Since the age of 5 my parents kept us on the road, moving from one home to another. My father was a South African political activist and my mother a British nurse which meant that I spent most of my childhood in between airplanes and safe houses.

When I reached the age of 13, my mother shipped me to a Zimbabwean boarding school which I hated as much as I hated doing my own laundry. I spent the rest of my academic life moving to African countries that had a somewhat politically unstable atmosphere.

By now you should be able to tell that I had to learn how to fend for myself at an early age, adapt or be abducted was my guiding principle. It’s 2012 and I am now a working professional, struggling to live up to the expectations that my parents had set however after all my years of travelling I have yet to explain the greatest question of my nomadic disposition. Why do people always lose stuff when moving?

My childhood was not the only thing I had lost upon my life’s travels. It started out with my Paddington Teddy Bear then my kitchen utensils until I started losing entire furniture pieces.

When I moved to Australia in 2008 to do my internship at a local ISP, I made a calculated decision to pack very lightly. When I got to Perth airport my entire luggage followed, along with a very expensive airport bill. When I arrived at my new place of residence, I unpacked everything immediately only to find that my underwear was missing. I could have sworn that I had packed it in with my personal luggage but nothing was to be found. "Who on earth steals underwear" I thought, so I waited few days to see if it would resurface.

After spending two days without underwear, I realized that most moving companies often leave a trail of frustrated customers especially if you are undergoing international relocation. If your goods are not missing then they are damaged and to make it worse you end up paying ridiculous charges for insurance that doesn’t cover anything at all. There are some cases where families moving abroad have lost everything due to poor service provided by shady moving companies. If you have ever lost your wallet you should know how paralyzing that makes you feel, now try to imagine yourself losing all your possessions?

I often lose things on my travels, I don’t know how or why but it just happens. I am pleased to say that moving homes is something I will not be doing for a very long time. My wife is responsible for most of the detective work around the house; she is especially good at find a missing sock which is another phenomenon that I could never explain.