Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Little misunderstanding

Sometimes I must shake my head and wonder … what is this world coming to?
While going through airport security the other day (as a side note: Melbourne – Seriously Cool city & Great Ocean Road – breathtaking), I had a little incident. A young man at the security X-ray machine piped up loudly in a sing-song voice:
“Someone’s in trouble”
while pointing to my bag. As every passenger in the vicinity set their laser sights on me, I walked over sheepishly turning 7 shades of pink, thinking … hmmm … perhaps my tube of toothpaste is over 100 ml?!?
“It appears that you have a knife in your bag, maam”
Golly … first of all … Maam … come on, you’re not that much younger than me (voice in my head whimpers) & then D’oh!/head slap combo. I had forgotten to take my Swiss army knife out of my makeup bag (you never know when a girl may need to whip out a corkscrew). I began to giggle, bat my eyes and plead silliness. No dice … I had to either chuck out the knife (a Christmas gift from a thoughtful husband) or pay a storage fee to keep it at the airport until I got back ($11/day for 6 days!).
I believe I was understandably confused by his reticence. Is this not the country that produced the legendary film line, involving knife size comparisons?!? I felt he should have been a bit more sympathetic to my blade-toting ways.
But I must admit the icing on the cake was … I’m BLONDE for goodness sakes! Does that no longer count!?! Damn you terrorists for ruining even that precious exemption ...

1 comment:

WILD secretary said...

Steph! Too funny, I had the exact same incident happen last year in Munich as I was heading home to Canada. I discovered the weapon in my purse as Peter and I were enjoying a quick bite before heading towards boarding area. If I told Peter I'd suffer twice (at least the repurcutions) so I decided I was just going to wing it with customs. Imagine that I'm more afraid of Peter's song and dance than strange customs official in Munich! Well the official I had did not create a scene and believed my true mix up (of forgetting to pack with my cosmetic bag in suitcase) and let it go. Yes let it go, i.e. it went on board with me in my purse as if never discovered. Clearly I am the most innocent of innocent looking people. My brother, also a pilot, among many others can NOT believe I got a way with this. And also warned me of how really awful it could have been. Enough said I learned a lesson, I'll certainly be more careful next time. Cheers, LL