Eight Sydney hospitals, one police station, several parents, two band members from last night's rehearsal and other assorted friends have been on a hunt for me this morning.
Liz came home from work about 7:10am to find me not there. She rang my phone but couldn't get through. Parents were called over, friends last contacted last night were rung for information (I was last seen about 10pm) and many many voicemails were left on my two mobile numbers. She drove down to SES to see whether I was there for the Australia Day celebrations as we usually do, but they hadn't seen me.
Dad asked her to see whether anything was missing. My laptop wasn't, but a count of my instruments found a missing flute. Not noticed missing were a music stand, four microphones, a large brown bag of cables and two microphone stands.
You see, I had gone to a gig. An Australia Day citizenship ceremony gig at Hurstville. I had told Liz I was going to do this a few days ago, but in her night-duty-clouded brain it didn't get filed correctly. Oh, and answering your phone in the middle of a performance is not really the done thing, so I had switched my phone off as soon as I got there.
My apologies and thanks to all those who were woken up early this morning and helped Liz out. It's very nice to know I'd be missed if I weren't around. Next time I'll have to tell her AND write notes for everything!
So Happy Missing Tim Day, 26th January. We'll be sure to celebrate it each year :)
PS: My lift had picked me up at 7:08. We probably drove past each other.