WARNING - size does matter
Low-cost airlines are off the hook for this Blog. Instead, it's airport security that I have in my sights.
Now, we all know that liquids are not allowed through security at any airport unless they are in small containers (less than 100ml).
Well, all except the idiots I see on most of my trips, happily putting their bags on the conveyor system while clutching their bottles of water. Have they never travelled before or don't they realise water is a liquid?
I digress. The subject of my wrath this time? Plastic bags. In particular the clear, plastic bags you need to contain all your under 100ml liquids, if you want to take them onboard.
This has been the norm for several years now across Europe. I had a clear plastic bag. It travelled with me everywhere for almost four years, a safe haven for my shaving gel, toothbrush, razor, toothpaste etc.
It felt like part of my travelling family - always there. It won't let you down. It doesn't require nourishment. And it won't jump the boarding queue (unless I do, of course).
Until a recent sourjon to sunnier climes, when a security person at a regional UK airport informed me that the bag was too big. "OK - so what do I need to do?" I enquired.
"You'll need to go out of security, buy another (correct-sized) bag from one of the vending machines and then go back through security."
Yeah, right - having taken 25 minutes to reach the body scanner, I had no intention of repeating the exercise. "I'd like to speak to a supervisor, please."
To cut a long story short (I can hear the cheers from here) I left my toothpaste, shaving gel and the offending bag on the supervisor's desk. and placed the non-liquid items in my trolley-dolley bag.
I am sure she gave them a good home.