Keys and Locks

I have bad luck with keys...or maybe it's the locks. I don't really lose my keys, I just leave them inside and lock myself outside. It's not as if it's an isolated incident, so I thought while I'm working on my blanket I'd entertain you with a few examples of my stupidity.

Example 1: I had to break into my house a number of times when I was younger because I forgot my keys (I wasn't the only one, my dad managed to break his scapula (shoulder blade) by trying to climb into a window by getting onto a wheelie bin...at three in the morning...while drunk). When we fixed the security issues I had to go over to the neighbours. It was lucky that I had home economics that day and could share the cake I'd made with them until my mum came home. Time locked out = 1 hour

Example 2: I was staying at a friends house while on a university placement and managed to get myself locked in the backyard while hanging out washing. No keys, no phone, no money, wearing my slippers, and my friend wasn't going to be home until about 10pm. Eventually one of the neighbours came out to hang up her washing and so I climbed over the fence and went to their house. These were neighbours that I'd never met, and my friend didn't really know either. Once there I had to phone the Vet hospital at university, who put me through to some people in my year who would take the horse emergency calls and stuff like that, except they put me through to the emergency number. They got a little annoyed, but phoned me back (at the neighbours) with my friends number. She came home early (after a couple of hours) and I got to know the neighbours. Time locked out = 3 hours

Example 3: When I was at college we had swipe cards to get in. I'd go home on the weekends and this week it was my friends birthday and I'd purchased the present, a dvd player, from a group of us. I put my first bag in the foyer, checked that my friend wasn't around, and raced back to my car to grab the DVD player. Got back to the entrance and looked inside to see my swipe card sitting on my bag. So now I was wondering round, carrying a DVD player, looking into windows to see if anyone was around, and hoping my bag didn't get stolen in the meantime (we had a bit of a theft problem). Time locked out = 10 minutes

Example 4: I was monitoring a blood transfusion at work, and popped home to get some dinner. Managed to leave my work keys on the table. Got back into work because it was still open. Went to leave and realised I was locked in . Luckily there is a spare key, in a safe which I didn't know the location of or the combination. So I phoned someone (at 10pm), got the details, and managed to get out. They then worried about me for the next hour. Time locked in = 10 minutes

Example 5: Last night I left home, shut the door and realised I had the wrong set of keys. Had to phone someone from work, get the number for someone closer, and get the to come around and let me in. I've worked there for 6 weeks and already had lock/key issues twice. Time locked out = 20 minutes

So if anyone has any handy hints on remembering to take your keys with you, or handling doors that lock automatically, let me know.

Current Afghan Tally
Light blue: 124 out of 124
White: 32 out of 93
Yellow: 0 out of 48
Dark blue: 0 out of 20
TOTAL: 156 out of 285