Well, I am officially now cameraless.  The Treo (my phone/camera/mp3 player) is gone and we're hoping to get ourselves back on track soon.

It all started a few days ago in Cairns, Australia.  I awoke with a sore throat that got worse over that day and progressed into a full-blown head cold over the next two days. The biggest casuality was my nose, which became chapped from all the blowing.

We were making preparations to leave Australia, which had seen the demise of my normal camera. Though I was still sick, we arrived at the airport bound for Singapore last night.  All was good. 

I am known for a bit of carelessness and losing things easily and Sachi has been diligent in reminding me to look back at my seat after leaving a spot, so as not to leave things behind.

We sat at the gate for our flight to Singapore and I was writing some notes on the Treo and just before we boarded I went to the bathroom, came back, got my bags and we got in line.  Just then, things changed.  Sachi asked "Did you look back?" "No, Did you?" "No".  We shrugged it off as if our karma would protect us.

Once we got on the plane and taxied to the runway it bacame clear that I had made a huge mistake.  I left the Treo at the gate and had the chance to look back and didn't. I am an idiot. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Of course, this is an overnight, 7 hour international flight and despite having the captain telex the airport, no one could report the Treo.  I called the phone last night and today to no connection.

In just under a week, we lost two of our most expensive and useful gadgets. We arrived in Singapore at about 3AM and slept a restless sleep. The first words out of Sachi's mouth this morning were "I have sore throat".  Dammit.

It's OK though. We're in Asia! We have travel insurance and the cold isn't really that bad.  I've learned a valuable lesson and we'll mark all this up to experience. This trip will go on and we'll be stronger for it.

The moral of the story is:  ALWAYS, ALWAYS LOOK BACK.