FINGERS CROSSED RELIGION

I thought that I'd discovered the basis for a new religion but a Google search showed that the Catholic church had already covered this.

Crossing fingers for good luck seems to have its origin in pre-Christian times where the crossed fingers concentrated the good spirits and acted as some kind of protection. Christians as per usual adopted and adapted this making it up that the crossed fingers represented a fish which was an early identification sign for Christians (our local vicar has a little fish symbol on the back of his/her car).

Anyway, I used my crossed fingers yesterday and had a good result.

I had driven to Auckland from Wellington on Sunday and stayed the night in the apartment. On Monday, after visiting Tony and Alison with Mike I started loading up the car with some bits of furniture and other things to bring back to Whangarei. I had the car parked across the road and noticed a stormwater drain just at the rear. "I'd better not drop my keys down there" I though to myself, remembering a work colleague doing this years ago and the problems he had in retrieval.

When loading some more items, I unlocked the car with the 'smart' clicker fob and lifted the rear door putting the keys safely in my pocket. A second or two later I heard "Clink, clunk, splash". The key fob had gone straight out of a hole in my pocket and down the drain.

FUCK!

For years I've been wary of stormwater drains and have always securely clutched keys, cellphones, wallets etc as I've stepped over them. I've even lectured The Old Girl about being careful around them. Now, here I go and drop my keys down one. I studied the drain closely and concluded that there was no way that I would be able to get down it to search for the fob. It was narrow and deep.

I thought about what tools I had to use but nothing was suitable. We had taken a lot of things from the apartment to Wellington and in the car I had a chest of drawers, two suitcases, a lampstand and an ironing board. I considered going to Rebel Sport to buy some sort of fishing net on a pole but I'd have to walk there with no guarantee of success. I rang the AA.

The woman at AA was very helpful and suggested sending a locksmith. I thought about this and decided that this would be no good (as the AA officer who attended confirmed) as the Toyota fob is a 'smart key' device that can only be supplied by the car dealer. This was on a holiday Monday (Auckland Anniversary Day) and I didn't hold out much chance of finding the dealer open. I asked her if a regular serviceman might have some sort of retrieval device in his wagon so she arranged for one to call which would take about an hour. She did mention in our conversation though that the Auckland City Council might be able to help.

I waited by the car, looking at the drain and thought "what the hell" and searched the council website on my phone for a phone number and rang the council help line. Another helpful young woman answered my query and when I described how the key fob dropped in the drain she laughed. She immediately said that she wasn't laughing at me though as when she put the stormwater drain location into her computer it told her that keys dropped down was a common occurrence. She made arrangements for a contractor to call around which would take about an hour. Sure enough, 5 minutes later I got a call from a Downer's contractor who said that he'd be there in half an hour.

I waited and the AA serviceman arrived first. He had a long piece of wire (number eight) with a hook on the end and a torch and proceeded to fish around for the fob. He said that he'd successfully retrieved keys before using this method but the water had been clean and clear and he was able to see what he was doing. The water in this drain was black and impenetrable. While he was trying the Downer's contractor arrived. I greeted him and told him the problem. "No worries" he said "I've done this before". I asked him if he had special equipment for the job and he winked and reached into the back of his truck bringing out ............ a garden rake.

He also had a strong magnet on a pole but didn't want to use that as the magnet would interfere with the settings on the electronic fob and possible render it useless as the fob has a built in engine immobiliser.

He proceeded to gently rake the bottom of the drain being careful, as he said, not to bury the fob in the silt or send it down the outlet pipe which would mean that it was history. He kept drawing out piles of rubbish and dumping on the footpath. This went on for about 10 minutes with no sign of the fob. I crossed my fingers.

Both hands.

I didn't pray as Robert would have as I don't believe in that. I subscribe more to pagan superstitions.

I waited.

Eventually the fob appeared. The contractor cleaned up the mess on the footpath and the AA serviceman carefully washed the key fob in water from his drink bottle, pulled it apart and dried the interior. He said that often the fobs were damaged after immersion and he too said he was going to cross his fingers as I started the car. It worked. I profusely thanked both men and drove off back to Whangarei feeling very relieved. I've gone to the AA, ACC and Downer's websites and written very positive comments on their feedback pages. This was exceptional service done promptly and efficiently.

I also believe that my crossed fingers contributed.