Is that a gun in your bag? Or …

Back home now, after a few fun days doing a couple of the European Hursley Comes To You events in Paris and Madrid.

One thing that made these sessions stand out from the US variety was the catering at lunch time. A cheese board in Paris, along with some really evil sticky desserts; beer and wine served with the nibbles in Madrid … So much more civilised.

But one unexpected thing happened as I was returning from Madrid. I went through the airport security, and was able to watch my bag on the X-Ray scanner. Only to see a large silhouette of a gun appear.

There was no challenge from the operator, and noone asked to look in the bag. It was of course one of the random challenges that the system puts up to check the operator is still awake, but I was still surprised at a) how casually the process was taken and b) how badly and blatently superimposed was the image. I would have expected something a bit more subtle.