China; Tuesday, 14 April, 2026

I had a decent night sleep and when I checked my phone saw that it was 06:45. Feeling refreshed I got up and spent the last four or so hours of the flight watching a couple of films and having the first breakfast of the day before our arrival into Helsinki.

It’s only as we were on approach to Helsinki that my mind started turning to what the actual time was, at which point I realised that for Finnish time I’d have been up since 01:45, and, given I was due to work in the afternoon, in the UK my Tuesday would actually have started at 23:45 on Monday.

We arrived into Helsinki on time, but at the end of the major block of flights landing from the Far East, so unlike the previous year where I’d breezed through the security check this morning I had to join the back of a long queue which took almost 30 minutes to get through, before I could head over to the lounge for a refreshing shower – Never underestimate the restorative effects of a shower after a long haul flight, especially if it’s during a layover.

Showered and into the final set of clean clothes I grabbed breakfast number two in the lounge at Helsinki before heading over to the gate to catch the connecting flight down to London – three hour flight, two more time zones to leap back, by the time I arrived into Heathrow it was only 9am but I’d already done a more than 9 hour day.

Oh, and yes, I did have breakfast number 3 on the plane.