Help! What do I do now?

One of the funniest things to happen to me was on a plane travelling to Raquel's place in Leyte Province, from Manila.

Manila has two airports, an International one and a Domestic one, both of which I know well.

After arriving at the International from Seoul, I travelled the short shrift to the Domestic airport.

I waited in the large departure lounge, and collected my magazines (TIME and PC FORMAT). The pouch that goes everywhere with me was laid on the next plastic chair, along with my San Miguel and my other magazine. It must be pointed out at this stage that my black pouch (about the size of a large paperback) is THE travel pouch, in that it has in it all my documents, my passports, and all my money.

The announcement about the departure was made, and I got up with my one small piece of luggage, eager to get going.

The flight is only 50 minutes, and I have done it with the same airline many times.

As expected, 50 minutes later we landed, yes, at that place again, Tacloban City.

So I picked my luggage and opened the bag, looking for pouch, just to be sure. It was nowhere to be found.

I was the last to leave the DC9. I approached the pilot. he kindly directed me to the airport director's office.

I trolleyed across the hot tarmac to find a very friendly Pinoy (Filipino), the airport manager. I told him I thought I had left it at the Domestic Departure lounge, so I gave a description, and he called the security there.

Meanwhile, I sat under the fan, drumming my metaphoric fingers.

Finally, the guy came back and told me it had been found, intact. However, they would not put it on the next flight. I had to go and claim it in person, in Manila. Luckily, I had enough cash on me to afford the flight back, the vast majority of the cash being in the cash (about £700)

So I waited for Raquel to join me, as we arranged, we stayed at the Manhattan Inn for one night, and I went back to Manila next day.

The pouch was handed back to me by a cop in fulluniform, complete with a taped note to tell me they had counted the money.

I do not often get stressed during travel, but I had nightmares of having to live in the Japanese Embassy for a while!