Fun with doors!

19/9/2008
In Croatia there is a difficult locking device for doors... like the combination of a safe - one extra click either way or in frustration keep turning the key....then you are stuffed.
We thought we had this wonderful system worked out after a few frustrating door episodes, by remembering it was one click clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on what side of the door we were on, or so we thought only to come unstuck BIG TIME!!
Tonight, we heard our neighbours arrive home and struggle frustratedly with the key to the front door. Bob jumped up exuberantly to help, immediately understanding their problem. In the excitement he actually turned the key to our apartment door the wrong way... locking us in! So while Bob struggled to unlock our own door he called out instructions to our neighbours who must have thought we were right idiots seeing we were locked in ourselves. Then the door handle fell off on the outside... which caused Bob to use some very colourful language I hadn't heard him use before! Our neghbours became very quiet, so either they got in or decided to go away for awhile to avoid these mad people.
I made a desperate call to Thomas our landlord, who calmly told me to push on the door while turning the key and not to pull it, which we had been doing in our panic state. A couple more turns and voila! the door opened. Bob picked up the door handle, shoved it back in and it clicked into place - problem solved!