What went so terribly, appallingly wrong here is that the SCCM decided to plate up everything in the galley. If there are only a few rows of CE it does make sense on the longer routes, and I (and apparently many other passengers) prefer it that way since it gives a more personal touch than dolloping stuff off the trolley in mid aisle. The problem is that even with a few passengers it's actually likely to be somewhat slower to plate up in the galley, there's certainly more running up and down the aisle, so on JER-LGW it was probably over ambitious. I suspect the SCCM wasn't that experienced on the JER-LGW sector timings. Then it was suddenly 10 minutes to landing, game over.

Oh and you better tell us what was so unexpectedly stressful about the "ex EU" trip?