flying to heathrow- yes or no

[sammac]

I am due to fly tomorrow for a weekend in London with my friend. I am flying myself tomorrow morning and feeling very apprehensive about the whole thing. Should I cancel??? I am beating myself up about it as it's purely pleasure. My dh is very calm about it, but my mum and brother are really putting me off.
I don't know what to do. It's been planned for ages and my friend travelled down by train today. She's meeting up with her husband for tonight,so won't be left in the lurch and could travel back with him tomorrow if I did cancel.
Am I just being a coward?

Personally I would go, you have probably much more chance of having an accident on the road or at home than anything happening - but I am always a bit blase about things like that. 'If it's going to happen, it's going to happen' is what I believe. My DH is flying all over the place on business & hasn't even considered cancelling his plans.

I agree. I'm flying from Stansted on Monday and, although it does cross my mind, I'm really not going to change my life (that much) for something which is very unlikely to happen. What would you tell your best friend if she was travelling, not you?

I have just asked my DH whether he would fly into Heathrow at the moment and he said no he wouldn't ... I however, would ... I think the fact that I live so far away from my family is the draw for me and I wouldn't let those bs stop me from getting to the ones I love ...
BUT ... if war had already started I would obviously have to think about it more closely ...
If I were you sammac I would go ... Have fun if you do!

I'd go.

I realised on Saturday morning as I waited for my plane to Glasgow that this was the first time I had flown in 18months, first time since the Sept 11 attack. And the first time for ages I'd flown without DD. I hadn't even given her a kiss on the way out, as I didn't want to wake her at 6am.

But then I thought about all the panes flying up and down the country like buses these days and reassured myself a bit.

BTW, sammac, thx for the book - I read it this week as the pooter was a dead duck for a few days.

hi sammac, i flew in to heathrow yesterday, returning from a business trip. the security alert emerged while i was away. have to admit, i was quite worried but decided there was far more chance of getting into an accident in the car on the way home... also came to the conclusion there is probably less chance of something happening while they are being so vigilant.

hth - and enjoy your weekend in london

Thanks for the messages. I've discussed it further with dh over dinner and I'm going to go. Your reassurances helped a lot.
btw Suew, we went to the science centre and I asked a few painters but obviously missed you. That guy you mentioned was fabulous!!
Thanks everyone:

Hey sammac - did you see him painting on the second floor then?

If you hung around for very long, I was queue organiser on Saturday - painting numbers on children's hands as they waited their turn to be painted. I was too afraid to paint in the company of such greatness - and am such a newcomer to this, compared with those who were painting who have years of experience.

One little girl sat down and asked to be a monster and Olivier painted her with a misplaced mouth and mishapen face - amazing. He is so cool - his philosophy is to make the child whatever they want to be, even if mum's in the background saying 'No darling, why not be a pretty princess'.

You can see some of his amazing work here . It gives a security warning as you enter the site but if you're not giving details shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Go -I flew into city from Dublin yesterday after the flight to Gatwick was cancelled (actually worked out better for me) Agrre with bk - they are looking so carefully taht chances of anything happening are even slimmer tahn usual

My dh, dd and I are due to fly to Australia early April to see my family and nothing will stop me from going. None of my family or friends in Australia have seen my daughter. I also have not seen my family for more than a year. The only hassle we see is the increased security and how to keep Dd amused for hours on end in Heathrow while we wait to depart. If we stay in our homes and refuse to venture out - then these people have won. We have handed our freedom to them and let them whoever they are dictate our lives to us.

eidsvold - have to agree that LHR is the very worst place to keep a small child amused, unless it has changed greatly in the - yikes over two - years since I was last there. The only child thing was a bead table.

They should take a leaf out of JFK's book and get Lego in and put out some duplo tables.

Or the amsterdam airport which has the most wonderful play area for small children.

Well we flew into Heathrow today, knowing nothing of what's been going on in the two weeks we've been away, and didn't even find out about it until we got home and people started asking us about having problems at the airport. There was absolutely no evidence of any increased security today. (I don't think I was so asleep after an overnight transatlantic flight that I'd not have noticed - but I wouldn't swear to it!).

Oh and terminal 4 does have a childrens play area with one of those climb through the tubes things, but it's a bit stuck out at the end of the terminal, so quite a long walk if your gate is at the other end.

Glad to hear Amsterdam is good though, as we have a couple of hours there between flights on our next major trip.

Terminal 3 is dire though - although they were doing work last time I was there. A long time ago.

Also, I must send a snotty email to East Midlands airport who are giving themselves a big pat on the back for being the Friendliest Airport or something but have removed their children's play area (no longer sponsored by Airtours according to one employee and anyway they need the space for more retail outlets. Not funny when you have your child along and you find out your husband's incoming flight has just been delayed by a further half hour.

sammac - hope it all went welland you enjoyed your weekend!