Photocopying - or the

art of following instructions.
Now, it should have been a simple thing. I transferred the files I wanted copied onto a nice  bright yellow USB thingy.  I put the nice bright yellow USB  thingy into the little pocket on the front of my jeans. I put my bag with my other things on the  back of the trike and I headed off to the photocopy place. 
This involves a train  journey and the crossing of a major highway - twice. I do not like this journey.
The problem is that there are around 500 pages that need to be printed off. My home printer is not up to that sort of thing when most of the pages are densely packed and will take a lot of ink. 
Yes, I know - I should keep all this information on line. The problem is that I can't work that way this time. I need to have pages and pages laid out in front of me. I can't go "splitting" the screen into up to twenty pages.  I also need to be able to mark things in more than one colour - and more.  Yes, yes, I know I am wasting paper and polluting the environment and....
At the photocopy place I hand over the bright yellow USB thingy and explain that I want a copy of each file. There are five of them. I want them in black and white. There are about 500 pages altogether. The instructions are simple and clear.
The girl tells me that  they can do it. It will take about ten minutes. Good. I go prowling off to the stationery area of the shop to buy some paper for another task.
I come back. Someone else is just putting my printing on the bench. I pay for it.
On the train on  the way home I look for one page in particular. It isn't there. Then I realise an entire file is not there. I have paid for it  but it isn't there. Another file isn't there either - although I don't seem to have paid for that.
It's too late to go back - and too late to phone them.
So, this morning it will be back to the same place..with the bright  yellow USB thingy. I will ask what happened to the file I paid for as it is almost 100 pages long and I don't want to pay for it twice. I will get them to copy the other file. (And, before you wonder, the paper they use is slightly thicker than the paper I put in my printer so I was fooled into thinking the stack of paper was about the right size.)
I will stand there and check before I leave.
I am also a very cross cat!
Yes, it is partly my fault. I should have checked before I left the shop. 
But why would I when I thought I had actually paid for it?