Lost and Found

Like I said in the previous post, we went to Chapters/Starbucks yesterday.  Daniel chose to bring his laptop with him "in case we need to look up something on the internet", but it was much more convenient for me to whip out my spanking new iPod Touch while we were sitting inside Chapters.  Besides, I was using it to keep my list.

As we switched from inside Chapters to the Starbucks side, I asked Daniel if he wanted to use his laptop instead.  With my iPod Touch in hand already, he decided not to switch to his laptop, leaving it inside his laptop bag.

By 8pm, we were pressed to leave because we were already late for dinner with my parents.  We hastily packed up and left.

It wasn't until we reach home by 11pm that Daniel realized he didn't have his laptop with him.  He immediately went back to the car to look for it again, while I searched for the phone numbers of Chapters and Starbucks respectively.

No luck.  It wasn't in the car.

Thinking we might have just left it inside the store and it might be picked up by staff or other customers, I tried calling both Chapters and Starbucks, but nobody answered at neither line.  Worse yet, neither store listed its opening hours online, nor did it had any automated message spelling out the same info.

Daniel's initial hunch was it was stolen, since he claimed to have hung it on the back of his chair and he didn't recall seeing it when we left.  But then, I must confess that when we left, it didn't even occur to me that he had brought his laptop and that it was something we should look for.

As a laptop bag, I thought it wasn't a very noticeable one -- it was a black normal-looking backpack, and the only telltale sign would be the "Dell" label on it.  Even if someone was there intend to steal a laptop, I thought his bag wouldn't be high on their radar, as we haven't taken it out at all and only mentioned "laptop" once.
He was definitely upset, since it would be the second time he has lost his laptop, and this time it would be due to his own carelessness.  He asked me to look up how much a replacement would roughly cost, and was fully prepared to pay his company back.

With Daniel literally banging his head on the door and kicking the bed, I didn't want to voice any blame on anybody, say anything along the lines of "could've/should've/would've" nor offer any hollow words of encouragement, but I didn't how to calm him neither.  proposed we go to bed and wake up early the next day (Monday).  Judging from my past experience, I thought the Starbucks would probably be open fairly early even if Chapters isn't.  I set the alarm clock at 7:45am (yeah that's early for us) and off to bed we go.

(Surprisingly, Daniel fell asleep very quickly.  I was quite amazed.)

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did, before I even left the bed, was to call Starbucks.  Unfortunately, the Starbucks employee's Chinglish made communicating a little more involved that it usually would be -- I had to repeat my phone number five times at a pace much slower than usual for her to pick it up.

After I hung up, I handed the phone to Daniel and he called Chapters as well.  While he was still on the phone, apparently Starbucks called back and he pressed the wrong button and missed the call.  I checked my voice mail and, sure enough, Starbucks called back.

She found the bag.

Daniel was sooooo relieved, "I feel like $1000 richer!"  "More like $1500, with all the upgrades," I replied.

We "celebrated" the morning by visiting the Starbucks together (since I left my name instead of his), went to breakfast at a 茶餐廳, then Daniel went to his scheduled dental appointment and finally to work.