Key Party

I was given two sets of keys to my new apartment, but only one of them had a key to the outside door of the building.  Not a big deal when I was here by myself, but with my brother Brendan's arrival this Wednesday, I had been pushing hard to get a second key.  As I was leaving the apartment on Wednesday morning to meet Brendan at the airport, I noticed an envelope had been slipped under the door of the servant's entrance.  Jackpot.  While I was putting the building key on the second key ring, inspiration struck.  There are three separate locks for the apartment door, but I only ever use the top one, so I took the extra two keys off of my ring so I wouldn't have such a huge lump in my pocket.  Because I am a thoughtful brother, I also took the unnecessary keys off of Brendan's set.  I was running a bit late by this time, so I grabbed both sets of keys and bolted downstairs to hail a cab.

The key that opens the building door is required to exit the building as well, so I figured this would be a good time to test out the new one.  It slid easily into the lock, but would not turn.  It was also stuck inside the keyhole.  After about 10 minutes of frantic struggling, I realized that I could reach through a gap in the wrought iron door and open it with the original key from the outside.  The door was now open, but that new key was not going anywhere.  Fifteen minutes later, I was about to give up and just leave the key in the lock forever, when I finally wrenched it out.  Luckily, it took Brendan an hour and a half to get through customs, so I wasn't late.

After we got back into town and had lunch with Mike, all of us needed to take out some cash.  Too bad it was the first of the month.  Everyone was depositing their paycheques and taking out cash.  We tried five different banks, but every ATM was either out of service or out of cash.  We kept running into a fellow named Richard at every bank, and after the fifth shutout, he suggested we retire to a pub to collect our thoughts.  Richard is a stringer for the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), and had previously worked for the BBC and the CBC when he lived in Toronto.  He was a bit of a raconteur, and told us some old journalist war stories, as well as a few useful tips for getting by in BA.  After a couple of pints, Brendan, Mike, and I headed back to my place.  We were locked out.

Wednesday is also the day my maid comes to clean, and she is apparently much more thorough than me when locking up.  The bulge in my pocket may have been smaller, but I couldn't open the two previously unused locks.  We raced back to Mike's, stopping at two more banks on the way (ha ha ha!).  I phoned the rental agency, and they were able to reach the owner.  He was nice enough to meet us back at my apartment later that night to let me in.  I guess I'll just have to have a big lump in my pants from now on.