lit's ego-shrinking escapade

there's a room in the office which people use to change into and out of their army uniforms. This changing room is small and cramped, but there are 2 important things to note about it.Firstly, on one wall is the box with the keys to all the doors in the office; and secondly, the door to the changing room locks itself when it closes.

(remember these details. They will come in very handy soon.)

at 6plus pm yesterday, yours truly was locking up the office. Satisfied that I'd done all I was supposed to do, I went to change out of my army uniform to go home. With me was the bunch of keys that would allow me to lock/unlock the entrance to the building (not just the office). Incidentally, that bunch of keys also contains the changing room key (you can see where this is heading).

I was kind of in a rush, coz I had to meet some ppl. So when I finished changing, I hurried out of the room and closed the door behind me (as I was supposed to do). In my haste, I also left the bunch of keys behind.

I was not supposed to do that

it was only a few moments after the changing room door slammed that I realised what a completely idiotic thing I'd done: I'd left the bunch of keys in a locked room with no way to get it out, because the key to the room was inside the room itself.

panic attack.

after much consternation and many phone calls, it was eventually established that there was a spare key to the locked room, but it was in the admin officer's office. So I had to call him at home, while he was sleeping off his illness, to ask him for his office key. Amazingly, he didn't blow up at me. That makes him a better man than I am (perhaps I should reserve judgement until after he comes back on wed; might yet end up doing extra duties coz of this stunt).

about an hour after the initial sinking realisation, and a mad dash to my AO's house and back, I finally managed to unlock the changing room door and retrieve the keys. Needless to say, I missed my appointment (so now u guys know).

apparently, it was only the third time someone had done something like this. Having experienced what it's like to be the culprit of such an amazingly dumb mistake, I have absolutely no desire to claim a further part of this sequence.

Once is most definitely enough.