Two Pomelos + US Customs = Missed Flight and a Bad Motel
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The pomelo (or Chinese grapefruit, pummelo, pommelo, jabong, boongon, shaddock, jeruk Bali, or suha), Citrus maxima (Merr., Burm. f.), also Citrus grandis (L.), is a citrus fruit, usually a pale green to yellow when ripe, larger than a grapefruit, with sweet flesh and thick spongy rind.
Those who know me, know that I don’t often get pissed off. Sometimes however it is just inevitable. Most of the time I can forgive a person if they make an honest mistake, but when somebody purposely lies and as a result causes me to miss a very important flight, then I get angry. Forgive me while I vent, but here is what happened.
Phil and I were on our way down to Sea-Tac airport to catch our 11:16 flight from Seattle to Orlando. The Quick Shuttle left Vancouver at 5:30pm and was scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 9:30, giving us almost two hours to connect to our flight. Seemed like a pretty safe bet, except that we hadn’t included the unpredictable “Pomelo Factor”. That’s right, the Polemo Factor, is the effect of hiding pomelo in your luggage, declaring that you are not carrying said pomelo, and then being caught carrying said pomelo, thus resulting in fines, penalties, and the inevitable delay of your Quick Shuttle bus carrying forty fellow passengers. In the end, that passengers choice to carry fruit, lie to US Customs and get caught, resulted in Phil and me missing our flight to Orlando, paying over $250 more in hotel and airfare charges, and missing a whole day of the PhoCusWright conference.
I suppose I can take solace in the fact that I have a new story to tell, not to mention that I get to celebrate Phil’s birthday in a crappy motel room that stinks of cigarettes.
By the way, I updated the Wikipedia entry for Pomelo to include some helpful information about the importation of the delicious citrus fruit into the U.S. for all those of you who are considering sneaking it in your luggage.
(Update! The Wikipedia entry was updated and my entry was removed. Too bad, but it does show the self-monitoring capabilities of the crowd. So, good on Wikipedia for proving that there is wisdom in crowds)
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Sorry to hear you missed your flight. Damn, who will be paying our extra expenses. BTW, Happy Bday Phil.