Shawks blog

March 6, 2009

Got up early after having fiddled around with packing until late including a trip to Walmart to buy an entirely new set of luggage.  Stared at suitcases quite a bit trying to decide if I had too much or not enough stuff in them. Mom came up and met me to haul me around. Realized I should have some better tags for the suitcase (things fell apart on landing) so picked those up on our way to lunch. We ate at my current favorite restaurant, Chinese Express on EP True / 50th in West Des Moines and chatted with the owner. Then we went over to the airport and had a coffee and waited for my flight. Being jumpy about the whole check in and security process since I hadn’t done it in nine years I said bye to mom and went through security and had about an hour to twiddle my thumbs. Ran into the first hiccup here, small plane with tiny overheads so they took one of my carry-ons and stowed it below. My laptop kit didn’t really fit below either so I had it between my feet all the way to Memphis.

Here I had the wonderful vantage at the back seat of the plane to watch the unloading. On the way down I’d realized that my next flight was already scheduled to begin boarding at the time I landed. I had marked my bags with an orange fabric scrap around the handle so I knew the first bag that rolled past the ground crew to bounce off the ground was mine. It made a wonderful spring board for the next several bags that got past them as well. It finally got picked up and added to the cart.  We’d also been directed to a different terminal so we didn’t have a ramp we had to disembark on the tarmac. . Was last person off the plane unsurprisingly and grabbed my other carry-on and hustled back into the airport. Heard an announcement with a final warning for my next flight and saw the map showing that I had to get to the other end of the airport. Jogged the whole way and bumped into someone from the airline already looking for me. Hustled into the plane and this time had space to stow my bag above and again stuffed my laptop between my feet.

Long but comfortable flight this one was. Snacks were alright. Individual entertainment consoles let me play Bejeweled for a bit, then I watched Quantum of Solace, and two other movies which are escaping me now I should have typed this up then. Was in the middle of the middle row so I couldn’t see a damn thing on approach to Amsterdam. Had no difficulties getting through this airport other than finding the terminal which was again at the far side of the airport and downstairs. We’d landed a bit ahead of schedule so I had about two hours to sit about. Then found out that we  had to catch a bus and load from the ground for this one two but it was still larger than the first plane so their was room for my carry-ons. Pilot was in a hurry as it felt like we just lept into the air within moments of touching the runway. Fast hop and saw a bit of Britain as we were swinging over toward the airport before the clouds closed back in. Couple little lurches in the air as we came down, pilot had shaved time off the arrival and we got there early again which I figured would be fine and give me time to catch an ATM before I met April. This was not to be the case.

I arrived at immigration at about 1pm March 7th. Watched masses of British passports clearing their lanes as I queue up with the ‘Everybody else’ lines. I had my passport and Expedia itenerary out and ready and just crept along withthe flow. Made it up to the counter and started talking to the agent. He asked what my plans were and I said I was going to be visiting a friend and doing some tourist things. He asked which sort and I said I didn’t really know yet. He asked a couple more questions after trying to make sense of my Expedia papers then he handed me a little slip telling me that I was detained and pointed me back to a seat. I watched the mass of people behind me, several of whom didn’t speak English, dissolve through the gates and I waited. The agent came over and asked another couple questions and then left me sitting again. Around 3pm it had been a while since any travelers had passed by and I heard one of the agents telling another that the last plane had arrived for the day. Cleaning crew were working toward the arrival end of things. Still I was sitting, there was one other man walked back out to wait as well. The agent then came back telling me they wanted me to get my checked bags which were then to be searched. I went downstairs to the bag check with three security personnel leading.

