Where’s my wallet?

Oh, dear.

Seemed sunny this morning, and it’s forecasted to snow tomorrow, so I decided to go for a spontaneous half-day skiing trip. It’s 12:30, I’m in the Flumserberg parking lot, have just arrived to a very lucky just-in-time parking opening in an otherwise full house; just when I wanted to put on the ski boots, it somehow hit me – I don’t have my wallet. Must have left it at home.

Nnnnnice one.

I do have my phone, so I hope I can pay by SMS, NFC or something. Gotta pay parking first, find lucky 5 francs in the car, just enough for 4h parking. Good. Also find 2 x 2 euro coins in the car, taking them with me, just in case.

Let’s see, what are the options? Ticket online via phone. I go to flumserberg.ch, but can’t find a ticket shop. Hmm. Ticketcorner.ch! The tickets website for everything. Do they have an app? Yes, download. (glad i don’t have the blackberry any more, it wouldn’t have worked). I can even remember my ticketcorner password, and I do have a flumserberg skicard registered with the account… but I’d given it back last time, for 5 francs. Maybe right the ones I found in the car. Well. I have two other skicards, one I know doesn’t work here, let’s try registering the other… no, not recognized.

Ok, let’s go to the ticket booth and ask if I can buy a ticket via SMS.
“No.”
Hmm, “does any of these two skicards I got in my jacket work?”
“No.”
I see. “Can I buy a Flumserberg card with these 4 EUR?”
“It costs 49 francs.”
“Can I get just the card, unloaded, and load it via phone? How much does it cost?”
“5 francs.”
“Good, less than 4 euro. Can I…”
“No, we don’t take euro coins, only bancnotes.”
…
I frantically search all pockets (again) for a remote 5 francs coin – to no avail.

“Can you make an exception? It is my only chance to ski today.”
“No. What can I do if you forgot your wallet?”
“……Thanks.”

I walk back towards the car – maybe it’s a sign that I shouldn’t ski today. On the way I notice a bar at the railway station across the street – maybe they can change my coins?
It’s closed.
Oh, but there’s someone inside, is there another way in? Yes.

“Hi, can you please give me 5 francs for these 4 euros? They won’t take them” (pointing across the street).
“I know. Sure, here you are.”
“Thank you!”

Back to the skiing booth, I buy a card, register it on the ticketcorner app, go to “buy tickets”, search for Flumserberg… can’t find it. There are like 50 resorts on ticketcorner… except Flumserberg.
I go back to the ticket booth.

“Do you know where I can buy tickets online?”
“Sure, flumserberg.ch, online tickets. But you can only buy full day tickets there. 62 francs.”
“…Oh well, even so – can’t find it.”

I show her on the phone, there’s no option to buy.

“Sorry, can’t help you.”

Now this may be indeed a sign. But it’s ok, I’ll go home and eat (‘d skipped breakfast), and have a nice afternoon. Before that though – one last try. Ok, Google… tickets flumserberg. First link – ticketcorner titlis. I’m not at the Titlis. Second link is the flumserberg website – useless, as we know. Third link – SBB’s Snow’n Rail offer. Ha! The train company has these offers, maybe I can buy one via the SBB app.
…no. Only “normal” tickets can be bought via the app, not special offers.

Back to the SBB mobile website, log in, try to buy, but I have to give my credit card details. I remember the credit card number… first four and last four digits, not the eight in-between.
Have I stored it somewhere? No, of course not, security. But… wait a minute, yesterday I had to email my credit card details for work reasons. I usually delete these messages, but this time I didn’t. Let’s see… search mail… here we go! The credit card number is… secret, but I key it in, it works! Push “buy”, for 67 francs. Whatever – I am now committed to pull this through. Only… I remember suddenly that last year I bought a Snow’n Rail and they didn’t want to accept the ticket shown on the phone, they wanted a print-out. But wait – in the purchase confirmation email it says there is an option to “print OR load a card”. Ha! Load a card it is. “Do you accept loading and giving up printing?”
“Duh.”

At 2pm I’m on the powdery slope, and all (including the fact that I have two gloves of two types) is forgotten.