The Pictures
Set 1
Set 2
Flight OZ521 - Seoul Inchon International - London Heathrow International T1
Asiana Airlines, Boeing 777-200, Seat 3A, Business
5520 Miles Flown
Unusually for Inchon, only one airbridge was attached. However I made it to my seat to find a seatmate, and this time - a full cabin loading. Not the end of the world by any stretch.
Amenity kits, slippers and headphones where already in the seat pocket.
Amenity Kit
After settling for a few minutes, pre-departure drinks were served. What do you think I had?
Duh...
However I was dog tired and started dozing, only waking up and finding we were still on the ground. Chinese airspace had put a flow control order in due to storms, delaying us by 30 minutes. Which was spent usefully snoozing some more.
However, we were eventually cleared for take off, with clear views of Inchon and the surrounding area
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6p88M5Sa6Q
Once we had climbed to 37000ft (and again, a bit bouncy), food service begun, with Western food served first, the Korean. This pattern went through during all servings.
Scallops to start
Korean Pancakes
A collection of glasses. One with bubbles, one non bubbles and one water. I'm not an alcoholic... honest...
Main - Ssambap.
Ssambap is leaves mixing instead of rice and soup broth mixing. Very nice and very filling.
Fruit plate to end, and some Korean sweets.
Pretty much after this, I was tired out from having so little sleep, so fearfully I lowered the blinds, popped the seat into the bed position, headphones on. How well did you sleep you may ask?
6 hours pretty much. Missing any midflight service. Whilst a wedgie seat - it did it’s job and provided me with a base for a very long snooze. I only woke up because the lights had come up for the arrivals service.
Seat in bed position.
So what do we have for arrivals food?
Caesar Salad - with a full table laid.
The oddest and nicest roll I’ve had in ages
Main - Duck in an orange sauce. Nicely cooked, not chewy and not overly fatty. A very nice meal size - especially when hot pepper sauce was added 
.
and a chocolate square for desert.
Towards the end of the flight, I sheepishly asked if they had any spare hot pepper sauce (least of all, it’s going to be the one thing I’m seriously going to miss in Korea). The flight attendant returned with 8 tubes of the stuff that is now sitting in the kitchen at home when I need a taste of holiday (I'm surprised Asiana doesn't sell them in packs of 8 for $5 a pop like KAL does). In exchange, I filled out a comments card, giving my hearty recommendation of the crew who were onboard, and all the Asiana crews who I had flown with.
However, it seems two toilets in Business class isn’t enough towards the end of the flight with world and dog heading to them.
However, as we crossed the channel, the cabin was secured, and we entered a couple of stacks as we approached Heathrow airport, heading north of the Thames
Must be Heathrow if we’re in a stack...
Eventually, we completed our turns, and landed at Heathrow Airport, and docked at Europier at T1.
Overall: Again, an excellent flight. Service was a little slow due to the Western, then Korean food service pattern, but quality of the food was excellent. The crew again we friendly and well conversed - and great fun.
At the gate of a long journey.
Alas, all good things come to an end, and I thanked the crew profusely, and disembarked. After making my way through Immigration and Customs (with IRIS shut annoyingly) the bag was starting to make it’s first trundle around the luggage belt, which was picked up on my back and ready for the trip home.
Alas, the trip home was going to take a little longer as I had just missed the coach thanks to the delays, and the Tube workers had gone on strike. That meant Heathrow Express today as a Heathrow Connect had just pulled out.
Heathrow Express, Heathrow Central - London Paddington
Class 332, £18, As far front of the train as possible without stepping into the laughable First Class.
I boarded the train, and quite frankly for £18, felt horribly conned (at one point, Concorde was cheaper than travelling Heathrow Express). However, in 15 minutes, it did what it needed to do, which was drop me at Paddington, straight into the taxi queue from hell. 20 minutes later, I was in the taxi for the short hop to Marleybone (with the 26kg rucksack, I wasn’t in the mood to walk the short distance). However the driver did his best, and dropped me at the entrance of the station, where a ticket machine was free - and more importantly - a train to Birmingham was going in 5 minutes.
Chiltern Railways Class 168/2
London Marleybone to Birmingham Snow Hill
Super Off Peak Return - £19.50, Class 168 - Back of the train (easier for Snow Hill)
What's there to say? Luckily it was a fast service, non stop to Bicester North, and then only a few stops to Birmingham Snow Hill.
And I say luckily, as I had a chatterbox next door to me who talked practically non stop to Leamington Spa and my headphones were buried in the bag somewhere. Wonderful to listen to someone yattering non stop for 1 1/2 hours....
Finally, around 14100 miles later and trip a taxi, I'm home from my adventure.
