And you said that WHY?

[Seshat]

Yeeek!

I can imagine the incredulity on their faces, too.


As I understand it, Quarantine doesn't want to unreasonably hinder anyone from doing things: but we have a unique ecosystem to look after, and we want to do as right by it as possible. Yes, we screwed up (badly!) initially, but we're trying to do better now.

[Cia]

Absolutely! I declared a jar of bedbugs, when I was asked (somewhat incredulously) if I was serious I hoiked out the jar for the, by now, large group of inspectors. They wouldn't let them in as they were but rounded up all the alcohol vials they could find to ensure the tissue in the jar was well and truly soaked, then let me in.

Do bedbugs make good pets?

[fireheart]

Little hint to would-be travellers....if you MISS your check-in time and it is your fault, getting agitated at the staff is not going to help everything.
Specifically, threatening to then smash the windows at the terminal will not help. Yes, you will be required to pay for them to be replaced, the airline won't eat the costs. And yes, making that threat will result in the Australian Federal Police being called. Refusing to go with them will not help your case. Oh and you'll be deemed a threat to staff and blacklisted from Tiger airways in the future (sadly, the guy went quietly after a little persuasion...which sucked)

As for cranky grandma, the manager cannot bend time and space for your son to be on a flight back home. Yes, even if he is a minor. cancellations happen...what do you want them to do, force the flight to happen with ONE passenger? (and yes, he did get through OK in the end )

[NorthernZel]

It's also known as Nothing To Declare for some reason over here, not Border Security.

IIRC, Nothing To Declare is about custom and border security in New Zealand, not Australia. Though I can understand the confusion - both shows have their huge share of oblivious passengers going "oh, but this bag of illegal plants/seeds/seafood contains my personal natural medicine, I didn't know I had to declare it as organic material since it's medicine..."

[Seshat]

New Zealand is as fanatical about alien ecosystem elements as Aussieland is, and for the same reason. Heck, we attempt to avoid cross-pollination between the two countries; which confuses some folk who think of A/NZ as one 'unit'.
(Hint: we aren't, neither ecologically nor politically. Politically, we're allies, but we're not - quite - joined at the hip. :P)

Add that A/NZ have similar accents, and the typical iggerant <someone from anywhere else> will get the two confused.

[NorthernZel]

On another tangent, over here we also have a documentary series about CPH Airport. As we speak, there are last-minute negotiations between SAS (biggest airline carrier in Scandinavia) and unions - worst case scenario is that SAS files for bankrupcy within the next couple of hours. (This would mean at least 15,000 immediate layoffs, not to mention a crippled infrastructure during the next couple of days.)

I can only imagine the ginormous SC'ness that would explode, should the bankrupcy be filed... <shudder>

[Seshat]

..... Yeeeowch.

My heart goes out to all the possibly-unemployed families.

[PepperElf]

Apparently because his wife is Australian, he's British and he speaks English, he should be able to zip through. His rant was merely ignored by the customs officers. His wife just tittered and admitted she was embarrassed...

Apparently he's never read Neil Gaiman's journal/twitter then. Not even Neil himself can escape security checks... and he's British, speaks English (in that voice!) and is famous on top of that.

[NorthernZel]

..... Yeeeowch.

My heart goes out to all the possibly-unemployed families.

Well, liqudation was avoided at last minute so the result ended in 800 layoffs and 5000 jobs outsourced, those who remain have accepted an approx. 20% pay cut.

Still, the whole debacle has resulted in a whole lotta call-ins from employees sick with stress about the whole thing, plus several people are sending in their notices since management implied that further pay cuts may be necessary... so it's not all over yet.

[Jetfire]

National Geographic Channel in Canada shows it's version of Border Security. Based in Vancouver (of course), it covers Vancouver's airport, the land border crossing to the States, and the Canada Post international mailing centre. http://natgeotv.com/ca/border-security

There have been some interesting cases so far, but the one I just saw recently was at the Post centre. They were suspicious about a box of "baby food" being shipped, so they x-rayed it. The x-rays didn't look right, so they opened the parcel.

Inside were big cans of baby food, sealed with what looked like proper labels. But an x-ray of an individual can still didn't look right. So they opened one up. It was packed full (and densely) of drugs (MJ I think).

Another time, also at the post office, they x-rayed a package and found undeclared parts for a gun being shipped to the states. They tracked down similar packages and were almost able to fully reassemble the gun.

[wolfie]

National Geographic Channel in Canada shows it's version of Border Security. Based in Vancouver (of course), it covers Vancouver's airport, the land border crossing to the States, and the Canada Post international mailing centre. http://natgeotv.com/ca/border-security

Another time, also at the post office, they x-rayed a package and found undeclared parts for a gun being shipped to the states. They tracked down similar packages and were almost able to fully reassemble the gun.

WTF? Why would someone be smuggling a gun FROM Canada TO the States? That's a "coals to Newcastle" situation.

[Jay 2K Winger]

WTF? Why would someone be smuggling a gun FROM Canada TO the States? That's a "coals to Newcastle" situation.

I haven't clicked the link to see, but possibly because the gun in question is outlawed in the States and can't be purchased here? The gun is bought and sent to Canada, then disassembled and smuggled across the border to the eventual recipient?

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

[wolfie]

I haven't clicked the link to see, but possibly because the gun in question is outlawed in the States and can't be purchased here? The gun is bought and sent to Canada, then disassembled and smuggled across the border to the eventual recipient?

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Considering how Canada's gun laws are so much tighter than in the U.S., I don't see how any gun could be legal here but illegal south of the border.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Considering how Canada's gun laws are so much tighter than in the U.S., I don't see how any gun could be legal here but illegal south of the border.

D'oh! Teach me to say that kind of thing. Forget what I said.

[Jetfire]

I haven't seen the ep recently, but I think that mail depot handles incoming and outgoing mail, but mainly incoming. So it was gun parts shipped from somewhere else (different US locations IIRC) and going to 'different' locations in Canada; that just happened to go through the Vancouver office.

Most of the cases they seem to get are people who have DUI's or other records that they didn't properly declare, so they get turned around and sometimes can get a year or two ban from Canada.