Tuesday, 2/5/08 Sydney 4pm but really 7am

I remained calm when picked at random by the border patrol at the airport for a full baggage search and a zillion questions. The quarqantine expert told me that I’ve now been earmarked forever in Australia for not declaring that I had soil left on two pairs of shoes. (Their card had asked about farm animals, not wild animals.) I’d cleaned them but noty enough. I’d also not declard the bag of trail mix I’d bought in Johannesburg airport and hadn’t opened yet, although I mentioned it to them before they opened my bags. When I told the bored border guard that it had been the first time I’d ever had my bags searched in fifty years of world travel, he said, “lucky you.”My Australian reputation is down the tubes and ruined. Maybe I’d better not move here.