All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

My friend was going on a flight out from Singapore to Bangkok yesterday evening. My handy-dandy N70 rings. "Hello, I just wanted to say goodbye."said he. I said, "Oh, right....have a good one home, take care and I'll see you again soon." "Tell me something........why the hell did they take away my 3/4 full cans of shaving cream and deodorant?" he asked.

Now - I know my friend pretty well. Of course, he's not asking a stupid question or being anal (this time, anyway). There was more to it.....

"Umm...it's part of the regulations now after the bombing thing....it's liquid-ish..." "Right....so they took away my shaving cream and deodorant but didn't take away my knife. How the hell am I now going to hijack the plane without those two essential items?!"

I was in the office, it was mostly silent....I tried so hard to suppress it....but I burst out laughing loudly. For those who know me personally, you know how silent I can be when I laugh. Not! I was in a spasm.

"I was going to take the shaving cream and stick it right under the pilots' collar and say - stop this plane or I'll cream you. See this deodorant? Well...now now...who is in control.." he added with a sinister cackle.

Turned out that he didn't know he had a knife on him too. He grabbed the bag from the office to stuff some of the documents he had and found it accidentally in there, AFTER he was checked in and had his shaving cream and deodorant confisticated.

It was all related to me in a very comical manner but once the laughter subsided it is an issue. If he had meant harm, really, the passengers of that flight would be dead by now. How could they have missed a knife? It's not just a human error - we have metal detectors at the airports, don't we? So how now, brown cow? Should we start worrying?

Petal P. Rose