Going for it !

3 Months !

2010-08-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

Incredible that just under 2 years ago I could not keep myself away from posting news on my blog and now I gladly go in to hiatus !

The biggest news is that I'm now Business Class crew on the A380 since 2 weeks ago, which is a promotion for me, and I am loving it ! aside having 76 customers to serve compared to 427 in economy with the same amount of crew ! It is still hard work, but with more appreciation from the customer, in economy they seem to think we are there to satisfy every single desires , in example this customer seating in an aisle seat requesting us to close the window for them when they are closer to it ! Anyway lol New Life , new beginnings .

A380 is really an amazing plane to work on, been on it for the past 8 months, and on every single flight I still feel like a kid in a candy store , all excited ! It is also incredible to be part of this fleet seeing it expand, as we had 5 planes when I joined and now 12 with 5 more to come by the end of the year !

In other news, it's summer and it is Hot, and Ramadan is starting, so one dry month of no clubbing and everything that comes with it !

Double Paris awaits, Beijing and Toronto for the rest of this month, then I go on leave...

Later !

While in BKK (Bangkok)

2010-04-26T02:27:00.000-07:00

Don't let the title fool you , I am in deed in Bangkok but sitting down in the room and taking it very very easy ! First of all we are now staying at the airport hotel because of political turmoil in Bangkok, so not so much things to do except eat sleep and drink ! Just ordered some Pad Thai and a strawberry milkshake , but I don't think they have a clue on how and what it is, just got ice and strawberry flavored milk ... oh well !

I have to add that BKK is the easiest flight to operate, short and sweet and a nice layover, but for some reason I seem compelled to swap them for CDG flights lol which I did not get any of for the month of May ? Maybe the rostering community decided that I have done too many of them , 10 to be precise since January .

In other news, my personal life seem to be stabilizing these days (or thats an understatement of me being involved in a lot of drama lol)

I have 15 days of leave next month also and I have no clue where to go, Never thought this situation would happen to me, I am a bit exhausted of flying all the time to get somewhere, and as a passenger it is even more tiring ! So might probably stay in Dubai and handle my social life , and probably have my sister over !

Later.

Lazy ?

2010-03-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

This is getting absurd and I am not proud of my self, then again, human nature is to procrastinate until that very last breath . I don't even know where to begin, so I will just go with the flow of thoughts that come to me.

First of all I changed accommodations and moved in with Deon and another batch-mate of mine, to much better conditions that fit perfectly our foolish ways of living :) No more Mexico border crossing for us to get food or groceries !

I'm already on my 4th month of flying on the A380 and I could not be more happy , I am currently in Toronto (will be back to that one ) and just did 2 x Paris, and 4 X Paris to follow ! It is just amazing, I am more relaxed and feel 10 times happier then what I already was. As I am writing this I am currently on a Toronto layover and it's day 6 of it, You might already guessed it, the plane we were suppose to operate back in to Dubai went TECH ! it happens, better be safe then dead ! And tonight we are (26 crew) dead heading back to sweet warm Dubai .

Now the juicy stuff lol No nothing about Emirates :) ... at the beginning of the year I had met someone and everything seemed so perfect, too perfect, and it all came to an abrupt end ! Since then I made a promise to myself to stop chasing and just let that special person find me ! How long will I hold up to that ! How ever I must add, why do people even bother getting involved when they are not sure of their own feelings, it just boggles my mind, as much as my reaction in the relationship romance department. And why is it so wrong to express your feelings ? ANYWAY lol Life goes on, and would it not be boring with out all this drama :)

Later ...

DXB-CDG-DXB-IAH-MIA-JFK-DXB !

2010-01-31T00:56:00.000-08:00

Just realized this is my first post of the new year !

WoW, I’m one year older and already have unfinished news to write on my ill forgotten blog , did I wish to take better care of it while blowing the candles on my birthday cake ? Of course not, but I will definitely try my best to feed it . So far flying on the A380 fleet has been amazing, it is truly a special aircraft , I love it ! I have now done all the destinations it goes too, a part from Jeddah that is starting on February 1st . The new year started with a sour note on a personal note, with a massive earthquake hitting my native country, Haiti, and devastating the city that I was born and raised, Port-au-Prince, it has been almost 3 weeks since this horrifying event and I still can’t believe it , even after being bombarded daily by news and pictures. It is quite sad and for me frustrating, because it makes you think of that mortal question that we all have and haunts us , why ? Haiti has been struggling for ever with all kind of problems throughout its history, from the indian genocide by the spanish colonisator , to the seemingly eternal battle for power putting the people to their knees not having their needs met, and the past years the un-restlessness of hurricanes parading down on the island once called the Pearl of the Caribbean . The people of Haiti have definitely been challenged in every way possible in this life , the trick I think is not to try to understand it but to still continue appreciate what we have and not take every precious breath for granted , as only our maker decides , as he did when we were put upon this world . I can only be thankful that no one in my family got hurt . For the month of January I had put a bid to fly with my best friend who I consider like the second brother that my parents never presented me to lol so off we were to operate a flight to Paris that happen to fall on my birthday , we both also got 6 days off following that pairing and of course I could not resist to make an attempt to reunite with my family, this after finding out while in Paris that my mother and aunt made it out of Haiti to Miami ! After checking the loads the only flight that had availability was the flight from Dubai to Houston, not our first choice because of the flying time , a wrapping 15 hours non stop, at that point we had to make a decision , next to check the return flights, FULL, what a surprise, all flights on Emirates are always 80 % to 150 % booked, good I say to myself imagining being paid a bonus this year :) . Our itinerary ended up being Dubai to Houston, this after 3 hours of sleep after coming back from Paris, On our way to DXB international, we had to get our Zed fare tickets, and what a stress we got when the agent told us we had to pick them up at headquarters, because apparently the airport counter is only open till 6 am , with 30 minutes to spare there was no time to go to HQ and get those tickets, so we made our case and got the tickets issued . Once in Houston and waiting for our American Airlines flight to Miami, Deon was stressing that he has an aversion for flying on small planes, anything smaller then a 737 would trigger an anxiety attack ! Go figure ! I might of mentioned this on a previous post, but Emirates truelly delivers an exceptional service by it’s Cabin Crew when compared to what I saw on AA, attendants welcoming passengers with arms crossed, really really really could not be bothered with anything, even the passenger briefing at the emergency exit was done with the minimum information possible , literally the attendant told the passenger : You know how to operate that door ! , and that was it . I guess to each their own, to each their misery and suffering lol At that point I was feeling un easy , imagining the pilots having such a relaxed approach to security. Landing in Miami , I would be witnessing another short fall, as the passenger across me was fast asleep and during cabin preparation for landing no one bothered waking them up and just let them be laying down on the seats ! The time in Miami could not have been better, I met up with Mother, Aunty #1 , 2 and 3, and Cousins 1 and 2 , 5 women that love with everything I have in me, and also met up with their babies, my cousins ! I guess I’m blessed to have such a strong family with a big bond and me leaving Miami made me sad but a happy sad (if that exists). I just hope I get to see them again sooner then later. After 3 nights there off we were to JFK, and another stress was awaiting us at Miami International, after Deon got off the shuttle bus from the car rental place, he realized that he left his hand bag on the bus ! Oops, I was so tired that I could not even stress, and yes we only got 2 hours sleep again before leaving Miami. Luck would have it that he went downstairs at arrivals and met up with the shuttle bus and took his back. In our rush out of Dubai we did not bother to look at our tickets, and the agent issuing them gave us a MIA-IAH ticket instead of MIA-JFK ... as we got to the AA counter to check in, the lady said at first that the coupon could not be used on the sector we wanted to go to , so we had no choice at that point but to purchase a one way ticket to New York city, that would put us back 200$ USD each, as we were pulling our credit cards out , something unexpected happen, the American Airlines agent brain actually thought , and she said that she would verify with her supervisor first to make sure the coupon is valid or not, turns out it is, Houston and New York as well as Montreal fall into the same sector pricing and therefor can be interchanged for travel ! As I said before , we should appreciate every second of life, because we have absolutely no control over the events that make it extraordinary being good or bad. The MIA-JFK flight was sweet and short, 2 hours, and empty on a old 767 ! the most senior flight attendant was 50 years old, as we were having galley gossip with them and comparing notes. At that point I was thinking if Emirates would ever have a flight full of senior citizen all over ? Time will tell . What is the definition of cold ? New York city in January, it was so cold and windy , I imagined spending the 24 hour stop there in the hotel room, thank God , Deon was motivated and we managed to spend little time in the hotel and enjoyed the city thoroughly. I am writing this post on board the flight to Dubai and we have 4 hours to go till landing , I just can’t wait, my body was not made to travel long distances in economy class lol. I definitely love operating a long haul flight hands down then sitting as a customer. I still don’t understand how sitting on a plane for over 8 hours is considered legal ! But a little survey I did, people seem to rather travel from point A to B, instead of breaking it down with one or 2 stops .

So I have landed and uploading this post, I should add that in the beginning of the year I had met someone who I came to like a lot, but coming back from this trip I learned that it takes 2 hearts to make a relationship worth while and not just one ! Oh well ... we move on, and there are worse things in this life then going through a breakup !

And by the way next months roster is super duper awesome : ICN CDG YYZ BKK BKK BKK ! How good is that ?

Here are the pics : Paris , Miami

Season's Greetings !

2009-12-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

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 ...

2009-12-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

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...

DXB JFK DXB

2009-11-15T04:15:00.000-08:00

November being my second to last bottom bid position, I really did not expected any good flights, but when I saw JFK on my roster, I thought there has to be some silly mistake at scheduling. I was very excited to go to the Big Apple, one of the most exciting cities in the world, and to find out that we stay in Times Square was even more exciting . The way to JFK was good , the weather in the city was not at it's best but it is New York city and no way will I stay in my room ! First stop was of course Times Square to be dazzled by all the light generated by the surrounding humongous screens ! This was not my first trip to New York, but this city just dazzles you every time. Now to the juicy part, the return sector... O M G lol , the flight was full in all 3 classes , by the time we finished boarding, I was drained, thinking of off loading myself from the flight . It was a marathon that lasted 13 hours ! But being in New York was worth it !

I have 3 turn around and London at the end of the month before I start training to fly on the A380 !

Later...

LAX FRA SIN BNE and LIFE...

2009-11-09T03:58:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how busy I have been, but that's all relative to the person. I mean , I have been sleeping a lot, because I have been flying (WORKING) a lot. Since my last post I have been to Los Angeles, Frankfurt again and a long 5 day pairing to Singapore and Brisbane, I am writing this blog as I just walked off the plane about 2 hours ago. Los Angeles was wonderful had a blast, rented a car right there at the hotel, very convenient, and went to off the first night to venture the surroundings, discovered part of Venice beach area and went out to a restaurant with a friend (shall I call him that lol ) that I met virtually in Dubai and luck would have it that he lives in L.A. , so that was that. Next day off I was driving 4 other crew member to Disney Land, the original plan was to go scream our heads off in Six Flags, but to our surprise was closed on week days, go figure. The alternative choice was Disney Land ! Not too many thrill rides, but makes you feel young again (not that I'm super old lol) and that's priceless.

Now I'm still feeling emotionally weird after my close encounter with LIFE back in october while on vacation in Montreal. Why is Life so weird sometimes, why can't we have all at the same time ? More so, why can't we accept things the way they are and move on ! It's not easy to get out of the vicious circle that is lying to ourselves and denying the truth that is in front of us . When we , I, refuse to see that truth, it will drag us to hell and beyond with our emotions and feeling. I'm finding myself crying for no good reasons in the middle of the mall or on my jump-seat during take off, or even in the bathroom doing my stuff. It is strange that brain of us controlling our emotions ! The things we do to counter effect these high emotions, are so plain wreck-less and that makes us wonder if we even know what we want ?

Frankfurt, I was looking forward to that, having swap my manilla for it, how ever, I had Pork Knuckle on my mind and it never found it's way to my mouth, on the other hand I had a blast with unexpected acquaintances , need I say more ! Then again, that's me reacting to my sorry state of mind since the past month.

Jealousy is a messed up feeling ! I now know that I am a jealous person ! I have always praised myself on not being one, but Damn , I am the queen of jealousy ! It is crazy, is it Dubai ? Is it all that I have sacrificed and lose to be here ? is it in a weird way my maturity ? Who or what ever is triggering this, give me a break and let me breathe, because it is an intoxicating state of mind. I wake up most of my days, not knowing what to do with my self, and the last thing that comes to my mind, is to be with friends (if I can even call them that) . But if that's the case, I'm probably in the wrong field of job, but that's where I surprise myself, I'm able to put on a wild Poker face while on the job. Strange, yet again, our brain cells manage to help us , but not the situations that drive us crazy, I guess work and personal life , the later is tougher to manage !

Emirates has started hiring again after a 10 month freeze, understandably with the current global economic crisis (as we speak EK just announced 129% higher more profit for the first half of the year compared to last year ) . Reading online forums , and being cabin crew for EK makes me want to voice again to you out there wanting to join : Please make sure that this is what you really want ! Why do I say this ? most come to Dubai thinking it's gonna be no pain no gain, well, thinking that way , you become someone else's pain, and trust me that's not good lol My only advice don't come here if WORKING and working hard are not part of your vocabulary, I beg you !

I swapped my Dacca and Jeddah flight for Singapore and Brisbane flight. I was excited because I had never been to SIN and I love BNE . The thing about it , the timing are really , really bad, first sector of the flight we depart DXB fro SIN at 4:32 AM arriving at 1:45PM. Getting ready for these hours is quite a challenge, working out 2 days prior my sleep patterns in order to stay awake and energized ! On a full flight it's quite easy to stay alert and awake, but if the customers are sleeping, then it becomes a challenge. Once in SIN, I slept from 3pm to midnight, I was exhausted it is not even funny, having done SFO and LAX (16hours non stop) I could not understand how the heck I was so tired after just under 7 hours of flight. I went out next door to the hotel to this sort of mall, but fill with bars and restaurants, ended up at Burger King eating a chicken burger, I was hungry and it was late LOL. Next sector, Singapore-Brisbane was with departure time of 3:15 pm and arrival at 45 minutes past midnight, not so bad, as I slept a lot before, my body clock being confused. One of the things that is not so funny, is the fact that some hotels we stay at are quite far from the airport, understandably they can't build airports in the middle of cities, we ended up at the hotel at 2 am, not because the hotel is so far, but because Australian customs are pretty strict ! With out having a shower, 5 of us at 3am were off to find some drinks to reset our minds, ended up at the Casino, filled with youngsters, the average age had to be below 25, all drinking and gambling, it was nauseating, so 3 of us agreed and left the place after just 20 minutes in there, ended up at McDonald's at 4am ! (Please don't judge me lol ). So off to bed I was, and slept till noon, woke up, went out to shop, ended up buying the lates Dan Brown , The lost symbols, and back again at the hotel, oh, another close encounter lol, and sleep before the return sector to SIN , with departure at 2:45am yet again and arrival at 8:15 AM. Luck would have it, we were delayed on ground with customers on board for 3 hours ! Please try to imagine my state of mind ! Finally we got off the ground and in to the air , arriving at the hotel at 1pm, slept 6 hours, went out for a fantastic diner and cheap, but still fantastic, came back at the hotel at midnight, departure back to DXB at 9:40 AM and here I am in Dubai at 4:36pm , writing this blog having landed at 1PM.

