My Mother's Day dream features a fluffy white duvet, baby kisses and cuddles, a relaxed breakfast in bed and a day let off domestic duties.
Should I dare to dream? I imagine many other women share this soft-focus vision but perhaps it never comes true. The reality is an over-excited toddler, a tea-stained duvet with bits of jammy toast stuck to it and a weary mummy.

Start your holiday with a happy and healthy smile rather than an exhausted grimace. Our holidays should be some of the most enjoyable times in our lives but they can become the most stressful, like moving house or changing jobs.

Lack of preparation, tiredness, delays, long queues at the airport, unexpected security restrictions and anxiety all contribute to this stress, particularly at the start of our holiday.

When the first passengers arrive at Heathrow's shiny new Terminal 5 on Thursday 27 March 2008 from Hong Kong, those transferring onto a domestic flight will have their photograph taken and fingerprints scanned.

In these troubled times security is naturally a priority in a new international airport terminal. But what security systems are in place at T5? And could they be a threat to our civil liberties?

BAA, the owners of Heathrow, and British Airways, who will have exclusive use of T5, insist that biometric screening is a government requirement and a necessity in the new terminal because domestic and international passengers are brought together in one departure lounge.

I doubt many of us will be springing out of bed on the morning of Sunday 30 March 2008, when we've lost a precious hour's sleep. On the positive side, it does signal the beginning of British Summer Time and longer, lighter evenings.

We've been religiously putting our clocks backwards and forwards to varying degrees in England since 1916.

Heathrow's shimmering new terminal building has now been officially opened by the Queen and the countdown's begun for the arrival of the first passengers on 27 March 2008.

British Airways and the British Airports Authority (BAA) declare that it will redefine the airport experience. Those arriving from Hong Kong next Thursday will be desperately hoping this is true.

At 9.00 am last Sunday morning around 35,000 pairs of trainers prepared to pound the capital's streets in the Flora London Marathon.

At the same time, millions of people across 150 countries turned on their televisions, settled back with a cup of coffee and remain glued to the screen for the next three or four hours.

Why do so many people choose to put themselves through 26 miles 385 yards of physical and mental hell? And why do we want to watch them do it?

The first London Marathon took place in 1981, the result of a pub conversation over a few pints of bitter and the experience of the late Chris Brasher who had just run the New York City Marathon.

With the effects of the credit crunch taking hold UK consumers are looking to make spending cut backs on holidays, says a new report.

Rising interest rates, gas and electricity prices, council tax, water rates and weekly shopping bills are now squeezing British incomes so that luxury purchases such as holidays, home improvements, clothes and cars are suffering.