12 January 2007

Customs clearance day and time to see if my little work around is effective. I have managed to convince a colleague to say to customs that the shipment is in fact hers. She was understandably nervous as she has no idea what it contains, so asked me to come along. This made me nervous as I am worried I will be recognised from my earlier shipment. The story became I was the colleagues new boyfriend and sitting in front of the official I was panicking but played it cool. Few “personal” jokes aside with my new “girlfriend” that she picked up very quickly helped maintain the illusion. There was one mild panic moment when the official looked up from the plethora of forms with a face like thunder and bellowed to a subordinate. Thankfully his ire was directed at the subordinate who had stapled the forms together in the wrong order, practically a criminal offence in a bureaucracy like Jamaica.

That slight hiccough aside, everything passed off without a hitch. So much so, that I might consider getting into this smuggling lark. Just move everything at 2:45pm on a Friday when Custom officals just wish to stamp forms and get out of there rather than inspect merchandise.
I must reward my colleague handsomely as she has just saved me a small fortune in duty. I left elated and excited about some of my imported creature comforts – sofa without hideous chintz patterns, plain white plates and Reidel wine glasses.