Dark and dreary morning I awoke before the alarms on the iPad and iPhone would have summoned me from the Land of Nod. I got up as quietly as I could realising as I did that I had packed my comb in the luggage!

Breeze Taxis notified me the taxi was on its way, and even that it was outside! Well nearly outside as the driver had got confused where our house was. Our street is a little tricky. I was confused by the taxi claiming to be Uber, and also a little unsure when the driver asked for payment before setting off. But set off we did into the stygian night.

Dawn didn’t arrive before we reached Heathrow Terminal 5. Even at 6am the M25 was a torpid river of light. We made good progress I did notice the speedometer in the car was saying the speed was higher than it was just like our Kia. A common software problem or deliberate government policy?

I tried to doze a little as we travelled. The rain ruffled the windscreen making me think the driver was snacking as he drove! Like my car there were one or two empty plastic water bottles on the floor. We went past the Macdonalds at Royston Virginia and I stop at when we return from cruises. Lights on but car park bare.

Checked in easily, my home printed out boarding pass worked, and I didn’t get told to remove plastic belt as happened last time at Heathrow. Also no need to remove laptops from bags. For variety I did get body searched.

The orange juice and smaller Eggs Florentine was welcome if on the expensive side.

Took a shuttle to get to gate C61 - they spent a long time doing a security check before letting us on. Seeing if there were any illegal immigrants hiding?

Tried to ask one of the staff if one could take water on board but he only did sign language! The answer at Heathrow for the flight to Japan was yes. Fairly smooth boarding. We got pretzels to keep us going then I had sticky rice miso chicken for lunch which passed muster just as food.

They handed out arrival and customs cards - apparently you can do these online which I didn’t know. It helped pass the time. Quite fiddly doing small things on the plane as in baggage class you have very limited space.

Found out when I switched timezones on my iPhone that Reminders scrambled the times I had carefully set! Watched a Japanese film ‘Supernatural Sweet Shop’ which wasn’t bad but not a lot of choice of Japanese films.