Next trip is New York city...can you hear me gag ! :)

Cool video I made =====> Los Angeles

What did I do ?

2009-10-15T13:48:00.001-07:00

This is the weirdest vacation ever ! After my last 2 trips to Montreal which were no longer then 10 days, this time I thought it would have been a good idea to make it longer, 21 days to be precise ! Once again sometimes I wonder if my life is always gonna be faced with choices after choices after choices, at least any one of them makes me happy , well almost ! It's never easy ending something in life, may it be leaving your family to go study abroad, a deceased friend or family member, breaking up , my situation is quite particular , last year when Zoom (the previous airline that I worked for ) went bankrupt, I was faced with a wall, what to do now with my life ? I enjoyed traveling so much that I could not imagine myself doing anything then that ! fast forward to december of last year, got hired by Emirates, excited to pieces, but was not thinking a lot about the 5 year relationship I was in ! In my head I thought I would be coming back and forth as I want to Montreal, and that everything would be ok ( I love to pretend that I live in a dream world ). So, off I was to Dubai, not taking any decision on the future of my relationship. In retrospect there are a lot of things that I did not do , that I would of done, like sending my loved one my phone number, my address, what was I thinking of ? Was I looking for a way out of the relationship ?

My brother seems to think so, when did he get so wise lol It's a funny thing guilt ! makes you do mad things, irrational things, we let it take over our mind conscience body ! Back to my vacation, so clearly in the past 9 months I have met other people in Dubai , as well as my other half in Montreal, but coming here and realizing that our relationship is over, hit me really hard, and I was pretty surprised about the emotions that I was living, totally unexpected ! It's like knowing someone died and only realizing it 9 months later ! intense.

I had bought tickets to go see funny lady Pam Ann in Boston, her first stop in her first ever USA tour, I was looking forward to go see her as if my life depended on it, I rented a car, and yes, I drove down by myself to Boston, about 5 hours drive from Montreal, I swear I will never drive so far by myself ever again ! so went there, and quickly realized that it is as cold as montreal. What is going on in this world, where is that famous global warming ? In my head I was predicting what would be happening to me... went to see the show, and was not disappointed a bit, it was all that I expected and more... next day I had the smart idea to go out on the town with just a sweater and not a jacket or a coat... I ended up with my body being icy cold, and a soar throat ! I had to drive back alone again to Montreal literally feeling like death was right behind me ... I had caught a fever and hit temperatures of 39 degrees centigrade ! I hear one degree more could be fatal ! In between me arriving to Montreal from Boston and peaking with my fever, I thought it was the right time to have my wisdom teeth removed ! lol I must either like pain or misery ! As I'm typing this post, I can barely open my mouth, I have body shakes, soar throat and in the middle of the strangest drama scene the likes of a good soap opera lol

I'm supposed to get back to Dubai this week end, I hope I get well, cause my next duty is to Los Angeles...and Me not want to miss that !

Later .

So you want to be a Cabin Crew !

2009-10-02T21:01:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post about this a while back but a thing called laziness was holding me back. Personally , this is the best job ever, sure I had to make some great sacrifices to work for one of the world best airlines... but we only live once ! anyway only time will tell, and I'm enjoying my time to the fullest. I wanted to be a cabin crew because I truly love flying and flying around the world is even better. Now, of course you need to be ready to hold a smile non stop for hours and hours, and I manage to do that 90 % of the time, I can't say much about the people that I have been working with... So why exactly makes you want to be cabin crew if you are not ready to do a simple task as to smile ? And some people seem to be confusing this job to a High Executive job, complaining day in and day out about salary , which by the way are very competitive considering in Dubai , apartment and electricity are paid for, and free transportation to and from work and did I mention no taxes. I find the job very easy but demanding on the body and because of all the grumpy and spiteful people hard on the moral . But I try to make the best out of every flight, the best way to do that is not to give in to the constant gossip and laziness !

So if you are thinking of becoming a cabin crew, and think that it's a princess job ! Think again and pray that you are not on the same flight as me, cause I will remind you that your ass does not actually weight 2000 lbs so start working lol

Ciao...

Went to San Francisco , check out the pics : San Francisco

Flying with friends and LAZYNESS

2009-09-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

The past four weeks was Ramadan in Dubai , basically all muslim who are healthy fast from sunrise to sunset, then devour everything there is possible to eat ! This is even more felt when I do a flight and we land before sunset and the fasting customers seem to go crazy and urge us to feed them ? Make up your mind, no time for double standard here ! I could also just as well be fasting, All my flights have been arriving back in Dubai between 1 am and 7 am, resulting in me sleeping all day long...and this has an effect on my eating habit, I have been eating less and less. Does it ever happen to you, to think about doing things, so much so that you actually think that you are doing it with out physically moving lol I have been feeling that way all month long, spending way to much time on Facebook and looking at my laundry basket getting bigger and fuller by the nano second... In between this hibernating life that I created for myself, I went to Munich again, and had this lovely Senior from Russia , who in the midst of having a bit to much wine decided to dance Salsa, and I joined her... She then decided that I should go for salsa classed, which I did when I got back... My mind is so strange lol I'm lazy enough to not do my laundry, but energetic enough to go to salsa classes 2 - 3 times per week and at night ! Oh Well lol

In other news, also went to Rome, my first time in Italy, was so beautiful, the timing was a bit off, we land past 3pm and go back the next day at the same time, so basically we had to run to the city visit as much and as quickly possible and run back to the hotel and rest ! But was worth it, I love this city, I will definitely need to go back there both as a passenger or crew. Following my Rome , I was rostered to go to Moscow, but coming back from Rome, the flight was delayed and because of legality reason , meaning getting days off, enough sleep yadiyadiyada , I was removed from doing the Moscow flight and put on airport Stand by 4 days later from midnight to 4am.... Crew seem not to be calling in sick and reporting for duty more now with the economic crisis in the world and everyone wanting to secure their jobs lol this resulted in me not being called out for a flight and heading back home after spending a night at the stand by lounge . Next stop, my long awaited flight with my best friend Deon to Beijing, I actually swapped my third Zurich to do it with him, many reasons, I was curious to know if my patience would survive, as I'm kind of anal when it comes to work lol and also us going to A380 , wanted to see what it would be like working with a close friend... So the flight was everything I expected, of course I was annoyed at times lol that's just me being me and wanting to control the whole universe , Time in beijing was awesome, and it makes a difference to see places and explore with someone you know. The trip back was so fun, there was such a good dynamic between the crew, well almost all, we were the ones putting some life into the crew atmosphere lol We rule !

Next stop San Francisco, a 50 hour layover but a 15 hour flight or more !

Click for pictures : Rome - Beijing

In my personal life a lot has been unfolding and folding lol But not giving up...

Am I sadistic ?

2009-09-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

This life is truly a wonder.... always throwing surprises at us, good or bad, it's a question of how you embrace what you are being served, and that itself is the whole challenge of loving life and enjoying every second of it. We all want things to happen in a second, instant gratification , always failing to remember that hard work and patience releases more pleasure in us at the end. The past few weeks, I've been asking myself why I place myself in impossible situations, or worse in unsolvable enigmas ! I must admit I love a good challenge, no matter how big the headache, this would explain, me moving from Haiti to Canada, and now to Dubai, of course I have no regrets, just sorrows for the sacrifices that had to be made to be where I am now at this stage of my dramatic life. This bring me to the biggest question that haunts my whole existence : What do I do with Love, the ultimate reason for being alive ? I say to myself, Love is in what ever I do, my job, friends, social activities...and basically loving myself and what I do , Loving my life ! How ever, of course, we all need to love someone, that person we all call and want to call our other half ! I would like to meet that person who came up with these rules about what love should and should not be. This life has been define by so many standards enough to make me think that I'm probably a sadistic human being ! But am I really ? or it's just the social realm in which our lives have been bordered with that is the devil in all of this ? I always tried to live my life in my own terms rules and standards, and I always question formality and rules, explains why my parents keep telling me that I was not accepted at an all boys catholic school run by priests , due to my ever growing curiosity disabling my ability to submit myself to any kind of authority .

In other news, reminding myself this is a blog about my travels lol I've completed my German adventures by going to Frankfurt, so unless Emirates opens up new destinations to this so beautiful country , I've done them all lol . I just arrived from my second trip to Zurich, again another beautifull destination.... Cannot get tired of going to Europe !

Next trip is my first ever Italian destination, and no better to start with then Rome...

Pictures : Frankfurt

Till next time...xoxo

Oh wait , almost forgot, I had 5 days off, and Deon and I decided last minute to head of to the land of Gods, Greece, and had a blast, the best unplanned vacation in my life, short as it was, it was sweet !

Pictures: Athens and Mykonos

Tic Toc Tic Toc...BOOM

2009-08-31T02:57:00.000-07:00

THIS POST IS BASED ON A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND IN NO WAY SHOULD BE GENERALIZED TOWARDS WOMEN OR CABIN CREW

Ah ! the pleasures and insane displeasures of working at 35000 feet . Flying with girls and being the only male on board proved once again faithful to the tension between them, you would think you are on planet venus in the middle of a world war ! Why are women so aggressive towards each other , its as if they had a point to prove and everyone of them had to make a statement on how things are done as to their knowledge and screw company standards ! unbelievable... If I was a woman I think I would love to look my best and not chew my nails in front of customers while on my jump-seat, if I was a woman I certainly would not complain like a raging pig in front of customers as if EK was owned by my father , If I was a woman I would make more then an effort to smile and not look like a man who came out of a sex change operation ! I would most likely try to do my job instead of complaining about small things that will not change the situation or my future in the company !

I really don't understand why with such an easy job filled of perks why some people find the energy to complain and complain more then working ! Just do your bleep bleep job for crying out loud. And when complaining is not enough, they move on to rumors this and that when clearly the possibility of them being true or not even at one percent. The thing that just drive me insane is when someone acts as if they have class when in fact they are far from having any ! For instance we have this service quality appraisal form to complete by surveying the customers on board, one of the girls starts righting what is an invention of her non functioning brain or should I say lazy brain and of course I had something to say about it : Out of 300 customers you could not manage to talk to one of them ? - as I'm writing , I hear : Fuck off ! - I immediately turn around and shout to her face : Did you just say FUCK OFF ? - obviously the terrified 5ft7 girl could not even fathom to admit her foul mouths creation... Really makes me wonder how the hell these people even pass through the interviews, sure it's easy to pretend to be the best person for a job, but why would I even do that if I know that I'm not made for that kind of working environment. On another note, some crew confuse being hard working i.e. fast bar service, fast clearance, to just being courteous and nice both to customers and colleagues. I mean customers come back for our service, being the attention we give them to a smile, not the uncaring speed that we throw a drink at them ! And also, I swear if I see another crew reset the call bells on a 5 hour flight I will slap them silly...

In other news, I made through the application process for working on the A380 fleet and just can't wait, I'm also happy that my partner in crime also made it through ! Fun times ahead !

Over and out !

Concentrated Post :)

2009-08-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

So I was avoiding blogging a bit after a censorship fiasco down at fellow blogger Airboy ! What have I been up to ? Just go through the good ones, did not had bad ones , just mixed feelings lol I dead headed to Bangkok on the A380 and in business class, I think Business and up is the only way to travel, how am I ever gonna be able to sit in economy with out complaining ! this was my first time there, as I did not see the attraction or felt motivation to go there and with reason. Arrived there late at night, and it was decided by the crew to go out for diner , yes we did, I'm a bit picky on exotic food i.e. food I would not usually cook myself, but I was surprised by the Thai food (yes first time eating it) and it was yummy yum yum lol next we were off to this street full of people mostly foreigners on vacation trying to fulfill some fantasy , most likely a dirty one , and full of those same foreigners, myself included, drunk out of their minds...I think I threw up part of my brain after that night lol enough said :)

I also did my first Indonesian flight to Jakarta, it was a 48 hours layover that I could not be bothered to get out of the hotel... so spent that layover by the pool and ordering drinks and getting sucked dry of my blood by mosquitoes and what nots ! Then got a Calcutta layover again but this time a 24 hour layover, so some time to brief, and something unusual, I went out clubbing, well with 5 Local crew on board, I was willing to go on an adventure , knowing that I was with people who knew the place. It was an experience to see people dance to music that yourself are not used to... Well thats why I love this job, keep discovering :).

I just came back from a layover trip from Kuala Lumpur, very clean and all around nice city, somehow I only managed to take pictures of the Petronas

Towers, one of the worlds tallest buildings, I was going at it click click click not realizing that I was not taking any other pics !

Now to the part some of you just gag to hear about, the ranting : One thing I absolutely get a seizure from , is crew trying to impress the seniors , and the way they go about it by overdoing what is expected of them , its almost like eating an over-glazed crispy cream doughnut ! It was too much sucking up, I had to give my self a bath room break to scream out my pure disgust ! I admit it feels good to get recognition for a work well done, but why not do it all the time and be happy with yourself for delivering excellence ! after all that's what expected of us ! Anyway... the other thing that absolutely makes me run for my EpiPen is crew talking so loud in the galley that you can hear them on the plane flying 25oo feet above ours ! I mean jeez...oh and before I forget, this one I need to have an aspirin near by cause it's hear attack worthy, crew that act like they are better then others and they just deliver poor poor poor and poor service ! god bless them...

September roster is out...and being Top bid got almost all that I asked for, starting with no turn around yet again, 2 Zurich, Rome, Moscow, Nairobi and the mother of all wanted destinations, San Francisco with a 48 hour layover ! now thats something to shout out, God Help me :)

Later babes...

