On 19/9/04, mike wilson, discombobulated, unleashed: >You can buy a Swiss army knife in a few of the shops. > > >They take it back off you at the gate, though.....
Unless you're either extremely lucky, or extremely good at hiding something. On my trip to GFM last year I completely forgot about my jeweller's screwdrivers and my Leatherman - the latter has been with me for 15 years and is a keepsake as well as a tool. All contained in my LowePro carry-on..... Security at Heathrow instantly found the drivers - the X ray image of those must be hilarious - gee whatever can they be.... The Leatherman is closed up and solid, so it must look like a four-inch- long 'hypen' ;-) The hand search pulled the drivers and given the choice of going back and mailing them to myself and then going through the whole rigamarole again, or binning them there and then on the spot, well, not contest. I was then mortified that my Leatherman would suffer the same fate - and there waas no way that was going to happen. Guys, if they had found that, I would not have made it ti GFM! The hand-search continued, but he went straight past it, even though it was there, sheathed in its leather doodad. The screwdrivers must have taken the heat off the rest of the search - that was all he was interested in. I passed! But lo - I had to change planes in the USA and there were obviously going to be more security checks and X rays. What to do? Mercifully, the LowePro has a million pockets, come not readily recognizable. Especially the All Weather pull-out sheet that encompasses the pack in poor weather. It is folded away in the base, secured by Velcro. I wrapped the Leatherman up in that and hoped for the best. That pack had a DSLR, lenses, a PowerBook, wires galore - it got hand-searched if I so much as sneezed. I was searched twice more, an nobody found the Leatherman. On the return journey it travelled in checked baggage, and rides on my hip every day of the week. Chilling. Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| www.macads.co.uk/snaps _____________________________
