Thursday 28 August 2008

Getting your just desserts

I'm an information broker not an author so the thought of me sitting here and writing something "from scratch" is a bit scary but it's been on my mind so I'll write it.

The scene
Amsterdam' s Schiphol airport, boarding has just been announced for three different flights, two of which are running a little late – nothing to worry about but the queue to get through security is fairly long whereas normally it's only one set of passengers at a time.
Security opens as many checkpoints as possible given that it's gone 21:00 and the number of staff is reduced to match fewer flights.
Young man a couple of places in front of me arrives at the X-ray machine.
He has not taken his laptop out of his bag to have it screened separately as instructed by posters and disembodied voice!
He has not removed his belt.
He has not removed his jacket and placed it in a separate "basket".
He sets off the walk-through machine because he's left his keys in his pocket.

And then he looks surprised when the security people take everything out of his bag and do a fairly thorough pat-down on him!

I just wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of his stupidity. Being the worse for wear because of alcohol or drugs after a day or two in Amsterdam is no excuse for holding up 100 people who are already going to be late home!

And when I had to wait half an hour for a train at Luton having missed the train I intended to catch I didn't just want to have a verbal rant at him!



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