Fuddy duddy customs?

You know you love it. It's like a guilty secret. But when that Aussie border control show comes on tv you can't help but watch at the stupidity or genius of hidden drugs, food and banned items. My favorite were a pair of Thai ladies who had given themselves a spice girl lift in their trainers which funnily enough turned out to be coke. And not the type from the vending machine at the station...

"I bought them from a market"

You paid for those trainers?!!

Aussie customs on the wrong day OR if you're the wrong person can be obnoxious, full of themselves and almost aggressive. On a good day with innocence on your side they are cute liddle puddy cats. These are the days that your time between baggage and the arrivals hall are halved. Perhaps even quartered...

So it never surprises me when I get messages saying someone has sent me something. And two weeks later... Still waiting. (I AM on the other side of the world after all). And like the baggage hall - that box/envelope has to get through customs. And that could mean a combination of sniffer dogs, x ray's, human selection, that machine that 'smells' explosives and those swabs they take to detect drugs.

It's not surprising that they get confused with a parcel of delicious (and of course nutritious) English goodies and tea bags and need to 'hold on' to that parcel for further inspection.

This (clare's goody delivery) parcel has been my first since my birthday. And the last one on my birthday was sonia's who also had the same customs garb in it.

They are lovely enough to tell you they've searched your package. And then there is another leaflet. This second leaflet will tell you if something has been removed. Fortunately. I have yet to have anything removed - yey! But I know people who have lost tea bags. I honestly believe that is because the plastic manufacturers wrap had probably been removed. Therefore the tea bags could be tampered with...

I have a good story from one person. Who actually got a hand written letter from customs addressing their parcel which had taken something like 5 weeks to get through... The moral of her story was to ensure your mum; if sending butterscotch angel delight to you, really really shouldn't remove it from it's packaging and put it in a ziploc bag with 'angel delight' written on the side. An odd yellow powder in a plastic bag.. Hmmm... The mind boggles.

The good news - She did get the remaining angel delight that had not been used for testing. Perhaps they should just start selling it here to avoid that trouble in the future?