Round The World and other travels

Sitting in 3A, which I had grabbed using OLCI, I was in position to watch a little drama unfold. An ambulance was summoned to the aircraft to offload a member of the cabin crew, who up to this point had been occupying one of the two forward toilets. While all this was unfolding, I also took the opportunity to visit the other forward toilet and was dismayed to note that it was not in a particularly nice state from outset. And while I'm in moaning mode, I also felt that some of the 757s, which I believed were due for imminent withdrawal, had been 'let go' somewhat and were definitely not in their prime. All in all, it's fair to say that my initial impressions of this flight were not that good!

We finally pushed back at 0842 and lifted into the cloudy morning skies at 0900 with that characteristic, very steep 757 climb. During all the pre-departure shenanigans, I had been sitting with my jacket very noticeably held over my right arm. Not once did anyone offer to hang it   After the seat belt signs were switched off, I got up and opened the closet myself, which sent a FA scurrying to locate some hangers. A hot towels service followed almost immediately.

The breakfast tray was initially delivered with a carton of orange juice and a fruit salad, while a choice of bread roll was offered. Next came a beverage service, including tea and coffee, and then the main courses were handed out. It was all-vegetarian! I wasn't at all sure about this at first : was it another 'enhancement', as we say on FlyerTalk's BA board? It was, nevertheless, rather nice. What I initially thought was scrambled egg turned out to be a tasty cheese omelette. Additionally, there were a couple of potato 'cakes' (which, inexplicably, I hesitate to call hash browns), some mushrooms and half a grilled tomato. The mushrooms were absolutely delicious - was BA developing a particular talent with this item? There was then a choice of croissant or danish, followed by another round of tea or coffee. After that, with the aid of the maps in Highlife, I did a little bit of mental planning for my next RTW and then enjoyed a nice snooze. There was no second service of hot towels, and I still can't work out what's meant to happen in this regard.

After approaching the London area via Jersey and the south coast of England, we were put into the stack by ATC. We spent a good while flying around in circles, along with several other aircraft. We even came close to LGW at one stage! As we finally made our approach to the southern runway at LHR, I noted that the Myrtle Avenue brigade were once more in evidence. We touched down at 1126 and then more fun began. We made our way round to the north side of the airport - a lengthy taxi, obviously - and then, despite being very late, had to wait as an aircraft was on our stand. By coincidence, it was G-EUPP, the A319 that had taken me to Lisbon two days previously. It finally pushed back and took up a position facing us. For some unexplained reason, instead of turning left into our stand, we turned right and described a complete circle to come back to where we had waited. G-EUPP hadn't moved and inch and this time we made the left turn, arriving at 1150   As I suspected, the fun was far from over. As this was a domestic stand, we had to disembark using the steps at Door 2 and get on a bus. At least it took us directly to the Flight Connections Centre.

Overall, a very mixed Club Europe experience which, in fairness, has to be judged against the background of the cabin crew being one member down. It certainly proved again, if proof were needed, that LHR is saturated and operating on a knife-edge.