In my Hallowe’en month series of strange experiences I’ve had over the years, this is another one that happened in the house I now live in. I have called it, The Biscuit Tin.

I am renowned for having difficulty finding simple things around the house. My wife says I must look with my eyes closed. I remember an occasion only a couple of years ago when me not finding something couldn’t be explained by, ‘looking with my eyes closed’.

It was during a morning when I was alone in the house and I made myself a cup of tea. I went to the metal biscuit tin for a biscuit and it wasn’t in the place it normally stood next to the microwave. I looked around the kitchen, it wasn’t there, so I wondered if my wife had washed it and left it to dry on the drainboard. No, it wasn’t there. I looked in the garage to see if was out there drying after a wash. No, not there. I returned to the kitchen and proceeded to look in every cupboard. It was not in any of them. I was baffled, but also a little frustrated with myself, and blaming my wife for hiding it so well.

Just in case I had completely missed it with my eyes and it had camouflaged itself amongst other kitchen items, I even placed my hands all over the work tops feeling for it. Still no success. Utterly frustrated by now, I got my mobile phone and slowly filmed along the work tops to prove to my wife when she got home there was no biscuit tin in its normal place, just in case it turned up.

When my wife walked in through the front door later that afternoon, I confronted her ready to accuse her of ‘hiding’ the item. “Where have you put the biscuit tin?” I demanded. She looked at me oddly. “I haven’t touched it. It’s where it normally is.” We marched into the kitchen and there, where it normally stood, was the biscuit tin.

My bottom jaw dropped in disbelief as she looked at me with disdain. Then I remembered the film I’d taken. We both watched it, each in disbelief for different reasons, because just as I expected, there was no biscuit tin in the footage!