Scenes from a Married (and Harried) Life: Packing to go to UK

It is 4pm the day before we are to fly to the UK. Dear Hubby starts scrabbling frantically in the safe before his head pops up and he announces, "I can't find my driver's license." Oops. We need it because he'll be driving in the UK. He'd left it at home for safekeeping because he doesn't drive anymore in Jakarta. The problem is it's not where he thinks he's left it.

He checks through the safe once more while I go upstairs and rummage through every drawer in our bedroom. Nada. Eventually he locates his old paper UK license and sighs, "Well, this will have to do... and I'll just have to not get stopped." Pause. "And I can't find my UK credit cards too... all I have are these debit cards from the UK."

At about 8pm, he asks me, "Babe... are our tax cards with you?" See... Indon residents have to pay an exit tax each time we fly out. It's now Rp2.5 million per person (approx RM750+) unless you can show your card proving you're a taxpayer/dependent on a taxpayer. Children <12yo are exempted from this. On our last trip to KL, I'd kept the tax cards. Upon our return, Dear Hubby had insisted he would keep the tax cards. So... why is he asking me this now?

It can only mean... "Erm.. so where are the tax cards?"

I bite back the 1,001 things I would have liked to say to him at the moment and trudge off wearily to check the safe again. But before that, I sat down at our study desk to clear my head. Upon a whim, I pull open the desk drawer and I spy with my little eye a wallet. It's the sort of wallet that people buy to keep their cards in. I open it and guess what's inside?

Yep. His driver's license. Our tax cards. His UK credit cards. All tucked neatly into the wallet. The wallet he'd bought to keep his cards in. How ironic.

Sometimes I wonder if this is the very same man that his company entrusts to manage the Indonesian operations...