I was in Sydney last weekend as a gift from my gal. Aside from being a wonderful weekend, I could help but notice the effects the terrorism message had.

The lonely briefcase
We arrived at Sydney airport and queued up at the end of a very long line to catch a taxi. The line stretched around a number of barriers so we pretty much started 2 metres away from where we eventually finished. As the line continued to shrink, and we continue to get closer to the road, someone pointed out an old black briefcase sitting all alone in the queue.

There were no shrieks of “argghhh, it’s a bomb,” although the people near it, immediately took a few steps back, us included. Almost like it had become a natural instinct. Once guy summonsed the taxi rank manager dude. He was pretty much a traffic director who hadn’t yet passed his test to direct traffic on an actual road.

He looked petrified and urgently called for security. Yelling out for someone to claim the case, one tall gentlement who was on the phone stepped forward. The taxi rank guy blasted him, telling him he must never ever, under any circumstances leave his bags unattended. It became immediatley obvious to me that this guy took his job, and protection of Australian from terrorist acts, extremely seriously.

The tall guy took his briefcase and moved back to his position in the line. He obviously didn’t like this briefcase because less than a minute later, he placed it on the ground and walk away from it again.

Ice cream
I love a good ice-cream when it’s raining, so, on one of our walks we purchased some. Now, they had two scoops which were huge. I finished mine pretty quickly as I often do, but E. was struggling to finish. I convinced her that it was okay to throw the rest away so as we walked, we looked for a bin.

There were no bins near us so I took the ice-cream and carried it for E. We were just near Central station with plenty of people walking all around. I proceeded to try to give the ice-cream away but no-one took me up on the offer.

As we walked to the train platform we continued looking around for a bin (or a parent who would let their child eat our gift of fresh ice-cream.) The ice-cream was slowly melting so I decided to keep it in check by having some of it as we walked. I was already full so didn’t want to consume the whole lot.

There was not a single bin in sight so we proceeded to the train platform to look there. We reached the platform and couldn’t find a single cylindrical device to throw this melting ice-cream into. It was then I remembered that Sydney removed most of the public bins for fear they would be used to plant bombs. How annoying was this.

Rubbish bins have been removed from Sydney’s underground stations but remain on many suburban stations.
Sydney Morning Herald

Well, the train arrived and we boarded. By the time we got to our station, the ice-cream was gone. No, I didn’t leave it under a seat, I had to eat it.

After that trip, I felt really ill. It didn’t worry me however. I just reminded myself that it was my duty as a citizen to help keep bombs out of Sydney rubbish bins.

Difference of opinions
We started our trip back to Melbourne. Arriving at the airport, we proceeded to the security scan area. Regardless of whether I’m carrying a bomb or not, I always get nervous walking through those doorways. On the way to Melbourne, both E. and I got pinged. I had to take off my belt, E. had to take off some bracelets.

E. was better prepared this time. She placed her bracelets on the belt to be x-ray’d. I thought I’d try my luck again. I nervously walked through the doorway and to my surprise, I passed! E. passed through as well (but she had cheated!) Interesting how different airport scanners pick up different clothing material.

I picked my backpack up off the belt. Before E. could grab hers, she was escorted aside to go through her back. They spotted something on the x-ray which looked suspicious. Working methodically through the bag they placed her wallet, diary and phone into a tray, and rescaned the lot.

The suspicious object still appeared, and it was still in her bag. They continued to work through it and eventually found, hidden in an inside pocket, a large nailfile. It would’ve been at least 3 inches long.

So here’s my conclusion, if you want to smuggle some metal object onto the plane, place it in your hand luggage if your departing from Melbourne. Then, as you go through Sydney, transfer it to your person and you’ll be right!