Straight after my day out with Roy and Jen to numerous north Norfolk pubs, but more on that later, it was time for Liam to pick me up on his way to work whilst dropping me off at Stansted Airport ready for an early morning flight. I’m not ideally sure that going straight to the airport straight after visiting several pubs was entirely sensible, but Liam made his car nice and cold for me. Richard still hasn’t got a car with seats which cool passengers down, but I suppose he’s not a VIP like Liam. And many thanks to Liam for his assistance, although he gets the excitement of my company for nearly two hours, so I can see why he’s keen to help.

I was the only person on the shuttle bus from Stansted medium-term parking to the main terminal, but that’s not entirely surprising as not many people feel the need to arrive at 01:00.

The main terminal effectively closes now at night, other than for a small section at arrivals, but the bus station terminal seems to always have space.

That there were people who thought feeding birds in the waiting room was a good idea annoys me.

Just before 03:00 I meandered up the main terminal which had just opened. Sleep is something of an optional luxury for me when a cheap air fare is available.

The security area opens at 03:00 and is always well staffed with friendly members of the security team. Despite the number of people queueing here I was able to get through within ten minutes, which was all rather efficient.

The airside’s main seating area where I took the opportunity to charge my phone.

This shows the scale of the Ryanair operation at Stansted Airport.

I get £18 to spend at Camden Bar & Kitchen with my Priority Pass. The Escape Lounge is closed at the moment, so this is the only option without spending my own money.

It’s getting more challenging to decide what to get with the £18 as the menu prices keep edging upwards.

The venue opens at 03:30, so I got there at 03:35 so that I didn’t look overly keen. I got a table with a power point, but I knew from past experience that I couldn’t order with Priority Pass until 04:00. This gave me 25 minutes to sit quietly and pretend I had not planned the entire operation around receiving breakfast at the earliest permissible moment.

I went for this, the poached eggs on avocado toast with an Americano coffee, coming in a few pence under the allowance. It was suitably delicious, with the eggs being lightly runny, and sufficiently filling for that time in the morning. I’m not sure that I’d spend £18 of my own money, but as it was free with my pass, it was a convenient place to get a little rest before departing for my gate. Airport pricing is much easier to tolerate when somebody else’s accounting system is absorbing the emotional impact.

Anyway, with that I was ready for my flight to Nantes with Ryanair having been allocated the middle seat…..