Looking back it seems pretty funny, but I wasn’t having the best of times when I locked myself out of my flat on Sunday evening! Since I’m living in temporary accomodation at the moment there are all sorts of locks to open between the front door and my room; 2 on the front door and 2 on the room door. However you can’t actually lock yourself in the room, as one is a Yale lock and the other can only be turned from the outside… which means you can leave your room without your keys and not be able to get back in… which at around 11:40pm after travelling for a couple hours shocked me a bit, especially as I’d left my phone and my wallet in the room also!
So after attempting to pull my door open (surprisingly strong for such a little lock) from beneath, and trying to pull open the toilet (which also has a locked, which was not what I needed at that moment in time) for around 10 minutes I then climbed onto the 1 ledge in the building, which luckily happened to be below my window which I luckily happened to open just before I locked myself out. Of course there was nothing to grab onto between the ledge and my window, nor did I want to try given that I was on the 2nd floor trying to climb to the 3rd.
I then went looking for another toilet which might not be locked (there wasn’t one) and managed to find a fire escape in the basement, which meant I had found a way to get out of the building (as the front door is locked both ways) but without a phone or wallet I realised I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything! The only option left really was to find somewhere to sleep inside until daybreak, and then wander off to work and call the lettings negotiator from there.
Finding somewhere to sleep was a bit of worry, as since there are 18-21 rooms in the building I didn’t want to freak anyone out by being randomly sprawled across the floor. The last thing I wanted at what must’ve been close to 1am by then (I had no way of keeping track of the time seeing as the only thing I had on me was chewing gum) was for the Police to be called because I seemed like a burglar, despite the fact I must’ve had keys at some stage to get in to the building. I decided then to lay against my door, which since it is on a small set of stairs was pretty uncomfortable.
Luckily 1 of the 3 people that I shared the toilet with left it on the latch, which was lucky since it was the same woman who ran back into her room when I attempted to ask if I could borrow her mobile to ring the emergency number. Embarrassment saved, I tried to drift to sleep (failed) and then decided to try various different positions, deciding on lying in the hallway not really caring anymore if I was found since 3 people had already walked past me half-asleep without saying a word.
Crawling out from the basement at what turned out to be 6:50am (all I knew was that it was light and not dark anymore) I ventured to the office, which was pretty cold in just a t-shirt but once I got there I managed to sort everything out and got my keys back after. Much needed shower and change of clothes later all was good and well again, but I think I’ve learnt my lesson!