I really am a donk. It's a case of failure to engage brainaments.
Have spent a lovely weekend visiting my parents in Edinburgh and taking in a trip to visit my sister and her husband's newly opened restaurant 'The Roost' in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire. They have a young daughter (Connie) who I have spent not enough time with since she was born a year and a half ago and it was great to see how she has progressed since I lasty saw her back in January. Anyway, I digress, but today I had to return to London. Due to engineering works, the first part of the journey to Newcastle was by replacement bus service, so I queued up, deposited by bag in the hold, but took my laptop bag onto the coach with me. Two and a half hours later we arrived in Newcastle and with just five minutes until the connecting train left for London, I sprinted to the platform and got on the train. I managed to find an almost empty coach, sat down, made myself comfortable and got out my laptop to catch up on my emails and do some writing. About an hour and a half later we pull into Doncaster and something the conductor says over the speaker about remembering to take belongings with you as you leave the train makes me sit bolt uprightt. Where is my other bag, the one with my clothes, toiletries and other personal affects in it? I glance up to the overhead luggage rail, but only my jacket is there.
"F#*k, b**llOk~, w@!!, sh!*, tits", I think to myself. I've left the mo phoing bag on the coach back in Newcastle.
In a fit of decisiveness I hastily chuck my lappie back in it's case, grab my jacket and phone and get off the train, thinking that i'll go back to Newcastle, go the lost property, pick it up and get back on the train. It will add 3 hours to my journey, but so be it. Luckily there was another train about to leave going back, so within a few minutes we are on route again to Newcastle.
We get back to Newcastle and I check in at the station manager's office. No bag has been handed in today he says, but check with the lady who is managing the arriving buses at the front of the station. So I head to the front of the station, find the lady in charge and tell her what has happened. "Oh yes" she says, "we have had a bag today." I sigh with relief, but a quick check reveals that it is not mine. I tell her which bus I was on (Rowe3lls of Prudhoe) and she calls their depot. The bus has now returned to the depot, but no bags were left in the hold.
So basically, I've lost my bag, due to my own stupidity and it looks like someone has probably swiped it when it was offloaded from the bus. As Mr Channing would say "Marvellous."
I am such a f****

donk!