Saturday, February 28, 2009

Internal clock

It's once again 23 past midnight and I am wide awake, the past 7 days I did 3 turnarounds , and 1 layover. That's the winning formula to mess up your internal clock. Might I add that alcohol just seems to worsen the situation. I'm wide awake but everyone else is sleeping or is on a flight ! That's the downfall I think of this job, but still beats all the others. I can't complain either, went out 2 times in the past seven days , more then the past months all together lol so a big accomplishment there lol Today as we were landing into Dubai there was a huge (massive for me) sand storm and the plane was shaking as if it was a milkshake maker and I felt like the ice cream being blended into it.  It was so weird getting off the plane and into the bus, sand everywhere and in the air we breath, and it was scorching hot, I think it's a taste of what's to come in summer...at least we'll have a pool... I think I will get back my bronze colored skin of back when I lived in Haiti and going to the beach every week end, the good old days... Speaking of Haiti I recommend www.jwilavi.com for some really nice pictures of my beloved country. This week was Carnival in every Caribbean country that respects itself lol it is pretty grand in Haiti considering all the political and economic difficulties it is facing ... never fails to surprise me how such a poverty stricken country manages to organize a 3 days dance marathon ! Too long to debate. 

For the month of march I will be on reserve, so I have no idea where I will be going in the days to come, hopefully exciting places and layovers !


Friday, February 27, 2009

London and...

London was all I expected it to be, fun, exciting and lovely... We stayed in Crawley near Gathwick, lovely hotel, and the train station is just in the back, so perfect...arrived at 7am and took a quick nap, woke up around 11 am  made some phone calls to make sure I meet some long lost friends, and headed out, after a 45 minutes train ride , I arrived in London Victoria station and the excitement of being in this city was filling up in me...I took the Jubilee line up to Green Park then Picadily line up to Piccadilly circus, if I was rich my money would definitely go up in flames on regent street and Oxford, window shopping is a blast , I did my religious stop at La Maison du Chocolat and bought some macaroons and truffles , they have to be the best chocolates in the world ! Later on I met up with an old friend at Convent Garden and went for diner at an Italian restaurant... I was so upset when I took out my camera and the battery was dead...You know when you plan a trip and you already imagine all the pictures you are going to take and even imagine looking back at them, no its not weird, I'm sure we all do it ! So I was not happy, but considering I was in London and not at my desk, my frustration was short lived. 

Next day we left London around 9 am and got in to Dubai at 8 pm , and guess were I decided to round up people to go to, well my flatmate was doing a better job at motivating us, so yes we ended up at Zinc ! yet again lol I really need to give the other clubs a chance lol but why quit if it's good , right ? The high light of the night (that rimes lol) was meeting Airboy , a really cool cat - if you are reading this, we need to have a more extensive party up - Deon also met him as we went out together , we were like young children spotting a super  hero, anyway always feel good to feel like a kid again.

As I'm writing this, I have a massive headache from drinking up to 7 am as my flatmate decided that it would be a good idea to continue the drinking festival in our flat, so we were joined by 2 other friends and next thing I know the sun was up and I felt like my insides were outside lol

Flying to Hyderabad , INDIA in 10 hours eek

See you later...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Jiddah turn around !!!

Jeez Louise, the boeing 777-300 is one long mother...400 PAX in economy on a 2 class configuration , yellaaaaaa...Flight outbound was ok, I had time to eat and breathe, inbound flight was a whole other story, with 2 hours to do the Emirates world class ( Commercial :) ) service it's something ! No time for requests , call bells, work work work, I could hear the song in my head " You are a super model girl, work it " on the isle and not the catwalk . The thing that I am liking with these short turnarounds is that the time passes by fast and no time to hear or participate in the gossip chatter that goes on on long haul flights, but with the energy spent for just 4 hour credit , I definitely love the long hauls better. I need to mention that last night was my flat-mates Bday and I agreed to go out and have a drink or 2 at Zinc (where else lol ) , I seem to be going out always on the eve of a flight I have to work, living dangerously must give me some kind of high or something lol I had 2 days off prior and I could of gone out and go crazy, but no, I had to wait for the last minute lol Anyway I had fun and got to know him a bit better...2 months living together and I feel like I barely know him... but we seem to have the same personality and maturity and like our privacy and can live with out to much attention from others (well maybe I'm a bit in denial on that... sue me ! )

Well that's about it...another turn around tonight to Doha (45 minutes out an in bound ), short and sweet...and then London, can't wait !!!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Perth, Australia

WOW...I got some much needed sun and fun at the beach...the 11 hour flight was worth it...Landed in Perth at 2 am, with cross winds , the landing was rough, for 1 tenth of a second I thought that was it for me and some 200 souls in the plane. I slept about 5 hours, why you may ask ? because a fellow blogger told me that internet would be free in the hotel, and addicted as I am to that, well spent a good 2 hours on it ! Yeah it's better then smoking lol After waking up at 11 am shower and figuring out what to wear ( I'm like that sometimes even if the choice of clothing is limited i.e going to the beach ) headed to the lobby and met fellow cabin crew to go the beach, took the train at Perth station which is near our hotel and 14 stations later we were climbing a small hill ( 6 inch inclination lol) to discover at the peak the beautiful beach, at this point I was more famish than anything else, so we stop at a local diner with view on the beach, I had a wonderful seafood risotto and some white wine (the latter was much needed ). 


With a full stomach, I was thinking that swimming would not be an option , remembering watching a disney cartoon where Goofy goes swimming and all his joints becomes knots...but the water was too beautiful to resist, and it has been a while since I dipped in to the sea. Did some sun bathing and went to the beach , it was so cold, I could not understand it, with 30 degrees celcius temperature it did not make sense, so I just jumped in and after a few minutes my body accepted the cold and the water felt warm lol




I did not put the best pictures here, click here for more : Perth

Next city to sleep in London, UK.



Monday, February 16, 2009

Zurich


Hello, I can sum up my layover to Zurich as being like Montreal, it was cold, snowing, the city has history and seems old, but they make a lot of use of the trains so not a lot of cars in the street. I would definitely go back for vacation or another layover. The chocolates are divine , but I failed to noticed that they were flavored with alcohol ! Which later on the flight I learned !!! I could of gotten in a lot of trouble if I had consumed all of them. I blame the lack of pictures to the crew that did not want to go out lol It's not my fault if I'm used to the cold weather.

I have a bit of frustration regarding people who are lazy ! (I will leave the rest to your imagination)

As I'm writing this post  I just receive a letter saying that I will be moving to a permanent accommodation , hopefully my current flat-mate will be the same.

You can see more pictures of Zurich by clicking :


Next trip is Perth, Australia....


Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Istanbul,Turkey turnaround...man I'm beat !

Very Long day, and I can't believe it's 3:10 in the morning and I am writing this !

This was my first operational flight, I was pretty comfortable doing the work even with the passengers, feels also good that the senior notice !

Nothing much really to say, besides that it was a long day that started at 12:10 (pm) pick up from my accommodation and a drop off at 2:30 am. I guess this goes to show that this is not your normal 9 to 5 job, but I love it... looking forward for my Zurich on friday and buy me some good chocolates :) (some people reading this might be jealous i.e. bouzou ) 

Other wise, my mind was pretty much occupied with things down on earth... me over thinking things in general... I need to chill out a bit, maybe I'll go out tomorrow night , god knows I need it...

See ya...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Lazy days...Making friends, sanity etc...

I got back to Dubai saturday morning at 1H30 am and been home since then, so a good 4 days, let me tell you that I have been doing absolutely NOTHING, maybe not totally but feels like it. Even dough back in Montreal and being unemployed I remember doing nothing as well, but they have cold weather there so it is excusable, here the weather is just perfect, not boiling hot and not freezing cold, the thing is with me, if I go out, unconsciously I spend money ! In that thought of mind went to diner 2 nights ago and met this lady who sells DVDs, and compulsory shopper that I am, got my self the third season of HEROES which I kept missing the last 10 minutes of every episode (back home) due to the DVR (Personal recorder) stopping at the exact hour minute it was set for. 

