Hurrah for Sri Lanka........?

Last year there was the thwarted major terrorist attack at Heathrow in August. We flew back to Sri Lanka 2 days later in a quiet, very subdued airport. I was rather hoping that there would be news of another thwarted attack just before we flew back this year. It would have put my mind at rest. There wasn't, which meant my mind was in overdrive wondering if there would be an attack on August 13th when we flew. I hate flying now, even more than I used to. Granted a slightly unfortunate position for the wife of a former B.A employee and then International development worker, to be in....

Terrorist attacks, or news of, now seem to punctuate our experience of summers in England. This yr a few day after we arrived in the (freezing) UK, there were the 2 car nail bombs in London which failed to detonate, (I'm sure the guy who towed the illegally parked car away is thanking his lucky stars...And looking for another job) A day later 2 terrorists drove a flaming car into the terminus building in Glasgow which they had first detonated with a bomb. It was deja vu. Oh yes it's the summer and I'm in England sort of thing.

Strikes me as ironic, coming from Sri Lanka, a country fully at war (in all but name still) with soldiers and police everywhere. I actually feel safer here than I would living in London. Perhaps that's because in London it's indiscriminate, here it's targeted (at the moment still) at the military and government. The war is in the North and East (where it is pretty awful). There is a terrorist attack every 3 month or so in Colombo. The main concern is you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it's still unlikely. The biggest danger wd be being caught in a fire fight, as the Sri Lankan army and police are wantonly indiscriminate (and inadequately trained) when they get caught in the midst of an 'incident'. M thinks I'm crazy, he says it's far more dangerous here than in the UK, but then maybe he's just talking about the driving and open manholes....

Actually it's good to be back. I realise I quite missed the anarchy and chaos. It's' nice that I can make my own decisions about how to conduct my life, and I am allowed to get on with it. It struck me again , not surprisingly, what a nanny state the UK is now. (see last entry in my blog) I wasn't even allowed to buy coffee at a conference without a lid on. Health and safety regulation, I'm told. This, despite the fact I was about to burn myself in wrestling the lid off, in order to put milk in...

As for Heathrow, one wonders, what price freedom? We're always told the British carry on as usual and don't let this sort of thing affect their way of life. It affects how we travel though. I'm all for security, but really the terrorists must be having the last laugh. Airtravel is miserable. The terrorist threat has made airports even more miserable. We had to remove our jackets, put certain items in the jacket pocket, everything else in trays in a certain order, have all liquids in a SEALABLE plastic bag and remove it from your hand luggage ready for separate inspection. Then you have to remove your shoes and pass them through the x-ray machine too. You can imagine the queues....

I fell at the first hurdle. My liquids were over 100ml (presumably you can't make a bomb from only 100ml of fluids..) I only had them because M was randomly chucking stuff out of suitcases saying this will have to stay, so I kept snaffling things into my hand luggage... I must confess to having an untypical and shamefully girly moment when I pleaded with the man not to take my CLARINS shower gel which a girlfriend had bought me as a treat. I had never had such expensive shower gel before (and it smelt gorgeous) I wasn't planning on showering mid flight, it was one of the items M had lobbed out of a suitcase as unnecessary. As if to say "after all you are an NGO Wife". Clearly not roughing it enough. The customs man removed 2 other liquid items of mine, and threw them into colour coded bins. I wanted to know what would happen to them. M sympathetically whispered "best not to ask"

Next hurdle we failed to clear was our 7 year old's roller blades. These are also not allowed on as hand luggage. Believe it or not we had scoured the website the night before to check what we could take on board . In some ways I have some sympathy with this rule. The thought of our son careering Frank Spencer-like through Heathrow, on his newly acquired mini roller blades, dodging Starbucks, Sushi bar and Thomas Pink would be enough to raise the stress levels of even the most phlegmatic traveller.

The customs man admitted he had no idea why they were banned as hand luggage , but "rules were rules" (In Britain?? You don't say.....,) He said they would have to be checked in, by one of us going back 'land side' to check-in. My devious mind immediately saw a glimmer of hope. I agreed whole heartedly with him, and asked if he could also rummage in the colour coded bins for my precious shower gel, put that in the boot bag and check it all in. So M was fast tracked back through, and this NGO wife is going to enjoy a bit of Clarins indulgence. I also like to think we provided a bit of interest and variety, not to mention a challenge, for the poor customs official ploughing through his tedious regulations.

Colombo Airport was looking surprisingly un Third World-y when we arrived. It has had major 'works' done, and has now gone the way of most developing countries in the extravagant shiny, marbled modernism of its National airport. They had already done this with the airport rd, the best, almost in the country. I have to say though, the airport can only be described as a false dawn. The first clue is in the 'tank stoppers (those things you see on the beach at the start of "Saving Private Ryan") by the airport exit. It goes down hill from there really.

The roller blades didn't arrive. I knew this meant at least an hour with the lost luggage desk, scouring the laminated card of pictures of the types of luggage lost, with the official insisting we choose one of them. Somehow I just knew a roller blade bag wdn't be on it, as indeed bags with windsurfing sails weren't either when we experienced this 18 mths ago... These were impounded by customs, deemed to be banners with incendiary slogans on, which of course no self respecting NGO worker should travel without....

Still hurrah for Sri Lanka. This was a seminal moment for us. At 9.30p.m on our first day back we had a phone call to say the blades had arrived in Colombo!! And in fact they were on their way to deliver them to us. And indeed they pitched up with them at 10.15pm the SAME day that we had lost them. Wow. Humble pie, humble pie. Heathrow eat your heart out. Teach us to moan about Sri Lanka efficiency. Well actually it was all the work of Qatar Airways in truth. Pretty impressive and a pleasant experience after 18 mths of rather different experiences here.