Hello campers! I know, I know, I'm neglecting this blog terribly. What can I say, I toil night and day for the betterment of humanity... or, possibly, to satisfy my unseemly obsession with Bacillus cereus plasmids.
So, pending another great installment of The Mad Adventures of Gus the Mighty Chinchilla (since that's what seems to be the most popular subject among my modest readership), here's another guest post by Claude (aka Dad) narrating the parental units' misadventures on their way home to the Old World. A cautionary tale it is indeed.
Editor's notes in square brackets.
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Traveling by air these days can become tricky: ignore the rules at your own peril!
If you go hiking, chances are you have packed a kind of knife with you and probably stuffed it in your rucksack. Not that you need a weapon but to cut a piece of bread, spread butter and cut your cheese or salami, you'll need some cutting implement. [though not everyone chooses to take along a folding Opinel knife with blade stopper - the legal equivalent of a switchblade knife]
The problem starts when you forgot it and bravely show up at the airport, unknowingly carrying with you a dangerous terrorist weapon!
That's exactly what happened to us on our way back from the land of Homeland Security. Well, except that the Boston branch wasn't up to scratch and let us pass through [with such a knife] on our flight to London. It would be ill advised to blame them but after all, isn't it from Boston that some crazy guys boarded with box-cutters 8 years ago on ill-fated flights?
Security screening at London Heathrow is no laughing matter and they use the latest gizmo available. Very quickly you end up on the side with a highly assertive security officer asking you about some object she could hurt herself while emptying your rucksack... "Bingo!" (they must earn a bonus on true positive...). From then on you feel like a piece of shit, they call the police, inform you that it is illegal to carry a [switchblade] knife and that you most likely will be arrested! Your connecting flight? Don't even think about it!
After you've had plenty of time to melt into a pool of embarrassed liquid, the cops arrive: 2 m tall, 200 pounds of flack jacket, handcuffs, big gun and all the expected paraphernalia! Very professionally (I must confess), they assess the situation and in a glimpse decide that you are no real threat to international air travel: "Well madam, next time bring some fine Belgian chocolate instead! You came from Boston, aaaah, we are not surprised...!"
By now, a bit relieved, you realize that your much wanted flight home [after a previous transatlantic flight] has departed 5 min ago, you feel miserable and your are left with 3 hours to kill while waiting for the next flight.
Morality: eat sliced cheese & salami!
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