traveling through Heathrow

i hate flying out through heathrow... there is something viscerally difficult about the entire experience..

maybe i am genet'ically gifted to be clumsy, or maybe i am plain intimidated, but my ability to navigate myself through a complex e-ticket, to get myself into a plane and onto parts beyond seems to be a superhuman task...

the problem starts while booking- i tend to book myself onto a flight at say 1830, and that is the start of my nightmares...

come the day of travel, and i know i should ahve carried that damn bag to work and then taken off from work to the airport, but i have forgotten, henc ehave to go back to home, pack, panic, repack, and see that i have just 1 1/2 hrs for the flight to take off, and i am still at home...

then comes the panic part- i cannot make it by train, or by taxi, because the only way i can be in time for the flight is if i fly myself to heathrow (atleast until means of "teleportation" or whatever flash gordon used to call it is invented)

so, with my heart pounding away at 120, and my blood filled more with adrenaline than corpuscles, i reach the desk about 15 mintues before the flight leaves...

the lady smiles very politely and tells me the gate is closed- it does not matter that i have flown with them zillions of times, and i am being exceedingly polite and saying that it is all my fault...

and then, there was this one time when i woke up really early, got to heathrow well on time for the flight, and then found that i was sitting outside the wrong gate, and apparently missed all their "last and final call for Mr...." summons..
you absolutely have to hear about this one- i landed up for the flight at 10 30 in the night, but found that the flight had left , obviously, without me, at 10 30 in the morning...
the sum and total of all this is, i hate traveling to heathrow and out of heathrow...