On my way home from Hong Kong this week (I was there for an HP conference), Lauren asked me to pick up some duty free makeup. No worries - I do it every time I go on a business trip.

Except that this time, at Hong kong airport, as I went to purchase a series of make-up removers and lotions, I was told no. And while it took me a while to understand exactly what the woman was telling me, it turned out that because three out of the four bottles I was purchasing were over 100ml, I couldn’t take them on board the plane as hand luggage. Of course, I’d already checked in, so I couldn’t get it into and checked luggage, which meant I couldn’t purchase the cosmetics.

How f%&king stupid!

For a start – I’d already been through security, which meant that I hadn’t been able to get any volume of chemicals into the duty free area. Secondly - there was no way that I could have transferred any volatile liquids into these containers either. Thirdly - come off it! The whole notion of liquid bombs was a theory, which may or may not have worked if thoe British terrorists hadn’t been caught.

They had another check just before we got onto the plane, too, so there was no chance of getting the stuff through.

I’m all for being vigilant and fighting terrorism, but not when it borders on absurd. Let’s see some kind of sensibility back in the world. (BTW - that image was taken at The Peak in Hong Kong. Nothing to do with my rant other than I took it over there…)