London, UK: Wednesday, August 31, 2011:

It seems so long since we booked our dream trip, but it was only back February, but we are all set for our adventure.

Waiting at Scarborough station we got chatting man from Newcastle, who was planning to visit Japan until events unfolded in the wake of the earthquake, and Karen got chatting and asked for his Metro newspaper. He works at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and was visiting friends in Scarborough.

The trains were running okay but I always find travel by train in the UK such a disappointment. You should relish the experience but it is tedious.

Bizarrely we arrived at Kings Cross in London five minutes early. Karen’s impression of North London was not particularly good and she said “what a shit hole”.

Then she got targeted by a pushy street seller while having a cigarette outside the station – just beside the rather cheesy Harry Potter photo op that is Platform 9¾.

We then ventured onto the London Underground to travel to Heathrow. The typical situation during rush hour was that there was only one ticket window open and a long queue.

Then a second window opened but there was still only one queue and I comforted myself by getting a free copy of the Evening Standard.

Perhaps queuing should be introduced for London 2012 and we will be guaranteed at least one gold medal.

There was an announcement: “Initial cleaner to platform two for a code four” but there was no reason to panic as apparently it is just a spillage.

It was fairly straightforward to get to the hotel. It was very swish and we dined on room service with pizza, chips and beer.

However, the furniture was a bit shabby which had seen better days and we had a quiet a sleepless night.

London, UK: Thursday, September 1, 2011:

So this is it – the day has finally arrived. We had cold pizza for breakfast – yum yum! – and we are officially living out of suitcases.

I showered and then we checked out. There was a free transfer to Heathrow and we hang around terminal five.

We enjoyed lunch in Carluccio’s as there was not much of a choice before eventually going through security.

And we dined on a very nice bruschetta and mushroom soup to tide us over until the flight.

We got chatting to a nice American couple from Indiana and bought them a postcard of this year’s Royal Wedding.

Going through airport security we still had to take off our footwear and empty our pockets but I was glad to say that, officially, I am not the shoe bomber.

We’d enjoyed a drink at the airport bar, which had a curious collection of impossible panorama photos, generic Cock-er-ney photos and pickled eggs in jars. I half expected to see Mary Poppins on the wall. Having said that there were Union Jack trunks proudly displayed.

After wandering around the duty free shops we only just made it onto the plane – we hadn’t bargained on the time taken for the train trip to the gate.

Airline food has indeed improved over the years and I enjoyed lime coconut chicken and noodles during the flight.