I'm not a criminal, I'm just scatty!!!

Okay - I admit it, I AM SCATTY! BUT only sometimes and only in certain areas of my life.. My excuse or reasoning is, that I spend all of my focused and organised energy on running my wee business (that's wee as in small - not wee as in that of the toilet kind)..

I often have little scatty happenings in my life, and they are usually in connection with leaving personal objects in various places, or forgetting to do something related to domestic duties...

This week however I had the most embarrassing scatty moment I can remember having for a long time.

It all started really well. I was off to visit a potential client in one area of the outskirts of town, and then I was going to meet someone else at Starbucks in town. Now - I don't usually carry much cash, and often get caught out when I roll up in town only to remember that I don't have any cash for the car park. So, as I needed petrol and I was very much in control of life that day, I planned ahead and thought - okay - "I'll draw £40 cash out of the machine at the garage, put £20.22 petrol in the car, pay cash - and hey presto plenty of change for car parking and coffee".

So there I am in the BP garage. Everything is going to plan, and I hand over my £40 to the cashier. The change is handed to me and as I'm putting it away, I realise that I only have a £5 note and some change... Quick maths in my head - surely I should have £15 and some change?

Look through my purse.. Nope - only a fiver in there
Look through my handbag - Nope - no tenner laying around in there
Look around the floor and the cashier desk - Nope - no tenner there either



"I'm sorry, I think you've only given me change for £30 and I gave you £40." I politely convey to the cashier.

Cashier looks very confused, and mutters something about having to cash the till up to check. She doesn't know how to do this, so she calls for help. Queue is building up behind me.

New cashier says, "I'm sorry, but the till says we're not short of £10, so we must have given you the correct change."

"But, I only have a £5 note in my purse, there's nothing in my bag. Look!"

"Well, the till's right so you must have the right change!" said the cashier with a suspicious look on his face.

"Well, how much did she ring in?" I ask. "If she only rang £30 in then your till will be right, but I swear on my life that I gave her £40".

The cashier asks me which pump I used and how much I spent, and then scans his eyes over the till roll and shakes his head. "She rang in £40! I'm sorry but I can't help you, the till says we're right."

At this point I'm starting to get frustrated and also confused! Where the heck was this mysterious ten pound note?

"Well, I'm sorry" I add as nicely and as sweetly as possible, "but I'm not leaving until I get my £10. As you can see I don't have a ten pound note on me. Your till says that you gave me the correct change, but I obviously don't have it!"

The cashier sighs and tells me to wait there. He disappears out the back. I stand there with a queue behind me which is now almost out of the door and full of impatient people.

While the cashier is gone, I'm still really confused, and look again through my purse, through my bag, on the floor, around the cashier desk, and then my eyes fall down to the fruit pastels - and there it was! My TEN POUND NOTE! Hooray!!! I pick it up and wave it around..

"Here it is! I've found it! It was among the fruit pastels! Just down there!"

"She's found it!" calls the man behind me in the queue.

Then a chain of "She's found it!" links from person to person, until it finally reaches the cashier as he returns to the kiosk.

"I found it! It was down there, in with the fruit pastels!" I smile. "I'm really sorry about that!" I add embarrassingly.

"Yeeess!" he replies, with a knowing look on his face. "Because I also just looked on the CCTV and it shows you receiving the £10 pound!".

"I know, I'm really sorry!" I grovel, "It must have slipped out of my hand!".

"Hmmm!", he replies, with a look of contempt and an expression which quite clearly says - "You can't pull the wool over my eyes, I know you were trying it on!"

I scurry out of the BP garage feeling really ashamed. Yes I admit it - I am on occasion scatty - I am human - BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A CRIMINAL!!! Does it??