I made a trip home recently to see my family and sort out a few logistical things. On my way to the UK, at Murcia airport, I was asked the standard question “Do you have any liquids in your hand luggage?”. I showed them my pot of lip balm and they waved me on my way. When I returned to Spain, via East Midlands Airport, I faced the same enquiry. On production of the pot of lip balm I was told that I needed to put it in a clear plastic bag. Of course, this is routine procedure in this day and age, but I generally forget, partly due to the fact it isn’t imposed in every airport.

I told the security guard that unfortunately I didn’t have one with me and waited for him to produce one from the airport’s stack. He smiled and said “I’m afraid we don’t give them out now, this rule has been in place for 2 years you know and we can’t give them out for free any more”. With this, he lead me to a vending machine, yes, a vending machine, in which every slot was filled with plastic bags, with a sale price of 2 for 50p. “Why two?” I wondered, he shrugged and grinned again. As I swung my rucksack off my shoulder to dig for 50p, I noticed a food bag in one of the pockets, obviously from a previous flight. The clever-sneaky-forward thinking people who created and installed these machine won’t be making any money out of me just yet.