At 09:18 AM 1/15/97 -0500, Geoff Love wrote:
Last time I left
>London Airport, I had three Shorrock superchargers and four Lucas
>magnetos in two suitcases. The Pakistanis who run the airport, and who
>are most excitable people in a crisis, reacted in a totally predictable
>way. They went potty and blew all the bells and whistles when they saw
>the contents on the X-Ray screen. People looked. Very embarrassing. I
>had to open the suitcases for an inspector, and when he saw what was in
>them, he got all excited too. It turned out he was an MGB enthusiast
>and made me an offer for one of the blowers. Unfortunately, they were
>all spoken for, so I wasn't able to conclude a sale at that moment.
>My advice would be always to carry on whatever you want to get for any
>MG. I do, even if my arms were nearly torn from their sockets by the
>weight.
>
>
>Geoff Love, The English Connection.
>
>
Best time we had with customs was when we traveled to Abingdon when they
were in the process of leveling the old factory. We walked around and
picked up some of the building bricks as momentos. We had the whole family
with us, so weight wasn't a problem. When we went through customs at
Heathrow, the official asked if we had anything to declare and we when we
answered no, he started to go through the luggage. He felt the bricks,
which we had carefully wrapped in various sections of the bags. He asked,
very seriously - "What is in that package?" We answered deadpan "Bricks".
He then asked us to unwrap one; we did and he stared at the brick for a few
moments, shook his head and said "These are ordinary building bricks, don't
they make these in the US?" Some things you just can't explain.
Barbara - the real bleckstein@monmouth.com
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