EK770

2009-08-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

When I was bidding for Cape Town flights last month , I really did not know what to expect, or just did not pay attention on what the other cabin crews where saying about it. This is a 9 hour flight to and from there with a 2 hour time difference which is good after a long flight not to suffer to much jet lag. First big smile on my face is entering the briefing room and realizing that I flew before with one of the seniors, so stress on this flight from my peers is to strike out from my mental list. On to the flight itself, 314 passengers in economy for 9 hours is something , with 8 cabin crew at their each and every wish ( call bells to summon us). Right to the point , the flight there was HELL, fantastic crew though, but HELL of a flight, 100 Vegetarian meals requested aside the children meals, we call those special meals, and of course, OF COURSE, half of those people switch their seats on a full flight and it took us what seem like for ever to give out those meal and deal with all the customers who changed their seats and we could not get a yes or a no from them on if they had ordered a meal or not...CRAZY...and I still don't understand what it means when you ask for a simple yes or know and you get a funky head roll as if it was a compass trying to point north (in the north pole) ! Other amazing thing I experienced during the flight, customers helping themselves to the unattended bars while we are out in the cabin distributing meals, I could not believe my eyes, but amazingly enough, no one took any champagne, just goes to show what goes on in these fools mind ! Some reasonable customers, and thank God for them, felt sorry for us, one of them told us that they cannot comprehend on the fact that we serve so much alcohol (free) on board, and on how demanding the customers were to us and rude as if we were there own personal genie ready to make anything happen, like the guy at 43 charlie using the call bell to ask me to come close the window blind for him ! or 24 Golf who wanted me to come clear his empty cup of soda ! and it just goes on and on and on...and how can I forget customer 30 delta pointing out cheese the cake that was walked over on the isle and flatten out to the extent of becoming part of the cabin floor, and asked me to clean it up !!! Professional that I am, I did, but the way she asked me to do it ! Hello are you suffering from some post bossy down syndrome ! Out of all the going up and down ridiculously to satisfy the needs (some not to say most , TRIVIAL) of the customers, one sweet couple terrorized by all the craziness of their other fellow travelers, found the need to tell me that this was their best flight in term of service, as we managed to keep it together and still be nice to everyone (well almost lol) and that needed a recognition from them...and that kind of notice makes the job worth while amongst the zoo that the cabin becomes after take off ! On a more positive note, the return sector was way more quiet and happier customers to deal with.

In other news, you probably figured out that EK 770 is the flight number for Cape Town lol A beautiful city with lots and lots of natural beauty...I would go again, but either as a passenger or after I recover from the psycological effects of this trip.

Check out the pictures : CAPE TOWN

What am I talking about ?

2009-08-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Now how much is too much, why do we not know when to quit ? Is this what life is all about, taking chances , multiple ones at a time and risking everything, and for what ? some for spontaneous pleasure others for long term and most of us , we are lost, just act on an impulse with out knowing or understanding the very basic fundamentals of it all. The figuring out part can basically lead to depression or craziness, as trying to understand our actions can lead to disturbing revelations about ourselves that are in opposition to our beliefs and to the very core of who we think we are or see ourselves as. We take decisions all the time that we don't want to, but convince ourselves that they are right, thus where friends come in and remind us of the sermon we keep telling them over and over again, but even then it still feels right when it's so wrong. I guess the main problem with us humans is that ever incomprehensible and mysterious thing we call feelings. They always seem to take over any logic we might come up with to get out of a situation that we deem risky and that we pre evaluated as a dead end to our happiness . Is to much happiness a good thing or a bad thing, I personally for some crazy and unbalanced reason find it as a cake with too much sugar, it is sweet with the first bite but a whole plate can leave you with a tummy ache... and most relationships seem to be like that , specially when we jump onboard to quickly and by listening to feelings and not logic. But feelings are what we rely on to move forward on an impulse ? I would say yes, but I need to control those impulses for my sanity sake lol On another matter, when do we know that we are in the same boat as those we call Desperate lol ? I think these days I've acting like a desperate fool lol and I need to come back down to earth and realize that my well being in every department of my life only depends on me and not others ! That's what living in such a place called Dubai can do to you. Not thinking rationally and acting on impulses and immediate gratification. But there most be a logical explanation to all this ? after all we are superior animals said one biologist in comparing humans to animals , them being inferior. They call earth the lonely planet, and we seem to live our lives as lonely as possible, creating clans , groups, etc. It must be a reverse karma treated to us by life for complicating it. Fair enough I say. We are so filled of judgement and criticism, except when it comes to ourselves that we deem the most perfect being of all. Vanity is surely part of our DNA composition, after all God created us to his image ! but then again that only counts for Christians and what ever else religion that read the same bible. So then maybe he did not create us to his image, and we are just randomness completely lost with no guidance and out of control. Now that makes more sense, cause this world seems to be lost and out of control !

Later my sweet fools !

Casablanca !

2009-07-27T15:34:00.001-07:00

I just got back from Casablanca (Morocco) and I was shocked beyond belief on how bad the passengers were, I thought I had seen it all by now... but this is crazy. Not that I'm putting all Moroccans in the same basket, but this flight was close to being hellish ! First of all boarding, its as if someone told the passengers that they would win a prize if they get to their seats as fast as possible, people were being impolite to one another, not giving the person in front of them the time to sit down or stow their baggage ! Now the plane takes off, seat bell sign is not even off yet and call bells are ringing off the hook ! First request water (mind that they just came out of Dubai terminal 3 where you can get a bottle for 1 Dirham which is about 30 cents USD or less ) and I just love it how they ask it as if we are responsible for them being so thirsty ! As soon as we are released for service we prepare the bars , so of course customers requesting drinks we advise them to wait a few minutes, some would not take no for an answer... so out we go with the first bar and dragging it from the back to the front is an adventure as every 4 rows we were guaranteed to be stopped by a customer asking questions, bright ones like: Are you serving us food ? (no live animals) Do we have strawberry juice ? uhhhh ??? Can you close the window blind ??? double uhhh ?

I really wonder if these people that treat cabin crew like slaves greet people at their homes like kings ? I also wonder what goes on in the head of one that keeps requesting for service when seeing us going up and down with carts and picking up after them ? No wonder Emirates is #5 in the world, we basically bow down to customers in terms of service, but we will never compromise safety, so yeah I like it when I have to scream during landing to seat down :)

I could go on with the many many many outstanding bad behaviors I witnessed tonight on board, but I won't...

Casablanca as a city left me with mixed feelings it's in between of what I expected, but loved eating tagine ! (look it up in google :) ) Everything seems to be disorganized and chaotic but yet everything seems to run smoothly amongst that. Nothing more to add.

In other news, it is still hot in Dubai and I think it's affecting my brain, because I have been taking on projects one after the other (please read between lines lol ) and I just can't seem to stop my self. I also applied to Join the A380 fleet, I'm happy about that, more hours and more days off, and only flies to London, Sydney, Auckland, Bangkok, Toronto and Seoul in december, Paris in february, my good friend Deon also applied so a lot of shenanigans in perspective as the chances of getting on the same flights are high !

I have to do a philosophical bit : How honest can one person be, how much of our needs must we sacrifice for the good of the people we love ? these questions have been buzzing around my head and driving me crazy...

Later my sweet fools !

Dear London

2009-07-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Just came back from 1 of 2 back to back London's , originally was rostered to do Calcutta and got changed to operate a London... Most cabin crew fear London and say it's a hard flight. It was my 3rd and I find it as normal as any other flight... Oh well, what would the world be with out complainers and then some ! This as to be to date the weirdest crew I had to work with, it's as if there was absolutely no chemistry and not even a common ground of interest. The purser was super boring, I don't even remember seeing her smile or anything, and that's the thing I hate, if you don't like your jobs do me a big favor and quit, it's an easy job down the line, given that we work hard on board , we do have the best perks ! A layover is what you make of it, as for me I went out in SoHo and had a blast. Contrary to the pursers attitude , you had crew that where overdoing themselves and therefor also showing that they don't like the job, you too please quit ! Nothing drives me more crazy by an overbearing personality , it's not rocket science being cabin crew, please don't try to make the rest of us feel like losers ....

Needed to rant out a bit lol

Loved London can't get enough of it !

Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm thinking of joining the A380 fleet but a bit undecided, on the plus side I'll get to be in Toronto more often and London , but won't be able to go elsewhere, but the company plans to get more A380s so I guess patience as to be a virtue in this case... we'll see.

Hamburg, Paris and some thinking :)

2009-07-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

So I went to Hamburg not really expecting any big thing...and I was delightedly surprised as that city is one of the most beautiful I've been to so far and by far the cleanest... The hotel also follows suit and had an amazing view over the lake and champagne served with the breakfast buffet, I have got to love my job :) .

In other news, I'm really being lazy these days... My flatmate being away for another 2 months, and being alone in the appartment somedays I just leave the dishes pile up , it is amazing how much I can get unaccomplished lol

Now, I originally got scheduled for 2 Paris, but swapped one of them for a Hamburg, which I don't regret...so off to Paris I was, I could barely contain my enthusiasm to going there and working that flight. I just love working in french and with people who speak the language, it makes the job all worth it :) and specially landing afterwards in such a magical city that it Paris. It was not my first time there and probably not the last time, about 2 hours before departure I realized that it was a national holiday , almost like independence day, called Prise de la bastille, google it or wiki it or better yet go watch MARIE ANTOINETTE which Reece Weeterspoon stars. Other reasons I love Paris, besides the art and history is of course the FOOD, as my good friend Deon would say, I was in deed gagging to eat French food :)

Click for the pictures : Paris

I was just reading Airboy's most recent post, and he was talking about people sending him mails encouraging him and others not, makes me think why people always have to be negative, why can't they keep it to themselves, I'm well aware of the saying misery likes company but jeez don't be looking for me lol This comes to my job, where I work with a myriad of different people coming from different cultures and that mixed with the passengers with the same melting pot as we. I won't lie, it is trying at times to understand others and why somethings that seem so basic to me seems difficult or weird to others ! it is challenging, but I love it, with out this job I would of lived a life filled of stereotypes towards other cultures and basically now I appreciate more the people I get to meet and learn about where they come from...but to be real some cultures I don't think I will ever understand them and what makes them tick.

My next trip is Calcutta...as Hamburg really don't know what to expect...will see...

Heat !!!

2009-07-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Obviously it is warming up in Dubai , and I mean that in all the possible meanings of that word ! First of all the weather is getting pretty close to being hellish, it is so damn hot that I get out of my apartment only and I stress only if absolutely necessary . With the passing of Michael Jackson , at first I did not make a big deal out of it, typical me, delaying my reactions, went to Zinc after a 7 week hiatus, and there was a MJ sort of tribute put in the regular cheesy monday theme, and there I was old memories of my teenage life growing up to MJs songs, I almost felt like bursting into raging torrents of tears ! After my Shanghai Surprise off I was for my first trip of the month and first of seven layovers of the month, went to Accra in Ghana, my expectations were kind of high as it is said that's where the slaves who were brought to the americas were taken from. But as we disembarked the airplane and on to a very familiar scene , the small airport , not quite modern installation, my mind flashed back to PAP (Port au Prince international airport), and I literally had the chill, and for a split second thought I was back in Haiti, my mind was scrambling for reality to settle back, I think me not wanting to go back to my country is getting borderline pathologic. That moment set the mood for me for the whole 3 days spent there ! I've never been so disinterested to be interested as much before in my life, and for good reasons . I'm gonna skip some bla bla that I just can't seem to find the words to explain, but having been harassed by prostitutes in a hotel, not quite sure if it's the cherry on the cake, and who's cake ? There is something quite disappointing to me about countries with the obvious resources to become strong and powerful but seem to be content in a constant state of corruption ! That boggles my mind, as it is that same logic that applies to my home country Haiti ! On the other hand it is also and as upsetting to see some countries with enough resources to help suffering countries but just don't seem to bother...when billions of dollars are being put out to save failing banks and car companies, would not that money been served better for the millions dying of hunger and so on ? I guess after all we do go back to our roots and that is that we are animals and as such we stick naturally to clans and looking out for their survival ! I really don't know what that brain of ours is inside our head for ? Never the less, hope and faith is what all of us look beyond this major imperfection of ours and towards a brighter future...

Now these days I have been meeting a lot of interesting people, and I'm starting to wonder if the heat of Dubai is modifying our way of thinking and downgrading it to the animal instinct that I mentioned above , because it feels like mating season here lol No more to add !

In other news, I swapped one of my two Paris for the month for a Hamburg layover, I heard a lot of nice things about that city, plus german customers are the best I've had so far (that sounds strange, but the heat talking again lol ).

I was so disappointed about Accra that I did not even take one single picture of the place, only some pics with the crew at the local restaurants there...sorry :(

Shanghai Surprise !

2009-06-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

Where to begin ? Going into China is always interesting, such a different culture in every way possible. The 7 hour flight was good, nothing major, the same people asking for their usual water and the same people taking off their shoes to suffocate the rest of the cabin. As we are about to decent, the senior advises us that as soon as the plane comes to a stop at the gate to keep all customers seated ! uhmmm.... my brain was tired at that point that I did not even bother to think why... about 30 minutes after landing, a group of fully protected inspector (masks and all) come in to take everyones temperature, now the aircraft type is a Boeing 777-300, with a 3 class configuration, that is 8 in first class, 42 in business and a whopping 304 in economy ! did I mention we were full ! that inspection took about 45 minutes, but when they reached the last row , they found a customer who happened to have high fever (oh great I was telling myself), but with no coughing or any visible signs of fever symptom, the authorities were not willing to risk it, so the obvious logical thing for them to do is quarantine ! But only the customers who were sitting in the area and all the crew who served him. At this point my brain awakes and I'm thinking, we were all trapped at 40 thousand feet in the air breathing the same air, and now they figure only part of the plane is affected ! Anyway I'm no doctor or scientist, who am I to judge lol . By now it's been 2 hours we landed and still on the plane, a decision needed to be taken between the crew, do we all stay for quarantine, or one of us volunteers ? Guess who out of nowhere decided to take that step ? No other then me ! Once that was settle, the rest of the crew and customers could disembark and only a dozen of customers and myself stayed, and that, for another hour, until a bus came to pick us up and bring us to a quarantine hotel. What involved the choice that I made ? If the test for the customer with high fever revealed positive for H1N1 I would have to stay in the hotel for a minimum of 7 days ! scary ! if negative, I would just go join the rest of the crew at the regular layover hotel. Leaving the airport on to that so called quarantine hotel, felt like being a star, for some strange reason, they were camera man waiting outside the gate, and arriving at the hotel , people were actually waiting for that bus to arrive, really strange ! no discretion , the thing does not make any sense. We get at the hotel, get a room key, and advise to stay in untill further notice. The plane had landed 7 hours ago by now, and I just dropped dead and slept like a baby, but to be bothered 1 hour later by a disturbing knock on the door, it was my dinner, obviously I did not realized how much I was hungry, ate the meal as fast as possible, a record for me, fell back asleep, but, an hour later again, same story, this time they came to pick up the tray !!!! it was 10pm by now !!! next disturbance would be the next morning at 6am to a call telling me that everything is ok and a bus would be picking me up in an hour. Now on to the real layover, got to the Hotel at 8am, saw the rest of the crew outside waiting for the hotel shuttle to take them shopping, checked in, and went back down a.s.a.p. and went out with them ! spent the time on the bus yapping away my night in quarantine. Shanghai is pretty nice, the shopping second to none if you like fakes ! lol.

