A colleague and I were traveling to a mine site for a visit. My colleague was checking in some oversize baggage (more equipment) and it failed the explosive trace test, no biggy these things occasionally get false positives as do most diagnostic equipment but it failed a second time.
Now they only give you three go's before they slap the cuffs on you so my mate was getting pretty nervous at this stage. The guy doing the testing called over his supervisor as well as a couple of federal police (which was funny for me standing waiting but not for my mate). They opened the casing and swabbed the items inside and the inside of the container and luckily it passed.
Now working where we do on the mine site there is a slim possibility of getting traces of explosives on you but for my mate it was simply the case of some spilt coke o cola on the case. Funnily enough it was showing up as RDX on the test.
So the moral of the story is be prepared for delays if you coat your luggage in coke. He did clean it off well which surprised us because its a plastic case.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Funny Things Wives Do
Now most guys would agree with me that their wives do really stupid things. Most of the time this is played down by them as either "a lack of sleep", "over-worked" or my personal favorite "baby brain" (thought this went away after baby was born but no I was wrong it stays around forever and ever). But their are times especially with my wife when she just doesn't even acknowledge the stupid things she does.
Take today for example. My wife usually checks my pockets. She's always yelling at me for leaving a tissue or piece of paper in my pants. She was rushing around this afternoon (because she had a 2 hour nap then realised she had no clean clothes for tomorrow) and must not have checked the pockets thoroughly. She left me to swap the load into the dryer while looking after our little girl because she needed to have a shower RIGHT NOW after playing with some cloth nappies. Not a hard task and generally not one with too many surprises. I go to get the load out of the dryer not long ago and just as I'm checking to make sure I haven't missed a sock or something I find a car key. Now this isn't just the normal metal key but also the central locking and engine immobiliser type.
When I show my wife the key and say you missed this she just looks up from what she's doing and looks away without saying anything. Classic response from my wife when she can't blame it on me. =p At least the car still opens and starts. Not sure how after going through the wash for an hour then through the drier for 2 hours but hey I don't mind. I'm sure she will laugh when she reads this. She always blogs or Facebooks when I do something silly so it's about time she got some payback.
Take today for example. My wife usually checks my pockets. She's always yelling at me for leaving a tissue or piece of paper in my pants. She was rushing around this afternoon (because she had a 2 hour nap then realised she had no clean clothes for tomorrow) and must not have checked the pockets thoroughly. She left me to swap the load into the dryer while looking after our little girl because she needed to have a shower RIGHT NOW after playing with some cloth nappies. Not a hard task and generally not one with too many surprises. I go to get the load out of the dryer not long ago and just as I'm checking to make sure I haven't missed a sock or something I find a car key. Now this isn't just the normal metal key but also the central locking and engine immobiliser type.
When I show my wife the key and say you missed this she just looks up from what she's doing and looks away without saying anything. Classic response from my wife when she can't blame it on me. =p At least the car still opens and starts. Not sure how after going through the wash for an hour then through the drier for 2 hours but hey I don't mind. I'm sure she will laugh when she reads this. She always blogs or Facebooks when I do something silly so it's about time she got some payback.
Funny encounters with airport security.
Due to my sporadic and completely unpredictable travel for work I get to observe airport security at various times of the day as well as all over the place.
In some of the more regional areas that I travel you know to allow extra time to clear security. I work in the mining industry and have to carry a bit of equipment with me to different sites. One piece gets me pulled up at the X-ray scanner more than your average person who forgets coins in their pocket or keys or even to tale off their steel cap boots (can't really laugh here I've done it at 4am before).
One day I was traveling home from a particular location that is more thorough then most and was quite seriously taken aside and they said to me "sir you are either carrying a portable DVD player in you carry on luggage or a bomb". Now naturally when faced with this situation you start to wonder if one of your colleague's has set you up but not this time. After rescanning my bag about a dozen times from all different orientations and fussing over it with explosive trace tests they came back and said " sorry sir we believe we are mistaken and that is a portable DVD player". And asked me to open my bag ( I'd offered to start with), they were quite shocked to see that it was neither of their options. I then explained to them that it was in fact a ultrasonic tester to measure the thickness of solid metal parts. Of course this threw them completely and they re-scanned my bag another dozen times.
In some of the more regional areas that I travel you know to allow extra time to clear security. I work in the mining industry and have to carry a bit of equipment with me to different sites. One piece gets me pulled up at the X-ray scanner more than your average person who forgets coins in their pocket or keys or even to tale off their steel cap boots (can't really laugh here I've done it at 4am before).
One day I was traveling home from a particular location that is more thorough then most and was quite seriously taken aside and they said to me "sir you are either carrying a portable DVD player in you carry on luggage or a bomb". Now naturally when faced with this situation you start to wonder if one of your colleague's has set you up but not this time. After rescanning my bag about a dozen times from all different orientations and fussing over it with explosive trace tests they came back and said " sorry sir we believe we are mistaken and that is a portable DVD player". And asked me to open my bag ( I'd offered to start with), they were quite shocked to see that it was neither of their options. I then explained to them that it was in fact a ultrasonic tester to measure the thickness of solid metal parts. Of course this threw them completely and they re-scanned my bag another dozen times.
Friday, January 14, 2011
A Begining
Funnily enough everything needs a beginning. So here is mine.
This blog is going to hopefully help people to see the funnier side of life. In my life I need to see the funnier side of life other wise I would already be insane. From my general everyday life to work and everything in between.
I travel a lot for work so I am met with all different types of situations and people from all different places and walks of life. These are the main experiences I will blog about and show a funnier side to life.
Thanks.
Wal
This blog is going to hopefully help people to see the funnier side of life. In my life I need to see the funnier side of life other wise I would already be insane. From my general everyday life to work and everything in between.
I travel a lot for work so I am met with all different types of situations and people from all different places and walks of life. These are the main experiences I will blog about and show a funnier side to life.
Thanks.
Wal
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