I had decided to just use zip ties to secure the bags since if you locks don’t meet security criteria they’ll cut em off anyhow. So I mentioned they’d need snips to open the bag and the female agent provided her Gerber to open things. Thus began the rummaging. I was just hovering behind the line as the three of them pawed through all my bags and contents of my pockets. They asked about the camo bdu’s I had along, those were just a whim.  The Nerf guns however got a big grin, and the gal said she wondered if they were available over here after getting to fire it once. (later saw them in Toys’R’Us for 10 GBP) They collected all the paper I had with any handwriting on it which included a lot of little reminders, my sketchbook, theatre notes, and well pretty much everything else in print except the blank notecards and notebook. Old school thinking, they didn’t bother asking about the laptop or memory sticks. All the paper was dumped in a clear plastic bag and taken away, everything else was looked at and closed back up. I loaded it up on a cart and went back up to the now familiar seat and commenced waiting again. I realized at this point that I’d been awake since about 9am the previous morning with only a minute or two of dozing on the plane not surprisingly I wasn’t feeling sharp for questioning. But none came after maybe one other visit by the first agent and being told that April had been talked to.

So I’d been awake for 20+ hours, I had no papers travel or otherwise and I’m sitting just outside this little ribbon barrier technically not yet landed in Manchester. I really was starting to think that I was going to be forgotten about, that Tom Hanks movie about living in an airport suddenly seemed less funny. I was actually a little scared, simply thinking that if I hadn’t had April coming to pick me up no one would know where I was and even then I didn’t know what was going on and wasn’t permitted to communicate with anyone. Time passed. The other guy that had been sitting cleared and was on his way, I didn’t see any more of the agent that had detained me and the number of agents still around the counters thinned. I saw more of the cleaning staff working at the other end and my fear started to transmute to buried irritation since there were signs up warning about the penalties for assaulting any officers.

So its around 5ish pm now and I get approached by a different agent saying that I’d been dropped on him, so clearly the first guy had gone home. I have no pleasant word to share on him so I won’t. Also I realize now they had no visible name badges so there is no way to complain about them unless you can make out the signature on the detention slip. Anyhow, second agent has me leave all my belongings by my favorite chair and takes me back behind a secured door to one of the interview rooms. There he asks me pretty much everything over again but all at once instead of spacing the questions out over three damn hours. Unlike the first guy he is satisfied that I do intend to leave the country at the end of my stay and not try to disappear and go native. Among the other theories the first guy held seemed to be that I was here to run away with April, that I was here to get a job, and that someone claiming to want to do tourist things must have everything planned out ahead in detail for a long visit. I digress, second agent took a lot of notes and thought a lot, had me go back out to the damn chair and do some more waiting. But at least this time something was happening in the background I was fairly sure. A bit later he returned my hand written papers in the sack. Shortly after that he came around with my travel documents stamped and he turned me loose to enter the country. He mentioned that our conversation would be entered on the computer for the next time I entered which I really don’t know what that will mean for me. If I do come back to Britain in the future I think it will be to a different airport even if this one is the closest. That or a boat over from Holland, hell it would have been faster.

Finally I was landed. The airport as far as I could see on the arrival area was empty which was creepy, made my way through and there was April waiting just outside the doors. She’d just bought a book and was thinking about finding a seat somewhere and getting comfortable. I found that they had been paging for her right after I’d brought her name up as my host and had talked to her for about twenty minutes and that was it. I just wanted to be clear of this airport and city for that matter, it wasn’t the welcome I expected. I shoved my cart of luggage along, didn’t hug April for fear of cctv recordings and giving that first agent anything else to look at and we got out to the parking garage and loaded the car. I ranted for a bit about the whole trip thing and compared notes on her side of it then passed in and out of awake on the two hour drive back to Grimsby. Arrived at her house, had a brilliant home cooked meal that she’d made ahead, tipped into bed and passed out.

That is the big story of the trip, I have to say I’m still feeling paranoid, that was just too much scrutiny for me. I know that they have cctv up all over the place here. I’m still nervous about going out without April though there isn’t any rational reason to be, its like I expect them to behave like American border agents. Should have posted this right away, my procrastination has me forgetting details now.