Roster for July is not out yet, but I already know that I'm going to Paris twice next month...Can't wait !

Click for Pictures from Shanghai and then some : Shanghai

Leaving Montreal yet again !

2009-06-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

So this is my last night in Montréal and I'm heading to the airport at 4am Tuesday, arriving in Dubai at 8am Wednesday, can you believe it !!! I had a much better time in Montreal then last time (see Passport issues lol) enjoyed my family , friends and met some cool people.

The best time had to be when my family came over for diner and we played games after :

Later...

Watch out my neurons are acting up again !

2009-06-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

So after a day of hanging out with friends, I decide to finally make it to my sisters place where my Mother was waiting for me, but she was about to go out and invited me to go with her at this forum called Landmark, it's my mom and I have not seen her since last november, and my brother and sister would be there too, so there I was on my way to the forum ! I'm this kind of person who basically makes my own rules about life, but also I'm this kind of species who wants to try everything (thus me being cabin crew for EK). So this forum was more about managing life and managing the decisions we take that seem to sabotage our happiness, and apparently we do that because we get so use to failures that we accept them better then risking something that my lead to something better something greater. For example, when I was growing up I used to be teased a lot at school for very stupid reasons, as these same people who made my childhood hell seem to have magically forgotten about it and seem to respect me more , anyway, so because of that experience, I became shy about having friends, deeming that they are all certified backstabbers , liars , ungrateful bastards. And that basically shaped who I become, in my late teen years into my twenties I had a really really cold attitude towards people who clearly were being nice to me ! I would even call it snob...of course I know better now, but that grim side of my personality still makes surface from time to time, specially when my brains starts analyzing why these people are being nice, and what are they after ? It's human nature , we are drawn to people for what they have ! Well I'm contradicting myself, I never once befriended someone because they had something they could bring to enhance my well being, may it materialistic or for social reasons ! so if I think that of my self surely others like me must exist... Now comes my other dilemma, why do I get paranoid when I find some one like me ! To come back to the forum, they say that we need to stop projecting the past into the future ! which is what I need to do, in almost all aspects of my social life and interaction with others, keep my past in the past and trust the future ! if it was that easy, but I'm working on it !

On another matter... In that forum it talked a lot about taking risks ! in example, why not ask that person you like out ? the worse that can happen is a turn down, but is not that what life is about, Qui ne risque rien n'a rien = Who risk nothing has nothing ?

I'm pooped from blogging of all this mambo jumbo lol

Later...

Going home again !

2009-06-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

Off I am to my second leave this year, and where other then Montreal. Last time I went was back in april and it was full of drama (knocking on wood that this time will be all the contrary) so far my pattern is very familiar, last time I had a Dubai-Brisbane-Aukland pairing which is a 14 hour flight and I went directly after to Montreal via Toronto another 14 hours in the opposite direction, this time, I had a Dubai-Melbourne pairing, 14 hours also, got back in Dubai at 11am, and left for the airport the same day at 11am for a 2am departure to JFK landing there at 8am and taking another plane to YUL at 3pm...exhausted, yes I am, as I'm seating at JFK terminal 8 waiting to board my plane. With 5 hours to kill, I decided to got to Manhattan as the transport is very convenient from the airport, just catch the air train that goes directly to Jamaica station which is on the blue line (e), and that goes to pen station near Times square the major artery of New York City... once there I went on to Madison avenue , one of the most expensive streets there, with all the major stores, I was on the hunt of La Maison du Chocolat Paris (house of chocolate) to purchase some delicatessens. Back to my flight, I make an habit not to attract to much attention if I'm traveling on EK as a passenger, this said, I was disappointed to the crews attitude, and really got a good understanding as why some passengers do not bother to say please or act politely with us, there is nothing uglier or more rude then someone working and not even able to deliver an honest smile, this kind of attitude makes me wonder, why do they even bother working ? Personally some passengers can kill all good will left in me, but I still find a way to get over it...enough said...humans will be humans.

Check out pictures from my melbourne flight and the uniform :

Melbourne pairing

Later...

Expect the unexpected...ain't that the truth !

2009-05-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

To continue from my last post, the changes to my roster kept coming, I had a Kuwait turn around changed to an Amman turn around and my Lagos layover changed to Johannesburg. So in all, i worked 7 days straight doing 3 flights, Guangzhou, Amman and Johannesburg ! I can say that I am tired as an owl lol Typing this blog at 4:27 am is quite strange ! But not stranger then attempting (3 rd try) to cook up some Butterscotch squares at midnight ! Originally I planned to go out, but all the ingredients were there and I needed to satisfy my self by successfully baking those damn yummy cookies :) which happened and boy will I have a major tummy ache by the time I finish posting this blog. Back to J-burg as they call it, I had a lot of stereotypes about South Africa , some of them were broken but others were reinforced ! The flight was quite particular, and kind of represented what my stereotypes were, specially when it came to customers asking for something and not saying PLEASE... is that too much to ask ? or they think they pay for the right to boss us around like robots with money back guaranteed ? ( click on this link to another fellow blogger who expresses fully what I experienced : AIRBOY )

After an 8 hour flight and arriving at sweet home Dubai at 8 am, I decided to go see my manager and talk about what is going on with him not replying to my emails and about my ABSENT showing on my roster in April following my eventful passport and visa issues. He seemed to be as shocked as I was when he told me that He thought everything was settled...( Dear reader I encourage you to use your imagination and think of what went through my mind at that precise moment and what colorful choice words were hanging at the tip of my tongue ! ).

Apparently my ABSENT will be removed, but I will still be paying , as it will be replaced by another day of LEAVE, my yearly balance diminishing yet again. Oh well ! For now my plan is to have my 8 days leave for june cancelled and just take 19 days in October in sweet home Montreal or where ever, going back to Haiti has been tingling in my brain recently, we'll see !

I have one day off, then 2 back to back Istanbul turn arounds during the week end... As for June roster, Melbourne, Johannesburg again and Shanghai !

Click for photos : Butterscotch Success !

Johannesburg

Later :)

Butterscotch , Moscow no Guangzhou...

2009-05-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Crazy past days, I had 2 days off and decided to finally give a try at making one of my favorites dessert cookies Butterscotch squares !!! First attempt was a complete disaster, I used too much butter, burned it and still continued doing the recipe. By the time everything was mixed together and the dough was ready to go to the oven, I thought seriously that it would be a success, well, I managed to burn it, pitch black CRAZY ( click here for pictures: Butterscotch ) . But on my second attempt did not burn it, but was funny how I melted the brown sugar completely and having it harden as fast and wondering how could I possibly make a dough out of hard caramel lol . In all a funny experience, crash and burn will best describe my time in the kitchen cooking it up between midnight and 5am lol Why, because my internal clock is out of whack !

Next story, I was suppose to fly to Moscow, and the best, I would be deadheading most likely in business class, as the flight was oversold, however this did not happen, I got taken off that flight and put on to go to Guangzhou in China... No idea where that city was or it's existence, the flight to there and from there was pure HELL ... The passengers were the most demanding I have ever met ... I get so frustrated when people keep asking for thing with out the magic word PLEASE ... Actually it drives me crazy , I guess it is something I will have to learn to manage if I want to survive in this industry. During hour 24 hour layover there, I slept in the whole time, ordering room service to keep my body alive lol I have to say the Hotel is one of the best I have ever laid my eyes on , simply incredible, but cannot say the same about the time in the air !

Next flight Amman, Jordan turnaround followed by Lagos, Nigeria layover...

Later.

Glasgow...Personality disorder !

2009-05-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

I was excited to go to Glasgow from the first second I saw it on my roster. I had checked the passenger load a few days before the flight and not to my surprise, full going and coming back. Now I was thinking it would be an easy flight , specially when during boarding I saw that everyone , well almost, were Scottish. How wrong could I have been, this has been the hardest working flight to date, there was nothing left in our bars, NOTHING, they drank everything, when the gin was over they moved on to the whisky, and when the wine was over they started buying champagne. This was a day flight on top of everything !!! I was brutally tired when we arrived in Glasgow around 2pm , but the shops close early even on a friday, so I use up my backup energy to go shopping, where else then Primark , the cloth look good, and are cheap, and the quality, well, you get what you paid for, but so far my undies seem to be good. It is strange how people have completely different personalities while working and off work, there is no consistency, therefor it makes it difficult to feel there interaction outside of work to be natural and sincere. I experienced this full frontal lol during this trip, some people have the natural talent of being professional while keeping the same attitude both on and off work, so they don't look too crazy. But others, oh my god, it is absolutely freaky lol Enough of that, does who are in the flying business know what I mean, and well even working in the office it happens, but it seems to be happening at a greater level up in the air !

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures on this trip, why you might ask, well, besides the fact that Glasgow has a gloomy weather which seems to be year round, I was dead tired, and did I mention that I managed to go for drinks on that same evening, drinks are so cheap there, no wonder everyone is outrageously drunk there by 7pm lol

Later...

Rewind selector back to Beijing, Video !!!

2009-05-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

London, Wax and socializing !

2009-05-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Continuing this month of getting back in the air, after discovering Beijing off I was to London, been there done that, but not quite enough, this is a wonderful city to do everything, shop, eat, dance, fall in love, you name it , the possibilities are endless. The flight there was not eventfull but we fly a particular kind of people, the ones who never thought one day they would be on a plane and be treated to first class service while seating in economy ! It is something human behavior , sometimes I wish we had a Dr Phil on board to explain certain characters on board that I call special. For the first time since I've started flying with EK I was super tired once I got to the hotel, I mostly blame it to the pairing I did before, or just the fact of working hard on board. The next day woke up early having slept a real good night rest, went for the usual breakfast buffet, and once again gagged on bacon , shoved as much as possible into my stomach. Then out we were to the city, oddly enough no one remembered that in London the stores open only at noon , being a sunday, so we uselessly woke up at 7am to meet at 8am, oh well, next time we will just have to party late and hard . Once in to town we headed to Starbucks for some coffee, cake, etc. and headed for the shops , after not finding anything or should I say not wanting to spend too much we headed to Madame Tussauds wax museum, I had more fun then what originally expected, so that was good.

Socializing, the past weeks I found myself being more open and conversational to people I meet, I don't know what has gotten into me but I like it lol I have this tendency to sticking to the one or two people I feel comfortable with and shouting down the door to the rest of the world. In my defense I have to say it's not given to everyone to be lovy dovy ! But can one be too friendly, as in any life situation when 2 or more human beings are interacting, it is quite challenging to stay in the middle line and not go over our boundaries as well as others. I also found myself in a place where I always want to avoid, being possessive lol Will not go into details, but you all know what I am talking about here, that feeling of wanting everything to go your way but it does not , maybe the right words for this syndrome should be Control freak ! But I see myself more of a passive control freak then an active one lol What am I talking about ?!?!?

to be continued....

Click here for pictures : London

Back in the air again !

2009-05-06T04:15:00.001-07:00

I finally got my passport back last thursday with a brand new visa on it ! One would think my troubles were done...That same day I was rostered to do a Turn around flight, which I was told 4 days prior that I would be removed from it, well turns out some one was sleeping and I got marked Absent...Fuming I was, but since I have all the evidence (emails) I will not make a great fuss about it, at this point I have done my part, it's just that you get a salary deduction (sort of penalty) from missing a flight, and if this is not corrected before the next pay , you better beleive it I will be a betch on steroids.

My first flight after 20 days was Beijing , and how delighted I was, specially with my May roster : Beijing, London, Glasgow, Moscow, Lagos. I am someone that is not easily impressed, remembering back at my first trip to London where I could not be bothered and now I just get so excited to go there. I am weird. Well same thing is happening with Beijing, I got there, and I was like, that's it ? I think it was the frustration of having my passport number not updated in the flights general declaration where I was delaying the whole crew explaining to the local authorities that discrepancy . Moving on, we got in town around 3pm , quick nap and off we were to diner , I always had nightmares of eating out in Asian countries ! probably due to mass marketing of unsanitary practices there in restaurant in the western medias. Diner was awesome and cheap, One of my best diners on a layover, not as good as Paris but different. Next day, we (the crew) rented a car with driver and went on to visit the Great Wall of China, I was really excited about that, the landscape is quite odd, a bunch of old crippled houses made out of old reddish bricks and dirt everywhere, but also a lot of trees ! Got at the station to start the tour and immediately we were bombarded by locals trying to make a sale ... I am pretty aggressive when someone is in my face, even more when I don't understand the language and I say no ! That's the negative I will be taking back from Beijing, the people are pushers when it comes to selling. Also a very strange phenomenon I experienced, people randomly taking pictures of me or asking me to be part of a picture with them. Maybe I look like a superstar, lol , who knows ? But I quickly realized that it was not the case, when someone took my picture with out asking me and I went to ask them why , and they ran away, at another occasion I grabbed one of them and said : you take picture, you pay me ! The guys face went completely blue of fear, being that he must have been 5 ft 5 and me 6 ft 3 lol. Back to the visit, so after taking a lift to go up the mountain where the wall is laying, every one was in agreement that we would not be walking much as it all looked like an ever ending brick road, nothing wowing there besides the fact that it was built 1300 years BC . The way down, we had to go down a slide , which was the highlight of my day lol (took a video of me going down). Next we were off to the forbidden city, this one I did not visit the inside as it would take a whole day, so next time !

Click here for pictures : Beijing

Why complain ?!?!?

