went to NYC last november
oddly on a date ... turned up at newark airport on my own (she was from the US so was travelling internally) and i was pulled over by homeland security ... i think mainly they were peeved because

1. i was a bloke travelling alone to NYC "for fun for a long weekend" (suspicious)
2. i had "dodgy stamps" in my passport (moldova and turkey which were both 'away' trips to footy matches)
3. i gleefully "admitted" that i was a freelance writer although i wasn't doing any work there (need a special journo visa in that case)

the guy was clearly unhappy that someone would have travelled to moldova to see a "soccer game", or indeed turkey, and even started asking me things like "where's your bag?" "er, on the luggage carousel i would imagine" "what kind of bag is it?" "eh?" "what kind of bag sir?" "it's a rucksack" "what's a rucksack?" "oh FFS"

"why haven't you put the name of your hotel on the immigration form?"
"it didn't ask for the name, just the address, and anyway there's no room for both" etc etc

around and around we went for 20-30 minutes but it seemed faaaaar longer

given that the green immigration form you fill in on the plane waives all right of appeal against the decision of immigration officer (read the small print) this bloke was effectively empowered to kick me out of the country with "deported" stamped on my passport if he didn't like the colour of my socks so i was pretty scared ... then the bastard said "uh, you seem very nervous sir"

they even took my business card off me with home phone number, address etc etc and weirdly when i talk to date on phone occasionally (in US still) there's weird clicking on the line EVERY FUCKING TIME

worst ever
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Fri 3 Mar 2006, 16:05, Reply)