Bag found... Daughter not!

I expected to meet Julie today at 3.15pm and was duly there with camera at the ready to capture her arrival. It just so happened that four flights arrived at around the same time and there was quite a crowd waiting to greet all the arrivals. We all waited patiently as passengers began to trickle through; it does take some time to clear customs and security. After an hour my wayward mind began to conjure up the worst scenarios; she'd missed her flight from Heathrow because the London train had been held up or worse... she'd been taken ill enroute... she'd got lost at Dubai and missed the connecting flight... or she'd been caught carrying some illegal substance, like food.

I'm not kidding; on arrival I was confronted by large posters warning of the dire consequences of not declaring any food; not just fresh fruit, veg, meat or fish, but anything at all! I was also instructed to declare if I'd been hiking in the country or camping in the forest, in case there were deadly substances on my boots, or any water sports equipment. So, fearful of being fined or imprisoned, I filled in my declaration that indeed I had been hiking and camping in the countrysde of Australia and I was actually carrying snorkelling gear that Rich had bought. When I reported my lost bag I was interrogated by a very nice security man, who looked bemused when I admitted to smuggling a small half-bottle of olive oil, an opened jar of pesto and some rice and pasta in my bag.

Anyway, back to this afternoon. When I'd waited for almost two hours and was assured that the last passenger had come through, I looked for assistance at the Emirates counter where a very nice lady informed me that she couldn't give any information on a passenger because of privacy laws, (how ridiculous can things get?) then suggested that I'd come on the wrong day. Now I'm not really stupid, but Julie did give me this date; Monday 2nd Feb. However, neither of us had taken into consideration the tremendous time difference, so yes, its tomorrow that she'll arrive, having left Heathrow at 8.00 this morning NZ time and will arrive here on Tuesday 3rd.

I did get my bag back and the food was still there, although customs had obviously been through it. So I was able to have pasta with pesto for my dinner with veg I'd just bought. Now I can change my clothes too, when the young men in the dorm are not about!