A familiar looking hat

Milja and Dan used my car for a year. I mentioned earlier that I had the car washed at the weekend, but before that happened I needed to empty the car of the things that had accumulated in there. The fact of life is that you either empty the car yourself before having it washed, or take a risk of the washer emptying things into his pocket.

Heikki and the children had leaft for Seija's house 10 minutes earlier and I was running late. I jumped in my car only to realise it was full of stuff and I needed to empty it as quickly as possible. There was a carrier bag in the car and I filled it. I then filled a cardboard box and the rest I just piled beside the car. I dashed out of the carport and only just made it to say Bye to Seija and Joona. Phew!

I returned to the pile yesterday only to notice, to my horror, that it had shrunk considerably. Some rubbish remained, as well as the Finnish books & cartoons. I also found a pair of earrings I bought from a beach in Goa when Heikki and I traveled in India in -93.

The workmen were here yesterday, but so was our maid, and so I couldn't be sure who had taken the stuff. I was quite upset about people just helping themselves to other peoples' piles without any worry in the world.

This morning, as I was sorting through the remains of the pile - now moved back into the safety of the car - I saw one of the workmen walking around with a familiar looking hat. It was just like the one we'd bought Matias from Finland. Matias went to ask the workman about the hat and he said he'd taken it from the pile yesterday. He obviously hadn't thought there was anything wrong in what he had done, as otherwise he wouldn't have come to work today wearing the (stolen) hat.

I talked to the project leader as he came for a rare site visit. He'll have a chat with the guys and see how much more of our stuff he can retrieve.

Heikki thinks this is all my fault, as my pile was too close to the bin and we're in a culture where things get recycled much more easily than anywhere where we've lived before. Yes, I admit I was silly leaving things out in the open but this is my house, my garden and my car port. I should be allowed to leave piles where I want without people coming to help themselves to the contents.