Penniless in Heathrow
You can imagine my horror last year as I put my hand in my pocket to remove my boarding pass for my three week Japanese holiday to find something missing.

Not the boarding pass.
But my wallet.
With my Yen, all my credit cards and other means of fiscal sustenance.

I knew I had it earlier as I had used a card to pay for the beers in the pub on the OTHER side of security.

The plane was boarding and I was up a certain creek without a certain paddle.

I ran past security, and then got tackled. [They do not like people running through security in any direction!]

I then spent a hectic 10 minutes retracing my steps looking like a psycho pushing people out of the way while looking behind chairs and under tables.

Deciding that I would not miss my flight, and as worst seemed to have come to worst I could phone a friend to cancel my cards and wire me cash, I dejectedly returned to the gate.

But then, as I went back through security, I saw a Sun reading security drone flicking through my wallet while talking on the phone to someone.

I went up and identified myself and he grunted at me and said "don't fuckin' bother mate" to the guy on the phone.

Too happy to care about the antipathy of the drone, I returned to find that I was one of the last of the passengers to get on the fully loaded plane.

I approached the gate and produced my boarding pass.

"Sorry sir, we are very busy today, and your seat in economy has been taken..."

"Oh shit," I thought, "all I need."

"... so we have upgraded you to business class"

I had a nice glass of champagne to celebrate my newfound spawnyness.
( coder.keitaro I like pies!, Sat 16 Sep 2006, 16:28, Reply)