Many years ago I was stationed at RAF Wattisham flying F-4s with 56(F) Sqn. One leave period, I booked a flight to the family home in Menorca...from Manchester.
Knowing that Manchester was somewhere oop Nawrth, I duly set off thinking that it wasn't far from Birmingham. Well it probably wasn't by F-4, but it certainly was in my (much-missed) VW Scirocco.
I made the car park with not long to go to gate closure, dashed through the terminal and made it...just. Friendly folks realised my predicament and waved me through!
When I got back, I discovered that I'd forgotten to lock the car. But everything was fine and I was soon on my way south.
I wonder how that trip would have gone these days some 37 years later?