General comment: officials and staff and fellow passengers were usually very friendly and helpful. But a lot of time this holiday was spent on airplanes or getting ready to be on airplanes or emerging from them. A big vexation for me was the inconsistency in security procedures. (It is nice that one can take water on board now.)

So I have a plastic belt. Most airports were happy with this. Not Heathrow. The security staff I dealt with claimed the scanners couldn’t cope. Takeaway from this is that plastic belts are not worth the effort.

A lot of airports were happy that phones and tablets and electronic devices were left in bags for security checks. Not Madrid. Also at Madrid they insisted on separately checking bottles of water.

Madrid also one time through they weighed carry-on baggage. I thought this was a sensible thing to do seeing the stuff some passengers had as carry-on bags but it was an unexpected delay as I tried to get on the plane during final boarding.