At last a hot May 8th rolled around, and Virginia dropped me at Trumpington Park and Ride to wait for the coach to Heathrow. It was only then I discovered one of the minor details was well and truly goofed. To start with I had booked the coach from Trumpington to Heathrow Terminal 5 failing to find the option to just to go to Terminal 2 and 3 which was cheaper. Then the time I had booked it for was absurd as it would mean spending hours at Heathrow which I detest. So changing the time cost more money. But only when waiting for the coach did I notice I had booked it for the wrong month! When I did eventually manage to get the attention of the guy on the desk at the Park and Ride he told me I could pay on the coach - and there was one just waiting there . . . which pulled away as I went for it! And the next one would only get me to Heathrow less than 2 hours before the flight.

Not one of my better moments. There wasn't any alternative but to sit the time out, and catch the 787 rather than the 727. After a merry tour through Luton and Hemel Hempstead and the like I did get to Heathrow in more than enough time to catch the flight - perhaps more pleasant sitting on a coach than waiting at Heathrow. The stress of the day didn't finish with charging into Terminal 2 though - I tried to use the machines to get a baggage tag for my big case but they said my passport didn't match anyone on flight OZ522 of Asiana Airlines which I thought I was booked on! The problemette was a while back I double barrelled my surname, and the computer system didn't understand hyphens! After seeing more than a few of the staff there I was allowed through and my big bag checked in. I drank the contents of my water bottle to get through security (note to self - Asiana didn't involve another security check so I could have refilled that bottle quite easily). Just in case I thought I'd get some polos but there was a long queue at Boots where they were 60p. So I tried WHSmiths where the machine wouldn't scan my boarding card. A happy failure as WHSmiths wanted 95p for the same polos!

Got to Gate B33 and in a way entered a foreign land right there and then. Most of my fellow passengers were Korean, I noticed one girl who was balancing a bottle of water on her head for some reason, the only English in the announcements came at the end and seemed quite a bit shorter than what preceded it. The flight was straightforward, I was sitting in an aisle seat and managed to doze off now and then. On the flight I opted for Korean fodder and surprised the stewardesses - the Bibimbap was very acceptable, though I could have used less of the red chilli paste. We got given simple slippers to put on. The plane had charging points for phones and tablets which I wasn't expecting, but I hadn't flown for three years. These were much used - the Koreans sitting by me got out large format phones and plugged them in to watch and listen to.