2009-04-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

Following my last post I really thought things could not get any weirder, stranger or even difficult for me and my stress prone mind and body. As I got my passport on the day before I flew back to Dubai, I asked again to the Passport Office if there was no way for me to have a certified later stating why they kept my passport ? When I got another official NO, I said to myself !@#$%?&!@#$%? and some more %$#@!?&*@#$%!&* ... so off I was back home, thinking, what kind of vacation was this ? takes more than a day ,to and from Montreal, and spent most of my time worrying about a passport and visa !!! The good thing coming back was that the flight had enough seat available for me to enjoy 3 empty seats to myself, that meant I would, and I did, sleep a whole 8 hours on the plane. As we landed in to Dubai, could not help myself to text my favorite B. to make sure I'll have an unconditional ear to listen to my rants. Once I got settled in the apartment , my compulsory need to go to the internet acted and just before I logged on to Facebook, decided to go check my schedule ! To my biggest surprise , my flights were replaced by leave days (vacation days), which down the line means less money for me and less vacation days to take in the future... How upset was I ? LIVID !!!! Let me explain, when I got to the airport the immigration officer did not make any fuss about me not having the visa on my new passport, as EK crew we have been issued electronic cards that let you by pass an officer , as all our information and finger prints have been registered. The officer directed me to the Egate (name of the card) counter where I scanned my card and finger , and voila, I was cleared. The officer also told me to just make sure I have the copy of my visa with my new passport until I can go to the office and have it transfered ! I mean really, how can such an important issue be interpreted a gazillion times by a service department ? As it was Thursday evening , meaning all offices were closed until sunday, that meant I could not do jack *&?% for 2 days , which have been marked as LEAVE.... How to balance all the bad words that were flowing to my brain cells and making their way to my mouth ? Surely enough I ended up at the beach on friday, and at Dreamland Aquapark on saturday. On sunday my adventure in Bureaucracy began at 8am, direction EGHQ (Emirates Headquarters) , went up to the visa section, explained my whole situation, which seemed odd and strange to them, got sent to the immigration services, where they seemed even more lost in my story, so nothing better for them to do then to expedite me again to the visa services where this time the agent lost his cool and went back to the immigration services (having talked to them before sending me lol) and there about 5 or 6 men were debating in Arabic about my situation tossing my passport from one hand to the other before deliberating on what to do ! Finally I was told to get a letter certified by the Canadian Consulate and then attested by the ministry of foreign affairs...my head was going beep beep beep , back up back up, when I joined EK I was poked and tested and so on to make sure I was healthy and benefit from a UAE resident visa , then issued ID cards which would let me go through security zones and immigration, so why exactly to I need to go through all that ? Why would my passport be a fake ? anyway.... moving on !

I arrived at the Canadian Consulate under a blazing 35 degrees celsius in Dubai... it was busy there in a small room full of people there to renew their passports etc... It was a bit funny hearing some issues people came with , made my problems seem obsolete. Finally my number came up to go see a representative, of course as I started explaining my problem, they could not understand why exactly they needed me to produce a letter !!! My mind was going : Why don't you just do it %?#%@&@&#?@&#?# !!!!! LOL so the lady there tells me that it's gonna take a week minimum for them to verify everything : my passport, my story !!! At that precise second, I had a reverse orgasm and my brain exploded.

After a good hour that I took to calm down and realize that I'm still alive and healthy and that I still have a good life, I decided to go back to EGHQ and report to my manager. Unfortunately I soon realized that I was in this alone ! My intuition drove me to go back to the consulate, it's like I had a feeling of in-satisfaction and I just could not leave it alone. As I got there, another lady was present and told me that waiting a week or more is just crazy, and all I had to do is type a letter stating what happen and they would attest to it ! Things were looking better ! Off I was home after a long day of frustrations and what nots. Next day, up and early and I was at the consulate, this time it was empty as if the gods decided to give me a break lol got my letter attested and certified, went to the foreign affairs ministry and did the same, got to EGHQ and submitted my documents, and now I have to wait another 4 days to find out if my visa will be awarded to me. At this point, if I don't get it, there is something seriously wrong with this picture and I don't want to be part of it !

On the down side of this whole experience, spent over 700 DHS so far (about 230$ canadian) , lost some brain cells, that burned, my view of bureaucracy being a BS factory was strengthen , I lost my pairing to Milan and working hours, lost 4 days of vacation leave plus a week on vacation being stressed. But hey, there is a plus side, I got to work on my tan lol enjoyed some fun times with the B. who had his birthday and I have a very good roster for the month of May to look up to, going to Beijing, Glasgow, Birmingham, Lagos and London and just 3 short turnarounds. The lord works in mysterious ways !!! That he does :)

Oh to clarify, B means Britney lol you foooooooolllsss :)

Later...

Vacation or is it ?

2009-04-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

This post is more about me needing to rant about a series of unfortunate events. Back in January when I received my UAE resident visa, my passport was covered with a tape that had left glue on some pages, when I tried to remove the tape, I unfortunately tore a page off my passport ! Not thinking nothing of it, I was flying the world with a broken passport, not getting any warnings from any immigration officer both in Dubai and the world. As I was getting ready to go on annual leave last wednesday , the series of events that were about to unfold left me unsuspected. As I was going into terminal 3, Emirates dedicated terminal and a massive piece of construction, I was simply amazed on how big that thing was... After doing the self check in, I directed myself to the baggage drop off counter, and the lady finally realizes that my passport should not be in a state of handicap (missing a page - more having a page torn) . She says that it might be a problem getting into Canada or back in Dubai (mind that in more then one occasion the authorities in Dubai had a look at my passport and the missing page and never was I advise anything). My body heat slowly gets up as I see that the agent was dead set on me not boarding that plane. At this point she was trying to get in touch with a supervisor who was looking for Canadian Consulate officer to confirm if the Passport is still valid ! After 30 minutes of waiting they finally get a go to let me go through the gate , where I would be verified again. In between, I was exploring the new terminal, or should I call Mall terminal, so many shops, this thing is bigger then life , but I should not be surprised as Dubai is equivalent to big. Finally time as come for me to head to the gate, where never seen before there was 2 guys , one standing behind the other checking passengers passports and formalities, when I got there, they did not even notice the discrepancies in my passport, but only were looking for my boarding pass number which was relayed to them by the check in agent earlier. There was a Canadian government rep who verified my passport and told me that I should get a new one as soon as I get back in Dubai. Fine, I can relax and start enjoying my vacation ! NOT . The flight was full, and can I tell you that flying 14 hour in economy and being my size is not an easy task, thank god , the passengers seating next to me where very conversant and interesting so that made up for me not being so comfortable , other wise, experiencing the Emirates world class service as passenger was pleasant, even dough I deliver a better service when I am working a flight lol . As we were landing in Toronto, I was taken over by a series of memories from my last airline ( as I had a lot of flights origination or ending at YYZ). As I was lining up at the customs queue, my mind was pretty clear, got to the officer, look at my passport and stamped my custom card. Interesting, so I ask him, "What about the page that's torn off ?" and he says that he does not know if it's a problem or not, that I should go to the passport office and verify. Next stop, is the Air Canada transit counter, where with Emirates on time performance I was able to get bumped to an earlier flight in to Montreal, by now, I had an hour to move through the Terminal and make the other connecting flight, I board the plane and as they are about to close the door I here a PA asking for someone with the same last name as me to identify themselves, turns out they were looking for me, luck would have it, that I was issued someone else's boarding pass, as the agent did not even bother to look at the first names, so I was ask to leave the plane just to be invited to get on again !!! (Unbelievable). After a quick 45 minutes in the air, we land in beautiful Montreal and I finally get to go home. As excited I was to be home ! I could not help but shake off a feeling that the following day would be challenging.

Next day, off I was as early as possible to the passport office, I get there got a number for the queue and went to the counter when my number pop up . I explain my situation, the officer asks to see the passport , and KEEPS IT ! I said I need the passport back as it as my UAE visa on it, and get told that the integrity of the passport has been compromise and that it's now a security issue and will be sent to their security department. OH MY F....G GOD !!! Are they for real ? At this point I had no choice but to get a new passport issued to me, costing me 117$ which is nothing compared to the headaches that this situation has generated. I spent the whole day at the Passport office, as they are very efficient with servicing customers (Read with sarcasm !). I'm thinking that getting back in Dubai will certainly be eventful emotionally in dealing with this situation and getting a visa stamped back on my new passport, and I'm trying to be optimist in not getting pulled off the roster (which is the worse case scenario).

Last night had a very nice diner with Champagne with The Bouzou and friends...which diluted my thoughts !!! Another great diner with Friends tonight to take the edge off things !!! Also went shopping at Simons where I managed to buy some nice stuff from cool shirts to sexy Diesel swimwear... Shopping always do a lot of good to the mind and body, definitely better then eating fat ice cream lol

Later...

The vacation that this Job is...

2009-04-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

I just came back from work... well for the common mortal it must look like a big vacation... After the 5 day pairing I just did I can confirm that it is in deed a big vacation... Left Dubai Thursday morning and got into Brisbane (Australia) in the morning the next day, we stayed again in a nice hotel and again with a nice breakfast buffet that I did not hesitate to join after a long shower, did I mention that it is a 14 hour flight from Dubai. After breakfast, joined some of the crew for drinks - YES DRINKS AT 8 am - with a 6 hour time difference it made sense to stay on Dubai time and pretend it is night time lol After that , I will spare you the shenanigans , leaving your imagination to work ! Left there at around 2 pm and went for a walk around the city, leaving my camera in my room, oh well, it was a gloomy day and nothing really interesting to capture. After a 5 hour walk in the city, I realized that I have been awake for over 24 hours, how my body survived that I really don't know...So I headed back to the hotel and ordered room service, finally hit the bed around 9 pm. By now we are saturday and I'm heading to Auckland in New Zealand, arrived there at 3 pm, and again went for drinks with the crew around 6 pm and then clubbing till 3 am...Now have I been sleeping much ? lol . On Sunday we get back to Brisbane where we all finally decide that enough is enough and we all stay in our rooms and sleep, but not me , went out again that night, and slept it off after. It's monday morning and cut my sleep short and went for a good breakfast again and some other crew members wanted to go to a Koala reserve, so I said why not, and followed them. Koala's are cute, but I find that they stink lol Later on, got a 4 hour sleep and headed off to the airport for the flight back home, another 14 hour. I must say that this was the best time ever I had working both on the air on the ground during layover, great crew and great cities.

Click for pictures : Brisbane

So now I am getting ready to go on vacation (lol) to Montreal, it's another 14 hour flight west bound this time and as a passenger... I can't wait to have some real food lol Things that I am familiar with , HOME. But I'm also excited about my Milan pairing right after my vacation lol

That's it for now...

Days off !!!

2009-04-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

The month of March was one exceptional work experience for me... being my reserve month, I worked a warping 9 days representing 3 flights, all layovers (thank God :) ) and giving me 61 credit hours (average is 80). In comparison to February, I worked 9 flights , 3 layovers and 6 turn around, giving me 86 hours ! As you read my past posts for that month, I went to the beach several time, clubbing more then usual in my lifetime... but hold it continues...for april my first 8 days were also off, as we get not 30 days of reserve in a block but 35-38 .. so today I decided to go to this water park in Dubai, Wild Wadi, the experience was fun, but the rides could have been better, never the less, it was another gorgeous day (not unusual) and the water was warm and not cold (i.e. Montreal on a summer day) .

Moving on, I'm going on a 6 day pairing (trip for the common mortal - but working) , starts off Dubai-Brisbane and layover, then Brisbane-Auckland with another layover, this one I just can't wait, I remember watching the amazing race last season, and they had a leg in Auckland , and I was telling myself, I have to go there ASAP. Then back in Brisbane then Dubai, immediately after, I go to Montreal , taking part of my annual leave, I just can't wait !!! (the flight is 14 hours plus connection, that's almost a whole day sacrificed in total). For the month of may I bid for North American flights... why ? They have bigger credit hours as they are long flights, and Me needs cash as I'm planning to take an unpaid leave during the summer to avoid the unbearable heat of Dubai. As it is, I'm already sweating a lot when the plane is on the ground...Just imagine in a 40 plus degrees centigrade weather !!!

Day at water park pictures ====>>> Wild Wadi

I wish...

2009-03-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

I wish everything could be clear, no doubts no worries, no second thoughts ! I'm sure all of you reading have been in that situation where a choice had to be made , but none was, there for creating a perpetual continuum of an unpleasant situation. I wish that when I want something it could just get out of my mouth, or I could make an action, but most of all I wish that what I want I could get ! But that would be being selfish, but why would it ? Are we not entitled to get what we want, why should we not ? Well obviously if it involves someone else, then it's not just what we want but also what that person wants. I wish I could settle for the simple things in life and not want more and more, which these days, is complication, but then again, if life was so simple I would probably find it dull. So then, I wish I could accept the simple things in life, and not challenge it , but what's a life with no challenge ? Living day by day is a theory that is hard to put in practice, considering we keep thinking about the future, for example, when I was doing my Paris flight and layover, I could not stop thinking about the next time I would be coming back to Paris, isn't that just time waisted ? Enjoying the present time is a real task, forgetting about the future and enjoying the present is where happiness begins. From time to time I do think and keep my brain activities thinking about the present moment, that impressive instant when the future becomes completely irrelevant and obsolete, because the present is so priceless and irreplaceable. This moment for me is mostly realized when I'm in good company of people I cherish, friends I care about, and know care about me in return, not to confuse with people we like and have no idea if it's reciprocal , or a loved one whom we confuse attachment with love ! I wish and this one is a big wish, that I could just slow down and just think about myself by not thinking too much about myself, more that I don't expect to much from others and just give what I can and not think about what I will get out of it. That unselfish act has happen to me before and it is a place that I wish I could stay in for ever. Because what is a life spent on expecting others to give us exactly the same treatment that we gave them. After all isn't the biggest joy found in making someone happy ! Well easier said then done because of our selfish nature, Yes, we are selfish one way or another, it's what makes us human !

Ok, a bit too philosophical for one post...Today went out with the Brit and we invaded IKEA, probably , actually is blogging about it...and we had a blast making asses out of ourselves, that's the way to go, life is short no time to be serious about things, well at least things that don't matter ! Also picked up my new uniform as EK is putting the actual A380 uniform to the whole fleet, pretty classy , pictures should soon come up as soon as the uniform goes on line, which should be in may. The Brit and I also attempted Risotto, and was a major success, specially with a nice Australian red . We then went to a friend of mines birthday party and had another red this time a french. Originally felt like going clubbing but the enzymes of those reds got to our brain cells and we were left victims of our good taste in wine lol Even dough we are half a wake, we manage to spend the night imitating a certain group of people and eating kit kat ( it is past midnight ) Incredibly enough we are both blogging at the same time, when a few minutes ago for sure we were half dead near coma zone. I have slept so much the past few days, that I actually believe that my internal body defense system is sleeping too, as I think I'm getting a nasty cold, the only time I don't feel it coming is when I'm keeping active ( drinking not being one ).

Today (March 30th), I'm on home stand by from 10pm to 6am , I don't know if I want to be pulled out, but if I do it better be a nice layover somewhere, if not, well I will try to make the experience interesting, as I'm always meeting new people, crew, passengers.

Ok fools, I'm drained...later...

Ha..Ha...Ha...Paris and...

