Terror alert

The queue for entry was not long but it was more than an hour before I finally met up with Mark in the arrivals hall.

Nearing the front of the line I was watching one of the officers processing a little old Asian lady. He made her get out of her wheelchair so that she could reach up to have her fingerprints recorded. To get her photograph he bent the camera stick over the edge of the booth and pointed it down. She dutifully tilted up her head and balanced her 4 foot nothing frame on tiptoes to stare blank faced into the lens.

Then it kicked off... The officer slid from his booth and silently waved to another. They both moved steathily forward until they identified the source of their concern. Flash! "Over there! There he is!". At which point they both dived under the tapes and through the crowd. This is going to be interesting I thought. Its Bin Laden trying to sneak in to dunk a donut.. "Thats him!" the officer cried and the line parted in confusion as a little chap in a huge party of Japanese was swooped upon. They grabbed his camera and ran back to the booths as quickly as their legs would commando. One of them was stood beside me as he went through the pictures of grinning friends waiting in line. Satisfied that their identities were safe and their children would still have a father in a weeks time they returned the camera and gave the poor chap a good dressing down and made him delete the pictures.

All of this took five minutes or so but when I looked back at the booth the poor old lady was still balanced on her tiptoes staring up into the camera; eyes forward and too scared to move. It was like the scene in Airplane! with the chap left sitting in the taxi at the beginning of the film, and saying "I'll give him 5 more minutes" in the closing sequence. When I passed the poor old dear she was still there. Still there now as far as I know.

Probably had to be there...