The Friday night after we arrived we were burgled, and those who have been keeping up with the blog since I started will know it’s not the first time. It was, however, the first time it happened while I was home.

I was upstairs, and from what I can tell it was an in-and-out job, probably spur of the moment, since unfortunately until my shipping arrived you could see straight into the apartment from the street, and my laptop on the dining table was likely what attracted them – the wallet containing a months rent of euros on the kitchen counter was just a lucky catch…

The frustration lies within the power of hindsight, and the fact that this only happened because of a combination of factors, a perfect storm as it were. My shipping was due to arrive on the Thursday, one item en route was a large screen which sits in front of the terrace doors; with this in place the windows are largely obscured from unscrupulous passers-by who could be tempted by my possessions, yet the port was closed on the Monday due to inclement weather so the ferry didn’t arrive until Saturday morning. Plus, because I hadn’t had the shipping delivery, my wallet had more euros than I would have deliberately had on me since the last cash burglary…..

Add to the mix that only having lived in the apartment for four nights I didn’t know the lock on the terrace door was faulty…. I subsequently returned from three days away to find the door unlocked, even though I know for a fact I locked it when I left. Although this categorically removed any doubts I had as to whether I’d locked the door the night of the burglary; the first assumption is your own fallibility or negligence. Hopefully now the lock has been changed I will start to sleep again. I love Lanzarote and I look forward to the time it feels like home to me.

We have to take from this the plus sides; whomever it was didn’t come upstairs, and so my phone, jewellery and passport are all still with me, and nor did I have any sort of unwanted encounter. They pulled the door to after them, so the lady cats did not escape, and goodness me that would have been a whole other level of heartache. They took my laptop and the irreplaceable photos saved therein, not backing up to a hard drive is something I will continue to kick myself for, however, eminently “stuff” is replaceable. They took my cash but left the cards, so I was able to pay the shipping people, even if they had to drive me three-to-a-front-bench in their van to the bank in town, and could continue in the apres-sailing dinners and drinks last week without having to beg for handouts.

Yes, there have been ups and downs but what I know for sure is we are not letting this eejit or eejits get us so far down that we can’t pick ourselves up and keep right on going.

The adventure continues.