2009-03-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

What a week ! After my Brazil stint I was sure I would not get another flight for at least a week, so Sunday night went out with Carine , fellow Montrealer and some of her friends (6 other girls), the night started a bit boring for me but ended up great as we switch from Barasti to Zinc lol One would think I would be tired or something, but no, I decided to go again for a second back to back dose of Zinc, but this time it was more a bust then a blast, oh well. Tuesday, I slept almost 11 hour s ( a record to be broken in a few days...read) I woke up at 4pm and had breakfast around 5pm, a mushroom omelette, I have to say that I'm getting better and better at cooking eggs lol around 1 am (Wednesday now) Brit calls me up for diner (Yes 1 am lol) , soon after a full stomach of good food, I call EVITA ( since I was on reserve from 4 am to noon) to find out if there was any changes to my roster, and there and be hold, I got pulled out to operate a Paris flight departing at 8 am, can I tell you how excited I was, finally I'm getting a flight where I am a language speaker and to one of the nicest cities in the world, a lot of flashbacks from my previous airline came back to mind, last time I was there was about 2 weeks before Zoom Airlines folded and it was my 3rd layover in Paris. Anyway, I had an hour left to get a small nap and get ready. Eventually no nap happened as I was excited like a baby, and thinking about french pastries and food, but more pastries lol As I got to the briefing prior to the flight, I realized that this was gonna be one of the best flights, there were 5 french speakers and all the crew was open and funny and relaxed, special mention to my purser who has to be one of the best so far that I had to work with ! The flight to Paris is about 7 hours, I enjoyed every second of it, I could not believe how much as I was talking to the customers (passengers for EK ) , speaking french was some kind of release for my, I just could not stop myself lol The passengers were especially happy to have someone converse to them in their own language, and I must say I did feel better also ! We land in Paris, and of course we stay in a nice hotel and from my room I noticed the old hotel I use to stay in, memories memories. No time to nap, took a shower and headed to the city, I kept falling a sleep in the train, I was seriously tired, but I would have the whole night to sleep it off. I immediately headed to LaDurée , supposedly one of Paris finest bakery. I can confirm that it was one of the best, I had an éclair and bought a dozen Macaroons (and ate every single one of them lol) I was in paradise, I will definitely need to have diner in their restaurant.

Got back to Dubai at midnight, and crazy as it my seemed, I slept a whopping 13 hours from 2am to 3pm, I just don't understand it lol I really think it's the Air conditioning that's causing my hibernation lol and I'm loosing more and more my appetite, people are telling me how thin I'm becoming, I certainly don't feel it, except on my pants that keep falling lol , I guess it's a good thing, but I will try to at least get the daily nutrients one needs to be alive into my body.

Before I end this post, I came to a sudden realization that I should not worry so much on things that don't need so.

And here is a cute picture of the Brit at the Beach :

April roster is out : Auckland , Brisbane, Milan, Athens and annual leave to Montreal.

Later :)

Trigger

2009-03-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

What makes people tick ? In my case a lot of things, and the same amount of that can stop me and put me in a state of paralysis. Who does not wake up one morning and think they are going to have the best day ever, have everything laid out in their head, and of course destiny and this unpredictable life of ours will shatter all of it from the moment you open your eyes for the first time of the day ! I use to resent this occurrence that life keeps throwing at me ... but now (better late then never) I've come to accept it as who am I to think that I can control this life, I'm just here for the ride, so I better try to enjoy and appreciate every single moment of it . If only it was that easy ! I think that we are put in this state of conflict with our selves and our desires just so life would not be boring. What would be the point of having it all with out any obstacle in our way ? Life would be boring, as it's those challenges , those mountains (would say Moses lol) that really drive us, make us tick, work, think, for the good in us or the worse in us. I also need to learn to give and not expect something in return, and just seat back and appreciate the good or the smile I put on someone's face. Just Imagine how much better we would feel if we all started doing that, giving and caring freely for others with no strings attached ! It is quite an impossible task in real life, as we are also driven by our own personal needs which would be hard to put in a back seat ! But I wonder, have we not all had friends that put them selves second just to put a smile on our faces ? We should remember those instances when faced with the choice of making someone's day or ours ! And it's the simplest things, the small gestures, sometimes just a good morning or how are you doing that can make a difference in others life. How do we get there, now I don't have the answer to that ? But really, do we honestly even try ? I honestly can say that these past few days I try to put myself second, but it is tough to forget about ourselves for the sick of others, but the gratification of seeing the other happy is priceless. So go and makes someone's day ! (yeah yeah Emirates uses that also for us to apply to passengers and make their day).

In other news, I have not flown in a week !!! But went to the beach twice lol

Later, as Britney would say, you fools lol

Hyper active imagination looking for trouble !

2009-03-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the title, I must say that I have finally tasted the salt waters of Dubai. I went to the beach ! once there, Jumeirah Open Beach, I was wondering why I did not do this before, it's like in Montreal I never went skiing in 7 years living there thinking I would always have time and the snow will always be there. There is something not quite magical but more smoothing of dipping yourself in the sea ! For me it is complete relaxation and temporary shutdown of the brain and all it's unnecessary thinking and over thinking (read previous posts). I went there with Deon (aka Britney) and of course we had the bests of times (more with our eyes then anything else lol) , later on, we finally had the chance , well more him, to go to Zinc on a monday night, what's so special on monday night one might ask ? Besides the fact that it's labelled a particular night but also that it's retro night, so 80-90's music, had a blast, and met up with superstar Airboy (lol ok overated he might say...).

Now back to the subject at hand. My brain confuses me sometimes, if I think of something, the wildest and most impossible things, I will actually try to make it happen or even believe that it has already materialized , and this with the fact that there is no way that it can take actual physical or living form . I think my brain is wired to interpret No's as Yeses and vice versa. I know curiosity is at it's peak when you are a child, but I seem to be more and more curious as I'm aging , it is starting to wear me down and I feel like I'm running a marathon, trying to take back control of my wildly brain activities lol a certain queen of pop would call my behavior as being Psycho... and I agree ! I think that boredom has a big role in this particular situation ... when I'm bored my mind goes into a bunch of scenarios and so well planned out that I actually believe it and take it for something that is real ! Scary, I think so too. I'm not totally at fault here, I am or was (well temporary hiatus) a soap opera fan and addict, sometimes I think my mind plays a trick on me (several actually) and a distortion between reality and fiction happens (maybe I'm in the matrix - see what I mean ) . I am having such a hard time disconnecting when I find myself in that situation, the only thing keeping me sain and close to reality so far has been going out and avoiding staying trapped in my room ! But then again, my brain gets it's energy by being alone and away from normal human socialization ?!?!? Blogging and Facebooking ain't helping it either... What to do ? What to do ? I'm writing this and thinking, boy I'm crazy, but at the same time, I think I'm lucky to be able to live out this sort of adventure and drama that my brain generates for me to play out and discover, I'm only getting to know myself better and also my limits ! The other good thing about it, is that I am conscious of my actions and that has to count for a bit of sanity in me (more of it hopefully then being mentally ill ).

That's it peeps...so far no flying since my Brazil stint and again I have a parade of days off...

Oh and Day at the beach pictures : click me !!!

Sao Paulo, Brazil and Moving and Yes I can !!! (Updated)

2009-03-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

The past 3 days have been really a series of unexpected activities for me. On the 12th I had airport stand by from 7 am to 10 am, my second for the month, last time I was pulled out for Dusseldorf in Germany, and this time luck would have it for me, and I got the jackpot , Sao Paulo in Brazil, always dreamed of going there one day, and there and behold, without notice here I was heading there, but at what price lol . I have to work a 15 hour flight going there and 13 hours coming back, and all a 28 hour layover, I would have to wire my system in other to make the most of my stay there. The flight thankfully was uneventful , however we had a Purser who's dedication to Emirates service delivery is quite remarkable and inspiring, that said, we work like horses to please the customers and pleased they were, first time I see passengers deplaning with huge smiles on their faces after such a long flight. Once there, the rest just not start, we had an hour and half bus ride from the airport to the hotel, I just could not believe it, my body and my spirit was aching for a shower !!! I must say, I really love this job, the hotel was one of the best I stayed so far, and my rating system for the Hotels is mostly base on the shower lol Because I'm a tall guy (not big TALL) not all the shower gives me the best comfort, for the curious my showers can last up to an hour lol I was spoiled this time, big spacious, open and a rain like shower head , what could I ask for more, well there was space for 3 or 4 people lol After taking a long and much needed shower, went to the crew lounge and binged on facebook (so addicted the past few days, and what's up with the new changes ???) then went to sleep in order to wake up early and soak up as much as I can of the city. Morning came, took another shower lol and went for breakfast, met up with fellow crew members and we were already planning the day, beautilful Liliana from Portugal was heading downtown and knows the place a bit, so I went with her. Sao Paulo must be the inspiration for Dubai because the traffic there is just ridiculous, I guess I will appreciate Dubai's jams better. Did I mention how humid it is there, breathing became a sport as I was sweating for every breath I took. Never the less, enjoyed the heat. So after walking around the city center, we were off to lunch at this place where you can eat as much as you can , but the beauty of it, they come to your table with all kind of meats and boy was my mouth melting, another weakness of mine , RED MEAT.

With a full stomach we headed back to the hotel, but on our way there, all the humidity of this place came to stop as out of nowhere it started to rain hard, reminds me a bit of Miami, with its unpredictable rain showers at any given time of the day and on sunny days. Once the rain had stop off we were to the hotel, and got 4 hour sleep before the wake up call and flight back to Dubai... after 15 hours from the time I woke up and got to the bus to the hotel back in Dubai, I called Britney (lol guess who) and asked what was up !!! the plan was to go out and party like there was no tomorrow, but first I was hungry like a nymph prostitute who had not had a client for a year lol I am a bit graphic when it comes to describing what I feel lol so I headed to Mcdonalds, by this time it's well over midnight... thinking that I would be dancing the night, we decided that we should use this energy to move to our new permanent accommodation . That we did ! Are you still keeping track of how many hours I stayed awake non stop !?!?!? Tooke me about an hour to jam pack everything into 3 suitcases 2 carry ons and 4 large shopping bags. The junk I have and keep, I do not understand ! Finally got to the new place around 2 am and it's about 4am and I am wrapping up this post... Yes I can , or am I some kind of vampire lol

Sao Paulo pictures : click me !

Later.

Thinking (part 2) - Obsession

2009-03-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Obsession people, why does it happen ? why can't we control it ? why does it have a strong hold on our lives ? I wish I could answer those questions ... and it's the smallest things that can trigger them ... one obsession I have managed to control : Airplanes. I use to walk or drive down a street and literally stare at them in the sky and forget what I was doing...crazy, yes I must and do admit ! Now that I work on them it's less of an obsession but more a perfect marriage... Now some people might have different and more pathological obsessions, like for example, one glimpse of someone's eyes or smile for just one second can trigger a whole set of emotions and put the denial system in full blown overload ! It is a silly obsession at the very core, but such a dangerous one. You can lose all sense of rationality or logic, believe in things , see things your own way, which will most likely never happen. But the obsession can be even more dangerous, when the object in question shows signs that favor the reaction ! I see that kind of obsession like a marriage that should not have happen and needs to be annul as quickly as possible in order to salvage any sanity. When I applied for EK, I was not that interested, specially thinking that no way they are going to take on a +30 year old guy... but when I got through the first part, which for me is the trigger for my obsession to get the job at that time, I just could not let go, I was breathing, eating, digesting EK 24/7, and now that I'm here I can't even recall what I was really feeling, as if I'm ashamed of my obsessive behavior at that time. It most likely is due some sort of defense mechanism in the brain, protecting me from self inflicted embarrassment lol Ok I just lost track of my Ideas, but one way to get rid of these obsessions is to talk about it, and if its towards someone, a living breathing HUMAN, than talk to them and get things clear...it's a Killer lol

Later...

Thinking (Part 1)

2009-03-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Why do we meet people ? Why some are fun and others plain boring lol why do we instantly get attached to some while others we don't give them the time or day or a fighting chance to get to know them... My theory would be irrelevant as all of us have our own patterns that fit into our comfortable ways of life...As for myself, I can be super shy but my tendency will be to for people who are outgoing, more living their lives outside of the normal box, challenging existence and the day to day tralala. Yes, I can spend days on not doing one damn thing but when I do act it is worth all the days of being in a coma. But what happens when you meet someone that seems to be a reflection of yourself and more, these people I put them in the category of special and that you don't won't do lose track of. The most dangerous I think are the people to whom an attraction exists and they are the complete opposite of what you want or see life as it should be ! Now that human social trap of meeting and falling for these people is pure hell mixed with pure joy . What am I talking about ? you know, that girl or guy for which you have a crush on and can't even explain in a rational or logical way , WHY ?

It is quite worrying once you let yourself venture through the roller coaster called emotions and feelings , specially when the object in question is non suspecting. Even more crazy is when you divert your attention to a normal situation thinking that all will go back to normal and it doesn't. I guess that if these situations did not exist, our lives would be ever so boring, but then again how many of us decide to live our lives to a full potential, it does not take money to experience something extraordinary , special, unique, life changing, enchanting, unforgettable. It only takes a will to accept life as it is and make the most out of it with all the opportunities that presents themselves to you (Now I feel like the author of a motivational book i.e. Secrets). Now if I had to look back at my own life 10 years ago, no way I would imagine that I would be on the other side of the planet and this after being on the top side of the planet (lol Canada). I have been blessed to meet so much interesting and some rare wonderful people, let us not kid ourselves there are some mean A-Holes out there lol And the most amazing is , I keep meeting those rare individuals that make life hole for me, that makes me look at it and take a step back and enjoy every second, after all, we were given life, who are we to debate on and on about when it will end or how to live it, just enjoy the ride and make it as good as you can, forget about those eyes looking and preying on you when you fall, if you do, get up and continue, after all who has time to bother with what people do, ok ok, some people have too much time, but hey, more of the world for you to enjoy !

Please note that I'm writing this as I am utterly bored to death lol

Later...

Surprise : Dusseldorf, Germany

2009-03-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

As previously stated, for the month of march I will be on reserve, which means I don't know where or when I will be flying, my first stand by duty was an airport stand by from 7 am to 10 am. The thing about airport stand by you have to pack for at least 6 days and for any season (i.e. winter summer) as you don't know where you will pulled out for. I get to the crew stand by lounge at EGHQ (Emirates headquarters , sort of emirates crew personal airport lol ) and after 20 minutes I hear my staff number called out and the lady there says : You are going to Dusseldorf ! I have to admit when she said that I was not actually jumping up and down, as I did not have a clue before I came to Dubai where that place was, she could have said Timbucktoo and I would not be the wiser. But, I was happy that it was a layover and I would be having my way wink wink lol This was one of the best flights I had so far, the German passengers are the best, and they flirt lol but people have a misconception about tall guys (me) they think that everyone will bow down to me, for example, and this is the second time, passengers are getting up while the seatbelt sign is on, and automatically I get called to go up and make them sit down, even if it's not happening in my area of responsibility, anyway, I don't mind lol

Dusseldorf was nice, I definitely need to go back and discover it more... Nothing more to add ! Just that I want to go back ASAP ... so if I go , dear readers, you will get more yap yap about it !

