Melbourne Laptop Exchange (oops, I mean Airport)
2002-Jun-12, Wednesday 15:44![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thorfinnWell, I went to Sydney this weekend, to do relational foo (no, not databases, visiting the hordes of relatives). Airport security restrictions are bloody annoying. I didn't really need a suitcase, but I took one, because I wanted to have my leatherman and my belt-wallet (it has a small spike, firmly attached by a short chain, as the latching device). Aside from that, I took my shiny new laptop with me, in my backpack, as carry-on.
So, I get to the security area, and do the Dance of Security (remove my belt, wallet, coins, place in tray, put bag and tray on scanner). Through goes the bag and tray, and so do I, clutching my boarding pass. I beep. Damn. I turn to go back, and a security guard approaches... "wait, you have to take your laptop out and put it through separately, and oh, you'd better take off your boots." My boots are Australian Army GPs. They aren't steelcapped, but they are 12 hole, and those 48 tiny bits of metal are enough to set off the scanner. So, I take my laptop out, stick it in the tray, deboot, shove them in another tray, do the Slow Walk Of Trying Not To Set Off The Magnetic Field, and this time it's all good.
So I wander over to the desk, finally collect my bag, fish my belt off the scanner, and wallet, and boots... put the belt on, do the boots back up, grab the laptop, slide it into my bag, hoist the bag, still clutching my boarding pass the whole time.
An uneventual flight later, I get picked up at Sydney Airport by my Mum and my sister, and we drive back to Mum's... So, I'm sitting in Mum's lounge room, with the closed fire going, and we're discussing random catchup stuff... topic rolls around to the new work, and I mention the new laptop, so of course, I want to show it off.
Wander downstairs to the backpack, fish the laptop out... uhoh. This isn't good. This is dark grey, not black... and it ain't the same model... *pop* Umm... "National Foods - 0NNNN". Oh. Bloody. Looks like I've exchanged laptops with somebody at the security desk. That'll teach me to not stickerize my laptop wildly! Hrmph.
To cut a long story short, I eventually tracked down the fellow (he managed to email me on Tuesday, and I'd also arranged to meet someone from IT at National Foods HQ in Melbourne, to find out whose laptop it was). My laptop had gone to Adelaide, and the other fellow had done basically the same thing as me. Spotted the Toshiba logo, and grabbed the machine and dropped it in his bag. They were nearly the same shape, and they were pretty exactly the same weight, and under the blue fluoro lighting, dark grey and black aren't much different, if one isn't paying attention...
Blah. Well, anyway, the laptops have been exchanged back, in the foyer of the National Foods HQ, so it's all okay. But it's blah. Very blah.
So, I get to the security area, and do the Dance of Security (remove my belt, wallet, coins, place in tray, put bag and tray on scanner). Through goes the bag and tray, and so do I, clutching my boarding pass. I beep. Damn. I turn to go back, and a security guard approaches... "wait, you have to take your laptop out and put it through separately, and oh, you'd better take off your boots." My boots are Australian Army GPs. They aren't steelcapped, but they are 12 hole, and those 48 tiny bits of metal are enough to set off the scanner. So, I take my laptop out, stick it in the tray, deboot, shove them in another tray, do the Slow Walk Of Trying Not To Set Off The Magnetic Field, and this time it's all good.
So I wander over to the desk, finally collect my bag, fish my belt off the scanner, and wallet, and boots... put the belt on, do the boots back up, grab the laptop, slide it into my bag, hoist the bag, still clutching my boarding pass the whole time.
An uneventual flight later, I get picked up at Sydney Airport by my Mum and my sister, and we drive back to Mum's... So, I'm sitting in Mum's lounge room, with the closed fire going, and we're discussing random catchup stuff... topic rolls around to the new work, and I mention the new laptop, so of course, I want to show it off.
Wander downstairs to the backpack, fish the laptop out... uhoh. This isn't good. This is dark grey, not black... and it ain't the same model... *pop* Umm... "National Foods - 0NNNN". Oh. Bloody. Looks like I've exchanged laptops with somebody at the security desk. That'll teach me to not stickerize my laptop wildly! Hrmph.
To cut a long story short, I eventually tracked down the fellow (he managed to email me on Tuesday, and I'd also arranged to meet someone from IT at National Foods HQ in Melbourne, to find out whose laptop it was). My laptop had gone to Adelaide, and the other fellow had done basically the same thing as me. Spotted the Toshiba logo, and grabbed the machine and dropped it in his bag. They were nearly the same shape, and they were pretty exactly the same weight, and under the blue fluoro lighting, dark grey and black aren't much different, if one isn't paying attention...
Blah. Well, anyway, the laptops have been exchanged back, in the foyer of the National Foods HQ, so it's all okay. But it's blah. Very blah.
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Date: 2002-06-11 22:49 (UTC)