty anyway. But he laughed it off too. Of course, when we got up there, he couldn’t get the key in because my own key was still on the inside! After a bit of finagling, though, the door finally swung open — thank goodness!

I don’t usually carry my extra set, because the keys here are ginormous old brass keys that weight a ton, but I think I’ll put them in the bottom of my bag because I don’t want to do that again!

Now I’m off to top up my phone!