Click for pictures =====>>>>>> Dusseldorf

Today is thursday and I'm already wondering if I will end up at Zinc, would love to try to go somewhere else for a change, but as long as I'm in good company and up to shenanigans , it's ok and it's alright lol

Later...

Internal clock

2009-02-28T12:23:00.001-08:00

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 !

London and...

2009-02-27T05:49:00.000-08:00

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...

Jiddah turn around !!!

2009-02-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

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 !!!

Perth, Australia

2009-02-19T04:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Zurich

2009-02-16T02:38:00.000-08:00

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 :

Zurich

Next trip is Perth, Australia....

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

2009-02-11T15:09:00.000-08:00

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...

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

2009-02-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

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 ! :)

Calicut, India Turn around...

2009-02-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

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 :)

Karachi, Pakistan Turnaround Flight

2009-02-04T04:53:00.000-08:00

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.

First flight in 12 hours...

2009-02-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

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...

Graduation...Now life goes back in full gear !

2009-01-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

Graduation, I somehow felt indifferent like a been there done that before thing, mind that I'm not 20 years old and this is not my first airline...but never the less grateful to have this opportunity...Life is so weird specially when you past the 30(age) line...What am I doing here ? is this really worth it ? I know I know, we only have one life to live and we should make the most out of it, the problem is we don' t really know how to balance all of it , do we ? One thing for sure is that I love flying and surely that can' t make me miserable, even with the worse of customers on board. It is so strange being surrounded by people younger then yourself, makes you feel good when they don't suspect or even care about your age ( must admit it helps when you don't look a certain age ). I sometime wish I could just not over think certain situations and just live the moment, unfortunately we were given a brain and a conscience and that does not help our case. I should be great full for what I have accomplished in my life and considering the long way I have been through...but I must say ever since I was a kid I allways saw myself working in the airline business, so at least I'm proud and happy that I am doing and accomplished a dream of mine. Do not ever give up, life is tough but with determination anything is possible with in reason and never settle for complacency fight hard and beleive in what you are worth !

Graduation Pics: Graduation

Desert Safari...First Aid....Last days of training !

2009-01-27T10:54:00.001-08:00

So much to say...where to begin...I went on a very cool desert safari and I had a blast (click on link below to see pics) . First aid was a night mare as I had to reseat the exam, shame on me, but hey some people like blood other don't :). In 2 days I will be graduating and will be working 8 flights for the month of february , going to Perth (Australia), Munich (Germany) , and (I love this one), London (England) here I come again...I just can't wait !!!

Pictures link : First Aid , Desert Safari , Ride in the desert .

Enjoy and next time I will be blogging I will officially be a certified Cabin Crew for Emirates.

Dubai

2009-01-09T03:30:00.001-08:00

Ok so I finally get a break from studying like a mad man and can take the time to write about my experience so far !

After 3 weeks in the sand pit, life is still strange, I feel at times that this is not real, I probably mentioned it before, but Dubai is so fill of extremes and so many contradictions, leaving me still chocked confused dazed and purely lost. The only normality is when I'm either in my room tired as hell or at aviation college having my brain fed too much information in a short period. At my last airline training was 5 weeks and it seemed to dragged on forever, with EK it is 6 weeks, but mind that the first week is induction, sort of welcoming week filled of bureaucratic paperwork this and that formalities and of course medical checks again... in between being poked for some blood. Next comes week 2 where we start learning about the aircrafts, EK has 2 types : Airbus and Boeing, but the fun is that they have different models :) A330, 340, B777-200, 300 ER LR ULR. On that week we learn the airbus and some general safety topics, we get 3 exams in week 3 on general safety Airbus and Boeing planes. General safety I must admit was fun, to be training on real moving simulators and not just dummy ones is an experience, at times I felt like I was on a ride at Six Flags (amusement park), we also did fire drills and had to put out a real fire (as short as the experience was). After 3 weeks, I was due for some phone, what better way to dance the whole stress off, so some of my batch-mates went to Zinc and I can't even remember the last time it fell so good to shake my bonbon lol 3 weeks down and 3 to go before graduation which falls 4 days after my birthday (wish I was getting younger lol), and boy can't I wait to start flying, so that this feeling of loneliness and pure depression that I keep having from time to time goes away... I know it is natural to miss people , but missing someone you love is just pure torture...But I will be able to take up to 16 days leave before July so will be planning to go back to Montreal at least 2 times till then and treat myself to some TLC (Tender love and care).

By the way I'm writing this post on pool side at the hotel on another endless blue sky, but believe it or not it's freezing lol

Almost forgot to say how the traffic here is the worse I ever experienced, maybe comparable to Montreal at rush hour after a bad snow storm, it's lunacy, how ever the taxi fares are the cheapest I've ever seen, the taxi drivers out of 10 my score is -100, they are bad , no they are TERRIBLE lol

stay tuned...

WOW INTERNET ACCESS LOL =====>>> PICTURES !!!

2009-01-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

CarineA from Pprune.org and fellow Montrealer finally arrived here and lucky her she can get a freebie on someone's internet connection in the air, so as soon as I heard that I jumped into a taxi and on to her place !

Click on the following titles to see the relevant pictures :

At JFK on Joining

Attempt to walk to Burj Dubai Tower

Fire fighting session

Grooming day

Mall of Dubai

Mall of the Emirates

Arrival in Dubai...Training...so far...

2008-12-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay...Internet is not exactly practical here...so to continue where I left off, so boarded that amazing A380 plane and boy was I amazed by the size of this big whale in the air...to beleive and understand me one needs to live it...flight was smooth and I made sure the cabin crew knew I was a new joiner, so I was treated to a tour of the super jumbo and first class section is just amazing...FIRST CLASS as it should really be, mind that I was in a economy seat for a long 12 hours, but with their IFE system I was pretty much entertain the whole time. Arrival in to Dubai was quite a shock to me, more then what I anticipated, the culture the way of living its just so strange to me ! I will get into details later on as my internet is limited, oddly enough I have access on my blackberry, chatting away on msn with my buddies. Training is fun, the facilities are second to none and thats a fact ! I am amazed everyday ! For all you wannabes Emirates and life in Dubai is or can be what you make of it ! For sure I miss my home a lot...but dwelling on it will definetly make your adaptation harder...

stay tuned for more...

Leg 1 done...

2008-12-18T14:57:00.001-08:00

Finally I boarded that silly American Airlines plane to LGA (La Guardia Aiport), with a 45 minutes delay it was almost like déja vu all over again...the plane was full, we left at 2pm and landed at LGA at 3pm, now to pick up my luggage, 2 in total with a combine weight of 50 kilos, I was happy that they had trolleys. Next stop, Bus transportation to JFK (John F Kennedy airport), only waited 20 minutes for the NY Transport Service bus which was outside the baggage claim area, after paying 13$ USD for the ride, off I was to JFK. I must say, traffic in New York is crazy, I don't know how they do it, it's not my first time here, but always baffled by the traffic here, and the place is humongous ! Speaking of big, JFK is one hell of an airport , I thought LHR was something, with it's 7 terminal buildings it took the driver almost half and hour to drop everyone to their respective terminal, and of course I was the last one to be dropped off at terminal 4. By the way the plane leaves for Dubai at 11pm ! so I have to kill a good 6 hours, boarding being at 10pm, can't wait to see that...saw the A380 parked next to a 747 from Singapore airlines and British Airways, quite impressive, so is my seat number 73G, and that's only the third section out of 4 in the economy cabin (check out www.seatguru.com). Lazy as I am I opted for fast food to keep my stomach busy for the next few hours, always different menus at McDonald America then Canada, almost feels like 2 different countries on seperate continents ! Anyway last time I asked an American where Canada was the answer was not pretty...no offense to my American readers ! and finally, I almost came down with a river of torrent waters on my face, all the feelings of leaving Montreal (my home for the past 7 years) came gusting in my mind, felt like crying like a baby, and already miss my baby ! my bouzou !

leg 1 down...leg 2 to go ! stay tuned...:)

E-ticket (Part II and hopefully the end)

2008-12-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

I finally got that e-ticket with, you would guessed it American Airlines, oddly enough this time I was routed YUL-LGA JFK-DXB with 8 hours to kill in between, I will be so tempted to go downtown Manhattan to wash my eyes with some window shopping ! But with 50 Kilo of luggage with me I doubt it....So far what I've learned from this whole experience is that you don't have any control over what is to happen , getting Final Interview, Golden call, Final Approval (well that last one if you are in good health would doubt you would not get it). Last night I was set to call EK again, but decided to trust them since I had already emailed them and they called me on sunday advising me there would be no problems. In this case I guess patience really is triumphant. I'm already plotting how I will be writing my next post...

Stay tuned :)

Breathing again !

2008-12-13T20:18:00.001-08:00

Finally got a call back from EK and will now be joining on the 19th of december. They say I will have the same itinerary , but all fingers crossed that I don't ! I advised them to put me on an earlier flight as the last one left me with no options to find and alternative airline and I only had a 2 hour time frame to make my connection in JFK.

Feels good to breathe again lol

Still waiting !

2008-12-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

It has been 2 days since my missed attempt to join EK. I am now technically living out of my suitcase since I have no idea when I will be leaving. I have all sorts of negative ideas filling my head, every small thing irritates me, and I am hating more and more my behavior, but it is so easy to find an excuse, AMERICAN AIRLINES lol . I had hoped to get a call yesterday morning thinking that the meet and greet people there would have noticed that I am missing and try to contact me ! That is so puzzling...At this point, I better enjoy my time working there...I have invested to many brain cells burned by stress. The funny thing is which is somewhat positive, once I'll be finally on that flight to DXB, I'm sure I will forget all of this jigsaw adventure to get there. Just thursday night at YUL all the past 7 weeks of waiting seemed like a day ago, the brain is really a powerful thing, able to erase the not so good things when a good one happens. Yet we has humans seem to dwell on the bad for so long... hopefully I will not fall into that vicious circle. I guess to have more we must become more, as my mother puts on her msn status ! and it translates in that brain of mine as to have more one must be patient lol

Unbelievable !

2008-12-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

I just arrived back home from YUL (Montreal international airport) , I was suppose to connect in JFK (New York International airport) via American Airlines and then DXB (Dubai International airport) via Emirates Airlines, the flight was scheduled for departure at 7:25 PM, I checked in at 6pm and the flight was showing a delay of 30 minutes...I cleared US custom (because in Canada you clear them at the airport) and went to the gate, gate 79, it was quite busy so I went and sit at the adjacent gate , gate 81. At 7:05 Pm which was the boarding time for my flight, I look up the monitors and see the really unexpected: CANCELLED. I rush to the gate and advise the gate agent that I have a connection in JFK and I can't miss it, that did not change anything for them as they were somehow giggling at my fate. Next step was to ask what was to happen to me as it was the last flight out to JFK for the day, she said that American Airlines responsibility is only to transport me from YUL to JFK and that I should contact my travel agent for my continuing flight to Dubai (Sweet of them!). Still in shock of what is unfolding, I rush to the mountain of paper work in my bag to find out that I don't have one single number to contact EK, so I decide to go online and try to find a number on their website, I got the reservation office number which is open 24/7 and they told me to contact the office on sunday and they will give me a new joining date. At this point, I'm frustrated and tired ! I really don't understand how American Airlines cancels the flight saying bad weather when an earlier delayed flight to JFK was leaving.

I really don't know what to make of all this, always knew traveling was stressful but this experience tops it.

Winter wonderland one last time !

2008-12-09T14:13:00.001-08:00

Surprise surprise once again the weather network got it wrong, after announcing big snow storm for the week end which was a no show, we woke up this morning under a blanket of white powder and it's already evening and it is still snowing and -10 Celsius , but they are announcing rain as the temperature should go up to 7 Celsius !!! That will be pretty all that snow blended with the all the rain EEK !!! But I am enjoying it as much as possible, since I don't know when I will see snow ever again (not sad about that). I took out my camera and took some pictures for those of you who live in tropical weather paradise.

Check out my pics SNOW STORM

3 days to go, what I have been up to !

2008-12-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been what you call in good Quebec french "Cochon" which means PIG lol. I have been having a diner party one after the other, and I somewhat went to an anorexic looking guy to a pregnant women about to deliver, it's crazy how you can eat something that tastes so good and gain so much fat, and eat something that is so good health wise and feel so dry lol I guess it's one of those things in life where man is put in front of a continual and infinite amount of choices all with there consequences but with equal or unbalanced amount of satisfaction. Last night I drove about an hour and half to go to my Ballroom school year end gala, obviously it had to be windy and snowy, once I got back home, after being stressed all night because I was doing 2 group routines in front of an audience, and driving in bad weather (did I mention it was -15 Celsius) my arms were hurting like crazy, one would think that I was lifting weights for the first time. About 3 weeks ago I thought I would have an unlimited amount of time to get ready for my desert adventure, and now that I'm down to 3 days, I feel like I'm stuck, I wake up everyday and it is as if my brain is not able to command my body, I'm even more lazy then before, my body does not want to move, is it a panic attack ? But I'm pretty sure it is the cold weather, you just want to become a bear and stay in your cave all winter. So with 3 days to go, I think I'll make an effort and start organizing my move !

E-TIcket and Visa !

2008-12-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

I just love the time difference between Montreal and Dubai, 9 hours and a 12-14 hour flight depending where you are departing, west to east is shorter. Once again woke up to a waiting email in my mailbox, this time the final piece do this crazy adventure to getting inside one of the biggest airlines in the world has arrived. But sweeter then all the sugar in the world, is the fact that I will be flying on the amazing A380 from JFK to DXB...this really is the icing on the cake.

Final Approval...Yipidi doo daa Yipidi Yeah

2008-12-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 30 minutes past midnight and felt an urge to look at my blackberry and see if I had any emails, and there beholds 2 emails, both from EK, the first one telling me that I obtained final approval and the other one advising me to resign (well I'm not employed). I will be receiving my e-ticket and visa 4 days prior the date of joining which should be monday. Excited, yes I am !

