A Spaceman's Blog - Philippe Rose

Operation fluid freedom

If you want to bring your own wine onto an aircraft without having to put it into your checked luggage, this is how to do it (costs: ca. 15EUR). Bring a disposable bottle opener and your wine to the airport. Enter the airport's airside through an entrance which has security checks only at the gate (eg. gates G, H etc at Amsterdam Schiphol), and not immediately after passport control. Go to the duty free shop and select inexpensive wine. Check that the aluminium cap over the cork can be easily twisted and is slightly loose (the cap needs to be removable without tearing). Buy the wine, which will be sealed in a bag. Go to the toilet. Open the sealed bag. Remove the bottle's aluminium cover by pulling on it, ensuring it remains intact. Uncork the wine and empty its contents. Pour your own wine into the bottle (and dispose of its container). Recork the bottle. Put the cap back over the bottleneck. Return to the duty free shop. Go to the till and pay for the wine a second time, which will be sealed in a new bag, ensuring you can take it aboard the plane.

I have been on a plane 8 times over the past 8 days and try as much as I can not to have any checked luggage to save myself time. I carry around a 1l plastic sachet in which I cram all the fluids I need for my morning shave. This sachet gets inspected so many times with suspicious eyes I'm sure airport officials know its contents by heart. At Vienna, they removed a bottle of perfume with 125ml volume (limit is 100ml). Pretty much at all airports I noticed you can cheat the system by having two 1l bags placed in two different baskets at security, having done so many times. Officials seem to ignore that both bags belong to the same person.

I cannot understand how the new fluids regulations bring any additional security to air travel, as they can be so easily breached. I watch how catering items such as wine bottles get passed around carelessly by ground staff and end up on my flights. But the easiest of all is probably to fly to Amsterdam from Ukraine via Vienna, as Kiev sells duty free alcohol in unsealed bags, which have to be accepted within Europe aboard connecting flights at the moment.

So my message is: free our fluids please. (I've emailed the above to Schiphol airport).

[28 May]

The one dollar boy

lena_village (51k image)
As we were greeting the boy, we heard his mother saying something to him. The boy dilligently did what she said. His hand stretched, he asked us for "one dollah".

[18 May]

Beduin visit

On the road to Dahab, I drove into a small village to be greeted by this young boy, the son of the chief. I parked near the family camel and bought some water at the local mall (a one-room house with shelves stacked with common brands goods).

[16 May]

Cleaner

I was working from my laptop at a cafe on the square by my appartment and noticed a familiar face. The woman, who was slowly choosing a table to sit at, was the cleaning lady (who normally cleans the house at that time). I smiled at her and so she came over to greet me. She was being accompanied by a large, burly man which she introduced as a "friend". The man seemed surprised at being introduced to another "friend". As he shook my hand, he glared at me as if demanding to know, And where do you fit in the picture? He had a point - never trust a Slovak girl, especially if she's married.

[05 May]

May 2007
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Operation fluid freedom

The one dollar boy

Beduin visit

Cleaner

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