What would you do if you found money on the street? Honestly, I’d probably keep it. Unless someone was near who may have dropped it and then I’d ask them. I think if loose money is floating down the road then it’s fair game, how could you ever find the owner?

What would you do if you found a purse with nothing in it other than money? Absolutely hand it in! How could anyone not? A purse could be easily identifiable and even if nothing more than a few quid was in it, I’d hand it to the police because the purse might be important to someone.

It surprises me then that when my Mum lost her purse recently, with a hell of a lot of money inside it incidentally, no one handed it in!

Not only did it have credit and debit cards with her name on but it also had her pensioner’s bus bass with her photo. On top of that, a card which she had hand written her name AND address on! Fair enough if it had just got lost outside and swept away without anyone finding it but the thing is, we know exactly where she lost it and know with certainty that it will have been found by someone. To add insult to injury, that someone wouldn’t have just been an opportunistic member of the public but I think someone who either crewed or cleaned the Monarch flight we were on recently. It is a dismal end to a flight that otherwise, from booking to travel, has a glowing report from me!

I was SO impressed with the Monarch website. I couldn’t believe how easy and clear it is and unlike other air lines it doesn’t seem to charge the earth for baggage. We thought in fact, that it was SO easy we must have made a mistake and something wouldn’t be quite right. We half expected to turn up at Gatwick and have them say, ‘Oh no, you haven’t booked that right, you can’t fly today’. But nope… Everything went swimmingly and when I asked a member of staff in the airport for directions to check in, another person came up to me as I walked away to tell me that I’d just been speaking to the chief director of Monarch so I went back to tell him just how impressed I was!

Both our flights were easy, on time and with the exception of one irritating check in clerk at Faro and a moody stewardess on the way back, had polite members of staff who were helpful with the children and brought us everything we asked for promptly. Good enough for us and what we paid I think!

Just before the end of the flight home one of the attendants came around with a collection bag for charity. It was a charity we care for so despite my Mum having to scrabble around in her bag to find her purse, then struggle with her bag putting it back down on the floor again, (she didn’t have much leg room with Florence climbing on her and asking her to do arts and crafts with her – seriously, that girl will stick and glue anywhere!) my Mum donated some money. She was in a rush putting her purse back in her bag and knows full well that she must have not done it properly because just after passport control, when she again was scrabbling around trying to find it, it wasn’t there!

Purse left on plane. Without a shadow of a doubt. She was annoyed and a little bit worried as she had a LOT of left over Euros from the holiday in there. We’d already come out by the time we realised and couldn’t go back to air side so she spoke to someone on the phone and I messaged a Monarch employee that I know. We were told the same thing.

The cabin crew will find it on their sweep of the plane and if not then the cleaners will. 

My Mum rang lost property at the airport and we contacted Monarch a number of times but the sad thing is that no one did hand her purse in. I can only deduce that someone, after we got off the plane (and we were the very last to leave as I can’t stand rushing off and can’t bear the people who do like it’s some sort of race), found her purse and kept it. I can see that it would have been very tempting with all those Euros but how dishonest! I could never do that!

Obviously I can’t prove it was a Monarch steward or a cleaner? I don’t know who else gets on flights after all the passengers leave but it was someone. It would have been under my Mum’s seat and as I said, was super easy to identify as hers!

What a shame!

My Mum obviously has travel insurance but it only covers £250 worth of money (which she needed a receipt for as if that could prove she still had it, insurance companies are barmy) and she can’t claim for her lovely little leather purse as she bought it so long ago she doesn’t have a receipt (again a stipulation of the barmy insurance company)! On top of this she has to buy a new pensioner’s bus pass for £10 and pay £50 excess. All just so that she could be generous and donate to charity!

My Mum is generous. Very. Her purse was open many, many times on the holiday as she treated us often. She didn’t deserve to lose her purse and shame on whoever found it and kept it! Some people eh, but am I naive to expect such honesty?

MY LIFE WITH 2!

This week, despite the mounds and mounds of washing I am still doing – haven’t caught up from holiday yet – does the basket EVER come to an end? We have just been hanging around our own little patch of London, seeing friends while toddling to the odd play group or three. Florence is well and truly pleased to be back at school and seeing all her friends again and even more chuffed that ballet is back on! That girl just LOVES to dance! She’s been making us laugh this week by making Jimmy dance with her! It’s more like Florence dragging him round the floor but super sweet all the same!

Another thing that’s made me chuckle is her asking for her hair in ‘bungies’ instead of bunches. It’s JUST about long enough now and looks very cute! She’s also been having a bit of a love in with her many, many baby dolls and on more than one occasion I have had the living room taken over by all of them set out in a certain way… The other day I couldn’t even sit on the sofa as they were all in class! I don’t have the heart to move them all when she’s playing so imaginatively as I remember doing the exact same things!

Jimmy, my little duck lover that he is, is just growing up super fast! I think of him as a baby then I look at a picture and realise that’s he’s a toddler now really! He’s speaking loads more and singing which is adorable and he is playing make believe and imaginative games of his very own! He pretends to cook something and pass it to me to eat or will get the HappyLand characters and cars and move them round with purpose. As well as ducks he’s a BIG fan of cars and trucks, this is all new to me as Florence wasn’t in the slightest bit interested!

Well, that’s it for this week, I’ll post again next and in the mean time please do follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby.