Season's Greetings !

I have been a bad boy during this fast paced month of December, first off, I'm officially an A380 dedicated cabin crew ... My first destinations were YYZ (Toronto) not once, but twice. The first time I was nervous a bit, the A380 is one big mama , at times I felt so lost, and walking from one end to the other seems like a marathon ! But I like the fact that the whole cabin is divided into 4 sections and split into 2 as there are 2 Galleys one in the fwd and one in the aft . It's amazing that on both times, the flight was full , no FULL, 399 in economy, 76 in business and 14 in first class ! Simply amazing the load factor on YYZ , I can only imagine what would happen if the canadian government opened up their skies to Emirates . It is quite a challenge to try to please 399 customers in economy expecting the best service in flight as promised in our adverts , with 10 seats abreast , you can only imagine ! The most difficult part is explaining the reason why we run out of a choice, for reasons unknown to me, most customers refuse to understand that this is not a restaurant with unlimited access to supplies !

My second flight to Toronto was over Xmas, and what a threat to have seen my sister and brother waiting for me at the arrivals hall , they had flown from Montreal to spend time with me ! (I love you guys) ... We went for nice diner and breakfast, bickered a bit as real normal siblings should ! Exchange gifts, hopefully they liked what I gave them ( a model of the Emirates A380 ) . Sometimes I wonder how my brain thinks ? I managed to leave the hotel without my ID card and as I was going through security in YYZ I was literally stopped on my way to the gate for not having that piece of identification, I mean, we are 30 crew, and you think that I'm an impostor or something ! Anyway, managed to get through after obtaining a boarding pass from the ground staff, don't see the logic but who am I to debate about national security :) By the time I had realized that I had forgotten my ID in the hotel room and them to send it to me, it was too late ! But no worries, once in Dubai went to the police and had to fill a lost report in other to have a new one issued, even if I was to receive it in 3 days from the other crew in YYZ , it was either that or call sick for my London flight (last minute change to Bangkok ) the next day ! or worse get marked absent ! None of the last two were to be considered as I want to keep my record clean from any inconveniences lol

Now to the juicy stuff, try to read between the lines, why is it , in my case, growing up I never liked eating asparagus, but as soon as I found out that someone else likes it, I automatically liked it too ! Why do we continue drinking when we are already drunk knowing fully it will get worse ? in both examples I have been bad ! And people always get hurt by reckless actions ! I am sorry, but I do believe that's why Karma exists, and I hope that my whole ordeal with my ID was karma kicking me on the butt, not to mention I was nauseous for about a week and down with a congested nose lol And I do try to be a nice reasonable person, but I'm only human and have my weaknesses.

Later ...

Time goes by so ...

I still don't get why Madonna's hit single ends with slowly, when in fact time runs like crazy, is she aware that she is already in her fifties ? So anyway, it has been a full year today since I set foot in Dubai. I still remember the excitement, Flying over the atlantic , across Europe and down the middle east on the A380 from JFK, and now I am part of the cabin crew team operating this mastodon of an airplane. The main question most would be asking at this point, when living in a country where the language is not your own and your family is 14 hours away by plane, am I happy ? any regrets ? Yes and No, to an extent I am happy, as I'm doing a job that I really enjoy even when some times it seems that I want to yell my lungs out and quit, but that's part of the job too, does breakdowns that build up but never materialize :) . Also relationship wise, it has been a roller coaster , and I will leave it at that ! Of course I have some regrets, which in life is part of every decision we make, and choosing something good for another good thing will always leave a bitter taste behind ! But as we are here for an undetermined time on this earth, I try my best to move on and enjoy the best I can this world which is very much accessible to me. And how can I forget the friends I have made here and the fellow bloggers that share the same views i.e. the infamous AIRBOY and so many others.

In other news, just did my first operating flight on the A380 DXB YYZ DXB , there is so much excitement when you get off a plane with 30 crew (8 economy, 8 business, 4 first class, 3 seniors, 1 purser, 2 CSA's and 4 pilots), all heads are turning ! and yes I am so proud to work for Emirates :) .

I always wanted to blog on things that I find so annoying on flights so here is one situation encountered on board :

Captain : Ladies and gentlemen, due to ice build up on the wings we will be queuing to have the plane de iced . We apologize for the delay .

Irate customer : (fingering the call bell non stop)

Cabin crew: Yes sir , is there something I can do for you ?

Irate customer: WHY ARE WE DELAYED ??????

So please, on your next flight please appreciate the cabin crew ! even the lazy ones, it is a demanding job and we do work our behind off to make sure you get the best service possible !

Later !

Flying and Blogging

I have been finding it hard or maybe just being lazy to come up here and blog . Right now I am on my second and last week of training to join the A380 cabin crew fleet , as you know with EK, we are only licensed to operate either the main fleet or the A380 type aircrafts , that license being limited to 3 types : B777 (200 and 300) A330 A340 (300 and 500) and the fourth , the A380 . The decision came rather easily to make the switch. The main noticeable advantage is working more or less the same hours as the main fleet but having more days off . For example, on the main fleet I could usually be rostered 4 Layovers and 4 to 5 turn around, giving me 80-90 hours, as with the main fleet, I could do a YYZ , SYD , 2 LHR and maybe a third, and would get the same hours. Because of YYZ and SYD being long hauled flights. My december roster, I have training up to the 11th , then 3 days off, then a YYZ pairing , then 5 days off, and another YYZ , day off, and 2 LHR back to back ! this brings a big smile to my face, and the fleet is taking over the morning Paris flight as well as the ICN flights (Seoul) . Once my reserve month comes, no more stress of not knowing what destination I will be called out for, can only be YYZ LHR SYD BKK CDG or ICN , all great layovers ! If this seems like mathematics, I apologize :)

To come back to why I have not been blogging as much, well I have been flying a lot again, and after my SIN-BNE followed by JFK , I was truly exhausted . The will was there , but action could not have manifested itself :( . Going back to training college for the conversion course and seeing all the new Ab-Initios , kind of sparkled back the will for me to blog again , and being recognized by a reader who happened to be one of those few selected to be part of the cabin crew team is even more encouraging :) And also looking forward to flying on the A380 as crew is so exciting and flying to Canada twice , is just amazing ! and How ironic that one year ago I was joining Emirates and flying on the A380 from JFK to DXB and now I will be flying on this big baby !

During november I had the opportunity to go attend the Dubai Air Show, and being an aviation fan, I could not pass on that chance to see planes a go go , click here for pics and video taken that day :)

Later...