Sunday, 29 May 2011

My field of occupation.

Every mile travelled is another thing learned about the world - that's what I like about leaving the house. For instance, foolishly putting an honest answer on your visa form on the plane is what gets you taken aside in the immigration queue to have a nice little chat with a swarthy Tunisian official who barely speaks any English and only offers you heavily accented French.

'Journalist', I wrote into the occupation field. "Brum-brum," I said to the nice man whilst doing a steering wheel movement with my hands a four-year-old would have sneered at. "Car journalist." The sinister fellow planted behind the desk scrutinised me, and carefully noted down all of the details from my green form and my passport.

"Goodbye," he said suddenly, nudging my stuff across the desk. And that was that as far as I could see - there were some suspicious-looking secret police-types standing by our coaches, but I didn't come into further contact with anyone official until leaving the country when I had to go through the whole shebang again. I am decided that I am going to have some master baker or celebrity chef business cards drawn up.

2 comments:

  1. A journalist I know has an alternative identity (complete with fake business cards) as a dealer in antique ceramics. Representatives of repressive regimes don't seem to mind him ripping off their cultural heritage, so long as he doesn't write about their misdemeanours.

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  2. Brilliant - how far do you think I should take it? A Jason Bourne-style fake passport and moustache? Having said that, I would probably only be using my alternative identity for further seaside holidays in North Africa, so it might not be that crucial...

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