Heya Fly Bhoy,
You handled well; when I flew the A320 I wouldn't think of accepting less than 2 mins behind a B777.
I have seen a Beechcraft Baron pilot taxiing out with a pack of snow on his wings, which everybody saw (including the tower and the followme's) "but it is the responsibility of the pilot".
I think that way of reasoning is b******t.
Also I saw a Dash-8 accepting less than a minute behind a 767, and he was cleared for TO by the tower. My opinion is that the tower controller could have easily prevented a very dangerous situation there, which he for some reason did not, too bad really!!
IMHO the controller would have shared at least some of the responsibility when something went wrong there.
P77
Back on topic:
I think that in the US the \'heavy\'-call is a little bit overdone. Even a rampfrequency insists on \'heavy\' being used. I see no problem at all telling the controller that we are a heavy, often (in the US) if I forget, the controller will readback \'heavy\' anyway.
But then I work for LH and apparently, reading this topic, we are the only ones in Europe :-)
P77