Now one thing I always struggled with all my life is making friends and keeping them, and that's just a question of my personality,  here is kind of a Paradox, as to I ask my self the question to what is the point of getting close to people who might not even finish their whole contract with EK, because once I get close to someone it is kind of difficult to let go ( even though it happened often in the past 10 years ), but the isolation here seems to intensify any social behavior and attitude. I must admit I've met a nice bunch of individuals who the word nice does not do them justice, I guess it's a question of education and culture. The other thing that is tiring me down is the non stop gossiping that goes one in our accommodation , I admit it is good from time to time lol but enough is enough, it's like a never ending bad soap opera ! I also need to stop over thinking certain situations - trying to predict what people think, even playing scenarios in my head, what is that all about ? one thing that I can say, is that boredom and loneliness add up to craziness in the head lol

Tomorrow doing a turn around to Istanbul, Turkey...should be tired enough not to think ! :)

Friday, February 6, 2009

Calicut, India Turn around...

I somehow knew that after my Karachi which was a very light load, the stars would align for my second flight to be heavy, and heavy it was, 340 passengers in economy (full both ways), I never seen 3 hours and half go by so quickly. I feel like I went to the gym or played tennis for 3 hours, I don't even know how many squats I did putting those trays away. These kind of flights will definitely test someone's patience lol If you are in this business for the wrong reasons I don't you would survive what I just did, I can barely find the words to even describe it. On the other hand, we were flying on the Boing 777-200 which is a nice piece of machinery, and more spacious, as on the airbus 330 I was hitting my head all the time on the hat racks ( overhead bins).

I would love to talk of the juicy and not so juicy stuff but I have to hold back as I have to protect my employer ,and  the internet is a great source of information that can start a whole lot of trouble lol

Next flight, Istanbul - Turkey, another turn around...but hey layover in Zurich - Switzerland right after :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Karachi, Pakistan Turnaround Flight

First off I must say that my first flight went very well, and I'm happy to be flying again !

Last night I called transport and they told me due to traffic I would need to take a Taxi, other batch mates flying today called me and said that they confirmed that pick up would be at 7h30Am . Morning came , and I was up and about at 6 am ready to go, and I got another call telling confirming the 7h30 pick up, so I took my time chatted with some dear friends from Montreal, and at 7h15 I still was half naked and the front desk calls me telling me pick up is here !!!! I don't think I ever dressed that fast , I was like speedy gonzales... When I got to the elevator, there and be hold I would forget something it was my ID cards. I finally got down and realized that I was not the only one in the same situation, that was a relief, so when everyone got there we finally left, and Dubai being Dubai, a monstrous traffic had already settled and now I was sweating, already stressed by this first flight, now traffic my worse enemy, but luckily it was only on one section of road. Got to airport earlier then anticipated had to wait about 30 minutes before check in opened. The briefing was good, no sweat for now, when we got to the plane I just could not believe that I was going to be flying again, such a long road !
The passenger load was light so I was happy gave me time to assimilate the dynamics of the work flow as I was certain that what we learned in such perfection in class would not live up on the real playing field. We were about 14 crew and all of them pretty laid back and sociable, I liked them :) . The real highlight was when the Purser ask me if I wanted to sit in the cockpit for take off and landing, I already experience that when taking flying lessons in a Cessna , but in a big plane, I was in Paradise...The senior on the flight also gave and wrote praises for me...it is so odd how my professional behavior is so different from my everyday interaction with others, and this for the better as the former is expected to be at its best. I think requires a lot of acting and faking which I seem to have a talent for, and I probably got it again from watching to much Soap Operas (see previous posts on that).

So that's it, 1 down and many more to come, next stop Calicut in India on the Boeing 777.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

First flight in 12 hours...

This post is not really about my first flight but rather of a particular mental condition called sitting home doing nothing (well listening to music and reading your safety and emergency manual a gazillion times) and over thinking the things that are happening at that precise momment in your life (I should say my life). I hate feeling like that, a good waste of my valuable time, I think I'm just home sick and questioning once again the pro's and con's of me coming half way around the world for a job labelled as the DREAM JOB. I still think it is, but it comes with a price, leaving home and everything, and starting new friendships etc. Tomorrow I start flying so I should be back to my oldself, I must also add that I have been off for 5 days , so that is kind of long, I already feel good thinking of others who work 9 to 5 monday to friday and on a desk (I'm bad lol)

Stay tuned, will post my return to the sky experience...

Cities I've visited