Flying out of Heathrow

Oh, man...

I'm watching the BBC news covering the "Terror Plot" involving plans to blow up aircraft flying from Heathrow to the US - and the chaos that has already ensued due to the cancellation of all flights in and out of Heathrow today.

I'm due to fly home on Saturday - two days from now - and the thing that's really worrying me is the "no hand-luggage" thing. No book to read. No puzzle magazines allowed. No bottle of water. No iPod. And no laptop. Fuckshitbollocks.

What am I going to do with my laptop? My iPod? My digital camera? And how on earth am I going to keep myself occupied for 36 hours (12 hour flight from Heathrow to HK, 12 hours at HK airport and 12 hour flight from HK to NZ) with nothing to read except the in-flight magazine???

I've been checking online about the safety of laptops in checked-in baggage. You're basically looking at three possible scenarios:

• Your bag gets opened and your valuables are stolen
• Your delicate and fragile laptop/iPod/camera get crushed and/or broken as the baggage handlers chuck your suitcase around with gay abandon and pile lots of heavy stuff on top
• Your laptop/iPod/camera get too cold down in the cargo area of the plane and things like LED screens shatter in the cold.

*sigh* Better backup my entire laptop and leave the disks with my sister. Better check I'll be covered by my travel insurance if they get stolen or broken. Wonder if I can buy a really heavy-duty laptop case before I leave.

I know it sounds stupid to be worrying about things at a time like this - maybe I'm focusing on that instead of the much more scary thought of a bomb on the plane. My sister reassured me by saying it's probably the safest time to travel - just because of the increased level of security - and that's true - and it did make me feel better. I don't particularly like flying at the best of times, so this certainly doesn't make me feel any better.

I'm not too worried about delays - I know there will be massive delays at Heathrow - the backlog won't be sorted out by Saturday, I'm sure - but at least I have 12 hours in Hong Kong, which hopefully will cover any delay in arriving from London.

*double sigh*

I hate flying.

Technorati tags: terror plot, Heathrow, flying, terrorism, security, hand luggage.