Now I can finally start organizing my last days in Montreal , but with the cold weather, most likely I will just be separating my wardrobe and give away the clothes that I won't be needing for the next few years, keeping only some warm clothing for the cold destination, and obviously I don't have that much summer clothes, oh well, shopping spree is in the air lol (but where is the money ?)

Credit cards, Customer service, eye test, snow storm !?!?!

2008-12-01T08:58:00.001-08:00

There is nothing more unenjoyable then waking up mad as hell, it's like having ate a whole cake with lots of butter-sugar-vanilla frosting the night before...I mean poor customer service just make my adrenaline rush. It all started this morning when I received my credit card statement and not a new credit card since it expired in november ! So I called the customer service and thinking it would be a 2 minute call, I was very calm and collected lol So the nice lady says : I see here that your renewal was declined by the credit department. That is not something I wanted to hear, considering I pulled my credit report last friday and it was in very good standing not to say excellent. By now she had transfer me to the Famous credit department, and they tell me that if we declined you it has to do with your credit, so I ask him: What about it ? and he says that he is not in a position to tell me (LMAO), in my head I' m going : Oh REALLY God.....t !!! So I ask for a supervisor , and get the same treatment, now, here is where I get upset to a hot volcano boiling point, I have been a credit underwriter for the past 5 years and I know how it works, so I tell them that I need a logic reason to why you declined/refused my renewal, all I got is : Sir, it's your credit !. He tells me to contact VISA because they are the ones who take the decisions ! I tell him that when I applied it was with the bank and on my statement it does not mention VISA customer service but The banks customer service...so finally I get his name and call customer service again (Kerwin is a name I will never forget!). I'm on the phone again with customer service, and this time they seem to have found their brains, the nice lady says that it really does not make sense and gets a competent guy to look at the file. Backtracking, I had told Kerwin that my card was compromised last month and I was reissued another one, and would that not have caused this issue, brilliant as he is, he goes: No, it's my credit !. So, it was indeed that incident and someone in the fraud department forgot to unblocked the reissue scheme on my account. The weirdest thing is that I inform them that I spoke to Kerwin and he was insistent that my credit was the cause, well, they tell me they don't have a Kerwin in their department. Just goes to show you, when ever you have a situation with a company and you know you are not at fault, INSIST INSIST INSIST.

Now, this morning I also woke up to an email from EK (IATA/ICAO code for Emirates Airlines) telling me that my medical forms are incomplete, to have my doctor fill out the EYE SECTION. About that, when I went for my medical, she told me that she can only have me read something (called Sneller test) and that was it, so Tomorrow I'm going to an ophthalmologist for a complete report ! The good thing about that email, I'm relieved to know that my file was not forgotten as they requested that I confirm that I will be able to Join on Dec-12th.

Interesting enough, it's getting warm today and last nights snow and ice is already melting ! I guess mother nature is delaying it's wrath.

Emirates Fleet !!!

2008-11-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

Snooping the internet and this is what I found, making me even more excited to join ! I can't wait !!!

Afternoon walk and Mac store !

2008-11-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

It was sunny outside today and -1 Celcius, figured that I should go for a walk and enjoy Montreal one last time before the big snow comes (first storm scheduled for this monday !).

That picture is the intersection near my house, you can see that the trees are dry from there green leaves.

The olympic stadium is just 2 blocks away and walked up to it, there is also a metro station (Viau, green line), so decided to go down and go window shopping...ended up buying a Mac Airport Express, a wonderful invention, compact and wireless network for your devices and stereo, loving it !

James Bond marathon, and D-13 to Dubai

2008-11-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

OK, I never in a million years think that I would be such a lazy boy, I mean LAZY ! I think everyday I wake up around 10am , have my shower at 1pm and go to sleep at Midnight or 1am...I think when I will be flying again I will not take a vacation for at least a year (in theory lol). Now, I went to see Quantum of Solace , the latest James Bond, being a big fan of course I loved it, and to my surprise the movie network was having a James Bond marathon of the series movies, so I recorded them on my DVR and watch 2 movies per day...it's funny how technology improved the quality of the movies , special effects and all, the last movie I watched was THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and I was laughing my bottom all the way, if you get a chance to see it please DO. James Bond is such a womanizer it is crazy, does he not get any diseases or something jeez !

So now it's day 13 till I go to Dubai and believe it or not no news upon my final approval from EK, considering today is their saturday, by the time they open for business again I will be on my day 11 so hopefully my name will pop back up in their schedule ! On the bright side of things, and I think I mentioned this before , been reading the PPRUNE forum, and everyone is in the same boat getting news at the very last days of waiting. I have not even bought a suitcase, don't know what I will bring, buy a new wardrobe there ? I seem to be on a cloud and don't want to get off it lol

Confession !

2008-11-26T07:57:00.001-08:00

This is going to sound crazy but hey to each their own lol I'm addicted to television , more so to soap operas, yes you read right, I can't go a day with out my ONE LIFE TO LIVE or ALL MY CHILDREN , it seems like the more absurd the story gets the more I love it, it is beyond me and it is the worse drug lol...How did it all started ? believe it or not since I was 10 or younger, as My mother was somewhat addicted to it we always watched it together , on a plus note, if it was not for that my english would not be what it is right now, my mother tongue being french OUI OUI.

But that addiction has extended to reality shows : Survivor, The amazing race (the best!), Big Brother, Dancing with the stars, So you think you can dance!, American Idol.

The best show I think is The Amazing Race, to be able to go around the world in such short time and seing a lot is really something, I guess it relates to me as I'm doing the same thing with the career I have chosen for myself.

So in all I feel better having confessed to you....:)

Slush season has arrived !

2008-11-25T09:21:00.001-08:00

For people living near the equator line SLUSH is when it snows then soon after it rains creating a wonderful mix of ice and water, now what's better then that lol. Now the pictures on top were taken in June when it started to be somewhat cool (15-20 degrees celcius). The pictures down are of this morning after Montreal's first snow of the season.

Why...

2008-11-24T16:58:00.000-08:00

Why is waiting so hard , why can't I be patient ( 3 months not working maybe), why can't I decide what to do for the next 18 days, why is it so cold and please no snow storms ? I know all of this will be soon irrelevant as I will be beyond and past these questions...but danm it's long, I'm going madddd.

So it's been a good 10 days since I sent all the medical forms to EK and no word except that they will get back to me...In the mean time , I have been reading posts on PPRUNE a forum for Cabin Crew and mostly Flight Deck Crew, and found out that EK has a new AbInitio class starting every week, which should not come as a surprise with all the expansion being planned, almost 120 cabin crews to be hired per week to fill all the A380 and B777 on order. It surely helps to know that others are waiting as impatiently as I am.

I'm off to eat some chicken wings lol

Danger ?

2008-11-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

I was thinking a lot these days, how safe is it to be blogging on the internet. Ones identity could be easily stolen from all the information available, not to mention FACEBOOK, where do we draw the line between virtual and real ? Why can't we go back to the old age of writing and sending by courier (I'm delusional I KNOW). I think deep down I'm trying to find a reason to stop my blogging addiction while I can, but I know it has been triggered by the 3 months of unemployment that I have been maintaining so well ( recap: 4 job offers and turned down 3). So now I'm trying to figure out if either I'm desperate for attention or it's just in my head lol...Attention never hurt no one lol I know some people who are terrified to even have an MSN account, they view the internet like the son of satan lol (maybe exaggerating, but that's the feeling I get). I think the title should have been CONFESSION OF ON THE COMPUTER. LIfe is so different in a develop country then a country that has nothing. When I lived in Haiti, I was always going out and socializing, in Canada, I'm always home, on the internet, chatting, watching way too much TV (and that's another dangerous topic to come). While you get to communicate with the world, Life seemed so much simpler with out it...I guess the more you know the more you think, thus comes the headache lol or maybe the more information you have access too the crazier you get lol who knows ?

I must acknowledge that some bloggers out there are really good, and it is a real talent to publish in such artistic way your life adventures. And maybe that's where the inspiration comes from and makes you forget all the dangers, because anything in life can happen you never know when it will stop. So I will be and keep doing what makes me happy and what I find pleasure in.

PROBLEM SOLVED. :).

OUCH OUCH OUCH is all I can say !

2008-11-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hopefully today was and will be the last hurdle I physically needed to overcome...Did I mention that I am required to take 11 vaccines , yes you read right 11 (Eleven). My day started out , and boy what was I thinking, by eating only 2 toasts and heading out to the torturers office. I thought it would be easy to just go in a clinic and get butchered, but no, first Clinic des voyageurs I went to I needed an appointment, it felt kind of strange because there was not a cat in the office, oh well, the secretary told me I could go to the hospital and they have a clinic there with no appointments. Well, the catch was I would have to wait almost 3 hours to get serve, and that’s exactly what happened. I must thank my Mother for having me take the Hepatitis shots while I was living in Haiti, that saved me from taking 2 shots, so down to 9, and also I already at Varicella so another shot down, so in all only 8 shots to take. So, after my 3 hours of wait on an empty stomach my name got called, and the hell started, 2 shots on my right arm, one on my left and 1 shot on both legs....I really really felt like crying like a baby...ah the suffering...but wait, I can not consume any alcohol in the next 8 days because I opted to take my Typhoid vaccine orally instead of injection, that means a pill every 2 days in the morning when I wake up.

To move or not to move (my blog that is)

2008-11-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Check this out Going for it !

Modern Secretary !

2008-11-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

I thought the interview process was something...boy was I wrong...after a week of running around Doctors office and Laboratories I finally got my results...Yes yes I'm fine as a newborn baby, thank God ! So now the task was to email all the paper work , reports to EK... thus begins the adventure in office work lol...spent all night scanning and emailing, remember there is an 8 hour difference between YUL and DXB (time zone, its a 14hour flight) , so started scanning at midnight and finally went to bed a 2am only to wake up with a message saying that my files are to big !!! Eeek and double eeek...so this morning took my time to understanding the scaner and how it works, mind that I never scanned something before lol...So finally managed to scan in PDF files instead of JPEG (I will not explain lol) and the email went throught, so now have to wait for tonight when Dubai wakes up to find out if it's OK and hoping for a sooner joining date. Oh next step I have to go get a battery of shots....tripple eek time a million !

Medicals Medicals Medicals

2008-11-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

As happy as I was to get a call from EK, I just spent a day going around town finding a good doctor to get all the battery of tests required done, my aim is to join sooner then dec 12th...will see...after being poked for blood I though they would open my heart open too, in order to make sure it works perfectly, anyway, manage to do all my tests, and should have a review with the doc next week, then scan and email to EK. In other news, I resign from small fries airlines lol and boy it fell good, even if EK said not to quit your job, but I was only in my first week of training...will see lol.

OH MY GODDDDDD

2008-11-02T19:44:00.001-08:00

Just got the call from EK, joining date Dec 12th or sooner if I can rush my medical....OMG...I feel so faint...

So this is training...AGAIN !

2008-10-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so day 3 of training for the second time this year and for another charter airline, boy the newbies can have questions that don't make any sense, I don't even remember being so distraught at my first training, jeez louise. I had my first dance competition over the week end in Quebec city, got 2nd place, I was in shock, I was sure that I stunk like a skunk lol...back to training, I am amazed on how much I retained from my previous airline experience, I know the answer to everything lol and there I thought I was the worse FA ever...

So now I am still waiting for EK to call...week 2...every morning I wake up looking at my emails hoping to have something, at least yes or no, just so I can move on with life, is that too much to ask, the thing is there is a time difference of 8 hours between Dubai and Montreal, so I'm guessing that by 8am Montreal time, offices in Dubai are already closed ! Oh well, I still am lucky to have been Hired again by another airline, even if it's a dot compared to EK (I should not be so grumpy) oh well lol...Tomorrow day 4 , and cannot wait to see what comes out of the newbies mouth...

What...second place ?

2008-10-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Life just got weirder, I have been taking dance classes, Latin International, since my unemployment status, my teacher seeing how I was in the studio all the time, proposed to me to do some dance competitions, well obviously I said yes being bored as I was. Well last night was my first ever competition and boy was I nervous, shaking and everything, I messed up in so many places...but the shocker...I got second place...what is going on, maybe we actually see our selves in such a perfectionist point of view compared to others watching us ! My dance partner keeps saying that she went to see a medium who told her that she would finally meet her perfect partner to help her achieve a competition and winning goals...GOD...does this mean no EK for me ? I think that's what made me more in shock when I heard the announcer saying our names for second place...Is her medium right ? Anyway tomorrow starting my training with small fries airline, hopefully the newcomers to the business will keep me entertained with their naive questions lol

So 1 week dowm 2 to go for EK to let me know if they want me or not...eeek

And the wait starts

2008-10-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy day (screening) we were about 40 or so and ended up 17 after a 10 hour day of interviews, tests , you name it...I am so nervous, more so that I am so close to having my dreams fulfilled times 100. A lot of things are popping up in my head, what will I bring , how many luggage etc...Do I really really want to do this, move ? AGAIN ! Hell yeah, my philosophy has always been that you only have ONE LIFE TO LIVE (and yeah I'm addicted to that soap opera, my guilty pleasure).

Let's recap what I did in 2008 :

Jan - Go to Airline interview out of nowhere

Feb- Got the call, oh my god I'm freaking out !

Mar- Still working my desk job, and can't wait to bail out

Apr- Last days at Desk Job, oh my god again, it's coming true , I'm gonna be working in the air

May- 5 week training, who would have thought it would be that intense.

Jun- First pairings, Paris, London, Vancouver, life is sweet.

Jul- More awesome Pairings and gosh I love this JOB

Aug- Started good, loved Glasgow, but who would have seen it coming (only the owners), The airline folded...snif snif...I knew it was too good to be true my job snif snif

Sep- Trying not to be too depressed, but turned down 1 job, but a desk job, nice conditions, but got hired by another airline, yeah, but no international i.e. Europe. OH, and went to preselection and passed for the BIG AIRLINE.

Oct- WoW, is the only thing I can say, I would never imagine in 2008 I would get opportunities, not by 1 but 3 and maybe 4 airlines . WOW. Got to Final interview with the biggest one. Fingers , toes are crossed.

Round 3

2008-10-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

So finally the day has come to really know what my future will hold in the airlines business...feel like it is destiny...but only time will tell...

Here I go...

2008-10-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

After reading so many blogs online, and having a bit of too much time available these days, I said to myself why not... Well right now I'm unemployed as my previous employer folded as so many birds in the sky...but it was an interesting year , working 5 years at a desk, and unhappy, going to the airline interview in January and to much surprise getting it...had a blast, Paris, London, layovers were great, and I miss being in a plane a bit too much...but now I'm on a waiting pattern as I applied with a really big bird and everything seems to be going well...