This Week On Boarder Security...

Lauren, a hapless backpacker from Australia, arrives at the Geneva International Airport to catch a plane to Malta. Lauren checks in, presents her passport and ticket, and has her ticket to Japan to show that she will be leaving Europe (eventually).

Check-in proceeds well, until the end, when Lauren is required by airline policy to show that she has a ticket to depart Malta. Lauren's father has booked her a flight to Spain on an e-ticket for the following Saturday, but Lauren does not have a copy on her, or in her email inbox.

Thanks to the modern wonder of mobile telephony, Lauren contacts her parents, who are already in Malta and asks them to email across the details. Lauren goes to the only internet cafe at the airport, to print it out and is told she needs to present it at the desk by 8:15 am.

The internet cafe does not open until 8 am. As soon as it opens Lauren attempts to access her email account, but due to the crazy French keyboard gmail gets suspicious and won't let her log in. More phone calls, more emails, and finally - at 8:10 -Lauren has her reservation. She rushes back up to the desk.

Will she make it in time?

Well, yes, she did. But it was the most stressful airport experience I've had to date. Many thanks to my parents for emailing across the details, and to Hugh for buying the internet time and preventing me from hyperventilating. The only consolation was that I didn't have that guy from Boarder Security narrating the whole sorry affair.