Perhaps mercifully, no early flights for me. Instead, the Elder Dempster line from Liverpool to Lagos, then 3 days by train "up-county". But I have vivid memories of a C-130 trip in summer 1988, from Brize Norton to Belize, via Gander, Andrews Airbase and somewhere in Florida, with around 30 OTC colleagues, a crate of Marmite, a grand piano and the colonel's wife. It took - as far as I recall - around 3-4 days. One the first night we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Gander (or was it St John?), five to a room, with a C$25 cash hand-out for meals, and £1.73 meal allowance deducted from our pay. The second night was at Andrews. I was the only cadet old enough to drive a rental car, so we rented one car, put most of the 30 into it, on the top of it, or hanging out of its windows precariously. My recollection, rose-tinted though it may be, is that sleeping on the floor of a C-130 in one's sleeping bag was more comfortable than World Traveller. Happy memories. These days, it's usually the Q-suites for me. Is that progress? - who knows.