Not a school trip, but a work one
and it amused me when it happened yesterday.

So, it's day trip to France time - cheap booze from a shopping centre packed with ignorant Brits and justifiably disgruntled Frenchies. Being open to all, one person brought her husband, their 16-year-old son and his equally young girlfriend along.

The driver warns everyone that we need to be back on the coach at the times he says as he won't wait or we'll miss the ferry.

The coach duly arrives at its last pickup in the centre of Calais and there are two worried-looking teenagers sat near the back sans parental supervision. Where are they, and where are the kids' passports? Trying to get on a different coach to meet us at the ferry terminal.

What does passport control think of this? You can't come through without your passports. Cue two increasingly worried teenagers sitting on one side of passport control while a group of adults stand on the other laughing at them and saying it'll all get sorted.

To cut a long story longer, the kids were eventually allowed through without either the parents or their passports. They merely had to face a few immigrant releated questions and one of them was able to produce his id card for a local proof of age scheme.

The parents met them on the ferry, but only after all the substitute parents on the coach had offered plenty of advice about how to milk the situation.

The End
Ijon, aged 27 and a half.
( Ijon Tichy, Sun 10 Dec 2006, 10:30, Reply)