First the “Jail in Saudi” experience. It was 1980. “Death of a Princess” had been shown in England and Saudi Arabia was miffed. My passport was in the Saudi Embassy in London during this. I was awaiting a visa to teach a PL/I programming class there.

Eventually the visa was issued and I hied me off to Saudi – the 5th. or 6th. visit I had made. This one was different..

Classes went well, and I had my usual good time. I always like to get into the other cultures, and so while I stayed in Western Hotels, worked in a westernized atmosphere, I spent as much time as I could out and about.

Time to leave – and I go through emigration, only to be told that, “My papers are not in order”. That’s a bad sign. So off to the clink . It was off course the beginning of a 3 day weekend. I phoned the host company and explained. No, nothing could be done until after the long weekend. So settled down to 3 days of reading.

Eventually I was released and had to reclaim my luggage. No problem – Swiss Air had unloaded it when I was denied boarding and had thoughtfully placed it in the customs shed. No problem I thought – just go tot the shed and pick it up. It was slightly more involved than that, but not much.

I managed to get on to the BA flight out – to Vienna.

Just to compound the event, as we were climbing out and settling in for the trip, the pilot announced, “Those on the right side of the aircraft may notice a fireworks display. Those are not fireworks, Iran and Iraq have just declared war.

Oh, and the reason I was detained? Simple, my exit visa expired one year earlier (in the Arabic version), but was for the correct date in the English version.

Oh well.

And the second one – and one that I am less proud of.

As a young adult, I was very into sailing. So much so that I would take a trip every weekend. Walk to the train station (3 miles). Catch a train. Change trains, catch another train, catch a bus. All for a journey of about 25 miles. Of course come Sunday evenings I was exhausted and the 3 mile walk home with wet sailing gear was too much. So one night, I called the emergency services number and reported a “suspicious stranger”. Continued walking. Sure enough a police cruiser came by. Looking for suspicious strangers. I fit the bill. Ride home soon forthcoming.

This was at least 40 years ago – times were different then. Definitely don’t recommend attempting to use the emergency services as a private taxi company. But as a callow youth….

-Ramon

My contribution here:

http://peterjamesthomas.com/2010/03/30/no-fooling-a-new-blog-tagging-meme-by-curt-monash/

Great idea.

Peter