Lost & Found

Every few days we drop a bag of dirty laundry off at the North Europe Dry Cleaners in Tin Hau, and a day later they return it, cleaned, to the door of our flat. They're incredibly helpful; if I include in the load a pair of jeans that are missing a button, they'll reappear with a new one sewn on. Every pair of socks is neatly matched up, every t-short folded, and they even sort the different things being washed, so I'm not wading through a sea of undergarments when I'm trying to put away dress shirts.

For 30 or 40 Hong Kong dollars for a substantial wash, this represents great value for money. Even if there was space in our apartment for a washing machine, it would cost us the same as three years' worth of laundering. Not including the electricity, water or detergent we'd have to pay for. And I'd have to go through the washing myself to remove any spurious coins, pieces of paper or miscellaneous bits of rubber.

So I'm pleased with them. The last bag of washing came back with a pink elastic hair band attached to the outside; something my girlfriend had missed when she put the washing in. So when I took the washing down today and the lady asked after "the nice ring" I thanked her, assuming she was referring to a circle of pink hair elastic. It seemed a bit strange to mention it, but maybe people who work in laundrettes have their likes and interests wired differently from me.

It made rather more sense to ask about "the nice ring" when my girlfriend found a platinum Tiffany wedding band tucked away inside a clean pair of socks.

I wondered if this was given to us because we're valued customers. After all, we've spent at least fifty dollars there every week since July. Surely enough to reward our continued business with a platinum ring.

Well, perhaps not; but it would surely seem churlish to return the ring. That would be like saying it wasn't a very satisfactory present. And the last thing I want to do is to be rude.

Then again, maybe somebody else has lost the ring and it's ended up in our washing. In which case they probably want it back.

Unless they've had a messy divorce and just wanted to rid themselves of any reminders of their disastrous union. In which case it would be terribly insensitive to try to find them and return it.

And it is so very, very shiny. And if the person wanted to keep it, what were they doing dumping it at the launderette anyway? Hmm.

Still, I've read enough JRR Tolkein to know that a free ring may not always be an unalloyed good; best that we take it back to the launderette tomorrow and try to reacquaint it with its rightful owner, rather than attempting to obtain invisibility from it.

Though they may have trouble finding the owner, if their modus operandi so far is a guide to what they'll do; I'm not sure that stuffing it into random bags of laundry is such a reliable guide. Maybe I'll just wait for somebody to reply to this post, asking for it back...