First Posted 29 January 2013
Dreams do come true. I have realized a lifetime achievement of obtaining the right to live and work in Australia. Three Fridays ago, I had Medial Meniscus surgery, two Fridays ago, I had a Tonsillectomy, last Friday flew to Australia, whew!
On a funny note, a family that I met on the plane asked me in baggage claim how my knee was feeling. I replied, “Oh, pretty good, but I’ve been taking so many pain killers it’s hard to really know for sure.” Security walked up to me immediately and asked me to proceed straight to the yellow door. What was behind the yellow door? That’s right, immigration and baggage search. I had so many drugs with me, they’re eyes popped. I’ve never been stopped before. I know technically I’m supposed to have the drugs in the original bottle with the prescription label, but I ALREADY HAD TOO MUCH STUFF. I had combined my pills, labeled the outside with the prescription information, and had the discharge papers with me from my tonsillectomy showing the list of all my prescriptions. Do not try this at home, let the professionals do it.
Looking back, it was just too much of a risk and I certainly did not think it through properly. They could have taken all my medication, fined me, and called into question my immigration status.
To top it off, I hadn’t declared the medication. The question began with, “Do you have any illegal or prohibited medication…” At that point, I stopped reading because all my medication was legal, and checked “No.” Apparently, the next line asked about ANY medication. So…they tested most of my medication to make sure it was what it was supposed to be. Then they grilled me about where I was going and what I was doing. I guess my story was so crazy (who is going to make up flying into Perth without a place to stay, hope for the best, and start paddling around Australia two weeks after a tonsillectomy and three weeks after medial meniscus surgery), they let me proceed. However, this delayed me enough to miss my connecting flight to Perth.
United was my carrier to Sydney, so when I went to check in for the connecting flight on Quantas, the nice lady advised me that I had only paid extra baggage charges for United and I still owed $30 to Quantas. Fine, at this point I had just made it into the country by the skin of my teeth, I’m not arguing. The only problem was that ALL MY LUGGAGE HAD BEEN SEARCHED AND I KNEW NOT WHERE MY WALLET WAS!! I had to spread all my belongings out, AGAIN, and had to work very very hard not to panic, because it was nowhere to be found. Finally, I found the wallet (of course in the last place I searched) and paid the charges with just enough time to make the next connecting flight to Perth.
To be continued…