Fascinating tales from a time when the only chance I would have had of visiting Russia would have been a one-way trip delivering a bucket of instant sunshine from a Vulcan....
A favourite 'bug' story I was told was about an occasion at the British Embassy, when a pre-Christmas cocktail party was in full swing. During a lull in the proceedings, one drunken reveller called out "And a Happy Christmas to all our friends in the KGB who are listening!".
About 5 seconds later, the ambassador's private phone rang.... "Iss KGB, Happy Christmas to you too.... Click"!
When Gorbachev came to Brize to visit Maggie, I was involved in looking after the aircrews' requirements - mine was the first aircraft which contained the KGB security team for the USA, who were bussed off for lunch. 3 of us went on board and were greeted by a Rosa Klebb lookalike who offered us coffee. We thanked her profusely and she immediately dissolved into smiles like some dear old prep school matron - she beckoned to the rear of the Il 62 from which 3 gorgeous stewardesses appeared with excellent coffee and Russian chocolates.
BA was still having some good nightstops when we bumped into a TriStar crew in Bermuda back in November 1986 having diverted in off our AAR trail from Puerto Rico to the Azores in our VC10 tanker. An epic party time at the Bermudiana, the latter, somewhat private part of which must remain 'classified'....
