Stansted

Carcassonne Day One : Leave Liquids and Devices in the Bag

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I remembered that I had a full bottle of water before going through security and that led to the slight issue of where I was going to pour it. There didn’t seem to be any receptacles for liquids at the security area and so we had to traipse all the way back outside whilst I poured the water on the floor near to a bus and likely got noticed by six security cameras thinking that it was some nefarious attack on the building. I perhaps over-think these things if I’m being honest. It also made me wonder why I keep thinking I’ll drink all this water, but I’m not sure that anyone else (even my two loyal readers) would be overly engaged at that thought process.

Anyway, this wasn’t the reason for this post and I’ve become distracted already. After entering the security line, we got directed off to a new extension to the terminal building and I was delighted to see that we were part of a trial. Often this isn’t good, but on this occasion it was the new technology that meant liquids and laptops could stay inside of the bag whilst it went through security. I wouldn’t say that this is life-changing, but it is certainly preferable.

I’m not sure that they had it working quite right as twenty bags in a row went off to secondary screening and then that promptly blocked the entire security line. The staff remained polite and calm, other than one stressed guy who frankly looked panicked by the whole arrangement, but he was my favourite staff member as he was creating a bit of drama for passengers to watch. The owner of the twentieth bag seemed more stressed as the individual bag checks were going to take some time, they might have been less excited by the whole trial. As a positive, Liam and I sailed through, getting through by a whisker (around three hours) before the flight departed. Liam rejected my suggestion that this was cutting it fine, but he’s very reckless and is the only one of us who has actually missed a flight.