I suppose there must be a mass of travel stories around at the moment. Here’s mine.

I spent some long but quite pleasant hours hanging around Seattle Airport before boarding my delayed BA flight to London.

When we landed at Heathrow, the Captain warmly thanked all the passengers except one for our patience. To this one unidentifiable person, he expressed his heartfelt contempt. Apparently somebody had written “BANG!” on the mirror of one of the loos. The flight had very nearly been diverted to Portland, Maine.

I disembarked thinking it hadn’t been too bad after all. But that was when the weary part began. We waited three hours for our luggage to come onto the belt. There’s nowhere to sit in the baggage hall, let along have a drink, and it must have been very tough for the elderly or those with young children. The muffled announcements in thick demotic English, were unintelligible to all. There’s a lot to be said for the Queen’s English. It might annoy some people to hear crisp public school tones, but at least everyone, especially non-native speakers who learn that sort of English, can understand it.

The crowd took it very stoically, except for one feisty American lady who was rightly giving the the blokes in luminous yellow jackets a hard time.

It seems that loads of flights had been cancelled after people flying out had come through security. They had to reclaim their bags. Heathrow’s Baggage system - not the greatest at the best of times - could not cope. Eventually many people on those cancelled flights were told - after hours of waiting - that they wouldn’t be getting their baggage and that it would be checked through onto the rescheduled flights whenever they might happen. They were stuck in London with just their passports and wallets.

You really do need wartime patience these days.