Because I told you so...

I just went through another one of those "why do I have to travel so much?" episodes. While going through security at the KL International Airport on my way back to Beijing, I was stopped by security who told me "Sir, you cannot bring these liquids on board since you are going to Beijing".

I looked at him straight-faced and with early signs of rage.
"- Sorry?! These flasks are 100 ml or less. This is fine.
- Sir, the rules have changed, you cannot bring them on board since you are going to Beijing.
- That doesn't make any sense, I just flew FROM Beijing on Sunday and it was fine. Have the rules changed today?
- They changed (mumbled comments, not sure it was today, not today, etc)... You see it's the Olympics"

This threw me on a fit "The Olympics" - I thought. I am passionate about these Olympics and will attend a lot of events, but this is getting ridiculous.

I obviously followed up with: "I want to see the paper that says that or talk to your boss".

After 10 minutes of discussion with security and then with Malaysia Airlines, I was able to convince one of the Malaysian Airlines ground staff to help me and he finally got the boss to come.

At this stage, I was hoping for the worst, but the boss - clearly the boss as he was older and looked much wiser - was quite calm and nice. He did insist he could do nothing about it. That it was not, in effect, a decision made by Beijing but a decision made by the KLIA. I was obviously shocked and asked the fundamental question: "Why?"

He answered in the same tone: "Not sure Sir. It was a decision made by the superior".

I got confused and, for a second, thought God was somewhat involved in this. Maybe it was an act of Divine Intervention that I was losing my shaving cream, Tooth paste and perfume?!

I soon became grounded again and assured myself it had just been another idiotic decision by someone who clearly doesn't travel nearly as much as they should... just so they could observe the impact they have on people's lives with ... (you guessed it) their stupid decisions.

Anyway, the good news is that I'm now at home in Beijing and for the next 2.5 weeks. A motive for celebration.