Random Memory #7

Random memory: my father bought a sailing dinghy and put it on the car's roof rack, and drove from Brightlingsea to Vienna via Calais. I stupidly accompanied him. On nearing the Austrian border he started worrying that he'd have to pay VAT on the boat, and insisted we stop in a layby and make the boat look "used." We did this three times, and I had to make cuts in the boat's keel with my penknife. Appropriately enough, the last time we stopped, it was in a town called Bad Fussing. At the border crossing my father started to bore the Austrian customs official with blather about the boat. When the bloke in the uniform started licking his pencil expectantly, I out-Teutoned him by looking at my watch, tutting, and saying, "Diplomatisch." We were waved through with salutes...