19 October 2009 2:23pm
Lost and found in Oxfordshire
Note: Javascript is disabled in your browser.
To see the gallery in all its glory, you'll need to enable Javascript.
Travelling nanny Elissa O’Malley learns that cash and muddy fields don’t mix.
A couple of years ago I was working as an au pair in England. I was looking after an adorable 8-year-old and living with her family in their 200-year-old rectory farmhouse in a village about 30km from Oxford.
After a few homesick months came the news that my dad was planning to visit from Australia. Cunning man, my dad; he planned to arrive on his birthday. I knew I needed to get him a bloody good present to make up for enduring the pain of a 27-hour commute.
So I dutifully trundled off to the bank to cash £200 (a small fortune for me!) in travellers cheques in order to buy dear old Dad a present. I planned to head into London, buy his fabulous gift and then meet him at the airport.
The village bank was dangerously close to the village pub so, after cashing my cheques, I popped in for a drink or two with the locals. Those couple of drinks turned into several pints and, before I knew it, it was dark and I was trudging across a muddy, sticky field, weaving a rather haphazard path in the general direction of home.
I eventually made it across the field and was nearly home when I realised I didn’t have my purse. I knew I’d had it when I left the pub. In my drunken, staggering state I must have dropped it somewhere in the mud… I turned, looked back at the enormous boggy field and slumped. I couldn’t retrace my steps. It was too dark. My purse – and the 200 quid – were gone.
I searched for my purse the next day to no avail. So my Dad got a pint for his birthday. Not very generous, it’s true, but he seemed pleased enough as he bestowed his fatherly advice on how to be more careful with my money. I nodded and listened carefully as I sipped my orange juice…
Coda: Seven months later, an elderly farmer returned my near-mummified purse, which he found sticking out of his cow field. The cash was unusable and the purse stank. I threw the lot in the bin.
Lonely Planet produced this content for our partner, Visa.
Have you ever lost something important on the road? Did you ever get it back?
