» Airport Stories

surprise package
went to west africa for a month to stay with friends who had just moved there. the evening before the flight, a friend of said friends comes over and asks me to take along a gift for them.
"no problem, what is it?"
"just this small parcel."
"alright. i suppose there's nothing inside that could get me in trouble."
"nooooo. just a few spices and a surprise for their wee daughter."
"spices, eh? are they legal, those spices?"
"of course they are, absolutely harmless."
so i am off to tempelhof in the morning, a very small 1930s inner city airport with so little traffic that it felt like *everybody* looked when i heard my name over the tannoy and two customs police officers asked me to come along. on the rather dark and creepy way to the underground luggage inspection room i thought up numerous ways of killing mr. spice guy.
unpacking my rucksack and unwrapping the gift with now four officers looking on we behold a sachet of curry paste and a box of sparklers, which had showed up on the monitor as explosives. i was allowed to keep the spices, the sparklers were confiscated to be "destroyed" later on.
(Mon 6th Mar 2006, 10:52, More)

» Scars with history

messer gabel schere licht...
left hand scar 7 mm: cut off a slice of index finger at work while cutting paper. quite impressive splatter.
right hand scar 12 mm: me, a scalpel and some adhesive film at a drawing table. scalpel slips out of my hand, rolls down the table. i, of course, catch it before it reaches the floor. the blade stuck right between my middle and ring finger.
(Thu 10th Feb 2005, 9:20, More)

» Evidence that you're getting old

I started to realise I'm getting old
the day three maybe 7th grade schoolgirls approached me and - addressing me as "Sie"* - asked very politely whether I knew if this was the house where one could buy "dope". And I couldn't even tell them.

*Yes, german. Sorry if the joke doesn't translate.
(Sat 30th Oct 2004, 17:49, More)