Lost wallet, beach policeman stares.

I started using my new wallet today. The antique Persian lamb one. The clasps on the coin compartment are stiff and the snap button in the front needs an extra squeeze before it finally clicks in place. In the morning, I paid for some wasabe peas and a Japanese snack mix at the organic shop and found the wallet a bit awkward to use. It'll probably take about a week before I get used to it, and for the metal fixtures to start working more smoothly.

I lost my original wallet while we were at the beach over the weekend. My memory on this is hazy. I think I might have lost it while we were having our egg-and-cheese sandwiches by the boats that were beached in a small area on the bay, next to the convent. I remember sitting on one of the boats, having to juggle a coffee cup, a paper bag and some napkins, a wallet and a sandwich, and thinking, "What a pain having no place to put any of this stuff." When I finished my sandwich, I crumpled up the tin foil and threw it in the paper bag with the rest of the trash and walked back to the car. I fetched the camera from the car and told the guys to go back to the boats, because I wanted to take a photo of them in front of the eight-foot-tall reeds that were growing along the water.

Fast forward a few hours. We're back at the house and I notice my wallet is missing, so we pile into the car and drive back to the boats. It wasn't there. I'm so glad I practice what they preach about never keeping everything in one place. All I lost was a few dollars and three credit cards, which I promptly cancelled. The rest of my plastic -- IDs, driving licenses, health insurance card, et alia -- was safe in my bag. But I did lose my expired Malaysian P license, which I had put in the wallet's front display pocket for fun.

We drove by the island's police station, which we found was closed after 3 o'clock. So I used an emergency phone by the door and asked if anybody had turned in a wallet (no one had). The next day, we bought coffee and pastries/sandwiches at the place where we usually buy breakfast and I noticed a local policeman eyeing me. I thought maybe they'd found my wallet and he recognized my face from the photo on my expired driving license. But he never actually approached me, and I wasn't in the mood to go up and ask. On the other hand, I may have been imagining things, because I'm forever thinking that people are looking at me when they're probably not.

Not that I care much, anyway. I'm fine with my new wallet.