* smile power *

~ September 18th 2005 ~

Today a group of us arrive in LAX airport for a couple of days. As we walked towards counter one (as directed) at the end of the many counters of immigration officers seated along the stretch; one of them came forward and said, “ Keep going to the end but some of you may come through this side.”

I was almost at the end of the group and had paused to listen to him and was about to turn back to the barricades that he was opening when he said again, “the rest of you ahead keep going on, only some of you come through here.” So I stopped, lifted an eyebrow and gave the officer a big smile. He smiles back and signals me to turn back laughing…”Alright, you with the big smile, come on over.”

I was thrilled cos it meant I didn’t have to make a big U turn after clearing immigration at the end and walk back down again to retrieve my luggage. The officer was a nice fella and as he checked my details. I commented it was not very busy at that time. He said only at that moment, so it was like a breather for them then.

He pointed out I had not written the flight number and we both smiled at each other as he did it for me while I apologised. Then it was the left index, right index and look at the camera. Finished, I stood aside tucking my passport back into my bag whilst my friend took my place. I gave the officer ‘yeah, yeah’ grin when he said loudly, “Oh good, you’ve already written the flight number.” to my friend.

With a cheeky grin, I bade him a good day and went to collect my bag from the carousel. My seniors were laughing because they saw the whole thing.

Well, it was a nice start to my trip in Los Angeles. Let’s hope the rest of it will be even better! * SMILE! *