"What's going to cause the situation to get worse is for the fear factor to rise in that officer," Koep said. "The officer is more likely to cut you a break as long as you can reduce that fear. …If you're friendly with me, not arguing or denying what happened, that lowers the fear factor and will make me a lot more cooperative with you."

To all my Muslim friends, Eidul Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir batin! Wish you all a blessed Eid and better life. As usual, we will be celebrating Eid here in Madrid. This year would be the worst for me personally as I’ll probably have to work @ the uni – that leaves me no time to prepare no rendang no lemang no kuah kacang …..we’ll be “qadha”-ing all that at the embassador’s house though <Wink>!