My name is Simon and I am an idiot. Sorry, what? This isn't the local meeting of idiots anonymous? I guess I'd better explain then...

I managed to lose one of my items of hand luggage, somewhere along the way from London to Sydney. It was a black leather bag of the sort that sits on top of my roll-on and had these clever clips to latch on so that it doesn't fall off. I don't often travel with it, but because this trip is for three weeks I needed a bit more luggage than usual.

The trouble is, I have no idea where I mislaid it. It could have been at Heathrow in the lounge. It could have been on the plane LHR-BKK. It could have been in the lounge or elsewhere in BKK. It could have been on the plane BKK-SYD. It might even have been in the taxi. I didn't actually notice it missing until I was in the hotel in Sydney (in fact not until I got out of the shower and realised I had no clean trousers to change into for the meeting that was an hour away).

Yes, I know. However, I'm simply drawing a blank. I cannot remember when I *did* and when I *didn't* have it with me. :-(. Of course, I have travel insurance (this is a business trip). However for me to claim on the insurance, I require either a Property Irregularity Report from the airline, or a police report. The trouble is, I'm kind of stuck here:

- I can't get a PIR from BA because they only issue them for luggage which was checked in. Actually I guess that's fair enough - it's not their fault that I was stupid - but I don't want to claim anything from BA, just the the paperwork...
- I can't really get a police report from the local police, because I can't say for sure that I lost it here. It could have been anywhere.

I really need to claim on the insurance, if only to replace the lost items. (Not a lot really - three pairs of trousers, three shirts, two ties, one pair of trainers, a set of "in ear" noise-cancelling headphones, and the bag itself). Yesterday, in dire need of at least clean trousers, I went to a department store and bought one pair of trousers and got a receipt. However I'm loathe to spend much more until I work out how to claim on the insurance.

Any thoughts? Has anyone ever had to claim for losing hand luggage before?

-simon