<<< What surprised me most was not that she was able to get the rules bent, but that she was still flying commercial... >>>

a) she knows what poor means
b) she's Scottish

Actually she's from Cheshire, although 2 of her 3 UK homes are in Scotland.

I read that if she hadn't have been allowed to take the MS on the plane, she'd have gone by sea.

We managed to get away with a rolled print > 55cm a few weeks ago, on the way back from Berlin; but had acquired it in the expectation it would probably be taken off us. It's the luck of the draw.

At airports I've visited over the last few months they've been selecting random passengers to remove their shoes - I've seen this at Edinburgh, Cardiff and Berlin, but haven't been to Heathrow yet this year.

>> I'm suprised that more people don't mention the fact that you aren't required to remove your shoes when you go through LHR Security as we seem to be doing at airport security points in the US. <<

We had to remove our shoes October 2006.

Just because security isn't perfect--some things get thru that shouldn't--doesn't make it a joke. No human endeavor results in 100% perfection.