I’ve always been a huge fan of the Antiques Roadshow, I suppose we all harbour dreams of finding a valuable heirloom in the attic, but if we can’t find one ourselves, how nice it is to watch and share in the good fortune of others.

Over the years some of my favourite ‘finds’ have been exactly that, things that have been ‘found’ by people, but specifically ancient gold rings dug up in fields and back-gardens by men with metal detectors and waxed lyrical about by the wonderful Geoffrey Munn.

His enthusiasm for the object in question is infectious. He describes it in minute detail and explains the significance it might have had to the original owner who lost it 3 or 4 centuries earlier. Finally he ponders as to the circumstances surrounding the loss, fanciful I dare say, but none the worse for that.

Fast forward now 400 years to Antiques Roadshow 2412. A member of the public has brought in a diamond ring they found whilst digging for ‘collectables’ on the site of a 21st century household waste site. I wonder what the 25 century version of Geoffrey would make of that?

Perhaps it had been removed whilst the owner was doing the washing-up, or some baking. Remember the heartwarming story of the carrot!

Well, perhaps I could help him out with this one.

First we have to go back in time, to around 2001. My parents, already well into old age and infirm, decided they wanted to leave something of significance and value to their 2 daughters. So they bought 2 diamond rings and gave one to me and one to my sister.

To be honest, I don’t have a diamond ring lifestyle, and I would describe my hands are ‘capable’ rather than ‘elegant’, but it made my parents happy, and that was the main thing.

For years the ring lived, in it’s box, in a drawer in the wardrobe. It never left the bedroom, I never wore it because I never go anywhere ‘posh’ and it would only fit on my little finger anyway.

Since Xmas I’ve been having a major clear out, it’s part of my plan to keep busy whilst I’m waiting for gardening weather to arrive. It’s gone quite well, then suddenly the other evening I was watching TV when a horrible thought hit me. Where was the ring?

I knew I hadn’t come across it during my most recent sorting through drawers, where could it be? I mentally retraced my steps as to when I last saw it. Many months ago, in it’s box in the wardrobe, but where was it now?

I went upstairs and started frantically to look in the place it should be and then in the places it could be, finally all the places it shouldn’t be. The ring was nowhere to be found.

There seemed to be only two explanations. Either I had put it somewhere safe, so safe in fact that not even I could find it, or I had inadvertently thrown the ring box away thinking it was empty. Could I have been so stupid? To say I was cross with myself was an understatement!

It wasn’t so much the value, because I would never have sold it, it was mostly the sentimental value and the fact that I could have been such an absolute moron.

You might wonder why I am able to write about this in such a flippant way. Well the answer to that is two-fold. Firstly, my parents are no longer with us, so they will never know what an idiot I’ve been. The second reason is a bit more practical.

In the course of beating myself up over the ring, I’ve thought of several other small items and trinkets that also seem to have disappeared. Whilst I might have accidentally thrown away an ’empty’ ring box, I certainly couldn’t have accidentally thrown away all the other things too.

Conclusion? There must be another little box somewhere that I have failed to include in my New Year Spring Clean. Hopefully I’ll come upon it one day and there will be my diamond ring and the other bits and pieces.

However, if I’m wrong then Geoffrey (25 century) Munn is going to have a story to tell.