Where are the car keys

"I can't find the car keys"
"What?"
"They're not in my pocket.  I don't know where they are."

This was just after we had removed the house keys from our keyrings and posted them through the letterbox.  After doing a decent search of the car, it became apparent they were not there either.  I must have set them on the coffee table in the house as we got the last few things out and packed into the car.

We would have to phone someone in the house (we shared) to open the door for us again.  Problem was, it was 5:45am.  Scott, the South African guy, would gladly open the door for us if managed to answer his phone, but he was on a night shift, and our relations with the Romanian couple who had the other bedroom was recently at an all-time low.

We needed to be in Holyhead by about 11, and it was a five hour drive, so we didn't have much time to lose.  Audrey made, the call, no answer. So we tried the doorbell also.  After a wait that seemed like an eternity, someone looked to coming to the door.  It was Danny, the Romanian guy.  He didn't seem to mind to much, saying something about have to be up at 6 anyway when we offered our apologies.

I went into the living room, nothing.  The kitchen, nothing.  Upstairs in our bedroom, nothing.  Shit, where could they be.  Still somewhere in the car?  I didn't want to unpack it all, as it had taken us more than 20 minutes to get it packed.  I started retracing steps, even running up to a skip up the road where I'd tossed a few pieces of polystyrene earlier (you're probably not meant to do that).

After 10 minutes of clearing out the car again, I heard a jingle of keys falling down a bit.  I pulled back the computer monitor, and there they were, wrapped up in my iPhone cable.  The relief was palpable.  I'd been envisioning paying another X amount of money for a different sailing, or not getting home for another day.

30 minutes had been lost.  Time now wasn't on our side now, so instead of the nice simple drive up the road at normal speeds, I'd have to revert to my normal speed limits.  Made the boat with plenty of time, and have spent the last few days meeting up with friends and family.