Okay, when I say “nothing went wrong” I did lose my key ring, had to cycle to my ex-girlfriend’s house - who has/had a spare key ring – got given Sekt there. Was asked to stay, which I (thankfully) managed to refuse, fell off my bike on the way home, lost my glasses, and then found that I couldn’t get into my flat because my own set of keys were in the other side of the lock, blocking it.
Oh, I also discovered that simply by hitting the door (once) where the lock is with a solid piece of 4×2” the apartment door breaks open. 
I’ve spent this morning at the DIY store purchasing strengthening bolts and lumps of metal and passed the last few hours attaching them to my door.
I also discovered that it’s cheaper to call a mobile phone in India, than it is to call one in Germany or the UK, which strikes me as being a bit wrong….
Or right, depending upon your position on who you’re calling.
Sounds like a success - and you’ve got your spare key back! I’ve forgiven myself a few times for having drunkenly phoned a friend in America on my mobile with the thought that at least it’s cheaper for me than ringing another mobile network in the UK. Odd justification, but there you go. Happy New Year, anyway!
I have locked other people’s keys into their cars three times, the last being on graduation day, with 20 minutes to get to the ceremony, and my parents waiting to be picked up at their hotel 10 minutes away.
I was housesitting last July and locked myself out of someone else’s hosue twice. The first, I was in the yard watering the plants with the dogs, and one of them shut the door. The neighbours were not pleased that I wanted a credit card to unhook the latch.
The second was at three am that night having decided skinny dipping in their pool was a good idea after a night of Latin dancing with Santiago (the words I am leaving the country in a month work wonders on the male of the species by the way) I had to climb onto the roof naked and go in an open window.
I am not to be trusted with keys.
You’ve been appointed my favorite English “Fantozzi”, I love you
) (who is Fantozzi? If you don’t know, you can’t say you really know Italian culture, in its highest sense!)
Happy new year, In-Act!
Nice one matey!… I had to kick in my flat door a few years ago when I had consumed a few bevvys and forgot my keys. The noise woke up the neighbours and next day I had to fix the door and then go apologise to the nieghbours. The landlord never did discover the bodge job I did to fix the door.
Happy belated birtday, altes Haus. It’s rather surprising that you were able to kick in the door to your flat. Are you living in an old cardboard box? Btw, it would have taken the locksmith about 10 seconds to open the Schnapper (since it sounds like the door was not locked). Here in Berlin the price for such a kind of service is 70 euros on Sundays. Er, not that I would know this from first-hand experience, of course. Did you recover your glasses?
Best,
Jan
PS: What’s Schanpper in English, please? .
PPS: The picture shows that you have an unsafe lock. You should get a shield w/o a screw that’s visible from the outside. A thief can easily unscrew the shield and then will have enough leverage to break the Schließzylinder in two. This happened to my parents years ago. Is your landlord not from Swabia by any chance?
Well, at least it was an eventful day:)
JCS: We’d probably use a brand name and say “Yale lock latch” - I can’t think of a slangy word. Btw…. That’s a pic of the inside - I just hit the door with a big piece of wood and it broke in. It was fastened with 2cm long screws. It is now fastend with 15 cm screws - god help me if I ever lock myself out again….. Oh and there are other (safer) locks now too………
Ah, you mean things didn’t go any more wrong on your birthday than they would have on any other given day in your very amusing (to the outside observer anyway) life. Haven’t had any lock problems myself, but I did manage to flood our 4th floor apartment (and the two below us) once a couple of years after I moved here. I had just had a baby and my husband was on a business trip.That was fun.