February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 March 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 December 2012 February 2013 March 2013 May 2013 July 2013 January 2014 February 2014  Name: Melissa About Me Countries Visited (not including Turnarounds): Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, North Korea, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vatican City London | Perth | Sydney | Melbourne http://tampaxtowers.blogspot.com/atom.xml tampaxtowers[at]gmail[dot]com Tampax Towers @melissaecholima Airline Crew.net Airline Uniforms Airline Meals Seatguru - Most Comfy Seats On Any Airline Trip Advisor Airtoons pprune.org - Pilot's rumour network Kangaroo with a Sweet Tooth Kronicles of Kris The Adventures of Alle Malice Joel's trek across Asia/Europe in a Hilux Phil's Wine Site Tray Table Airboy Lifehacker I Can Has Cheezburger The Flying Pinto Girl on Raw Things Bogans Like Bobby at Up, Up and a Gay Straight Guy in the Queer Skies Skin by Falter BlogSkins 
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Latest Updates
Monday, January 26, 2009
Just wanted to wish everyone (particularly the expats) a very Happy Australia Day! Ideally I would have loved to have spent the arvo at Aussie Legends playing pool, and having a laugh dancing to Khe San, but unfortunately I was rostered my Safety Exams. After a very long and exhausting day done on minimal sleep (a 3am Chennai will mess up your bodyclock like no other flight can) I took no less than 4 exam papers and passed with only 1 question wrong!So my treat for today, seeing as though in pretty bad circumstances I still feel somewhat patriotic, will be to down as many Tim Tam Slams as my stomach can hold and watching The Castle. Best. Movie. Ever Labels: Homesick 8 commentsSunday, January 25, 2009
Just a couple of pictures from Houston - wasn't much to see or do as it was a Sunday, then a public holiday for the 2 days I was there. Well I needed some sort of proof I was in Texas  Discovery Park - Full of luminous balls with images on them. Probably the coolest thing I saw there. Don't know if it's still up though.  First thing I ate there. After having it I swore to only eat ribs and steaks on my next trip to Houston. Soooo average. Labels: Layovers Thursday, January 22, 2009
On Thursday, if you were in Dubai, cabin crew, and had that "In-Your-FACE" Card handy, you were on the ice. What a way to spend the day off!   Soooooo much fun! Not too crowded after 7pm, saw a few people I knew there, and I didn't stack it once! Even saw Ben there working the Ice! Even thinking of taking lessons now, just for something to do... Need to learn how to stop, and skate backwards. That would be nice. Labels: Around Dubai 11 commentsSunday, January 18, 2009
At the moment I'm in Houston and have done something completely silly. Last night (or is that the night before?... losing track of time after flying 8 timezones...) whilst packing all my clothes I totally forgot to pack a pair of jeans :-(I'd done this once before, on a Glasgow flight, where the pair of jeans I'd thought I had packed was in fact a denim skirt, and was hardly suitable for 3 degree winter weather. Fortunately the outdoors are much warmer here, and so I will be strutting my stuff in gym gear until I can find a pair that actually fits and is worth buying and wearing once until I get back home. On second thought maybe I just won't bother... Anyway, if you guys have looked at the left side of this blog recently you may have noticed that there is now an email address you can reach me on! I can now be emailed at... tampaxtowers[at]gmail[dot]com but just replace the [at] with an @ and so on, it's to avoid spammers sending crappy mail to me. I will do my best to answer all emails as best I can, as quickly as I can (Comments on posts will still get priority in response). If you have any praise (always welcome!) or any suggestions to improve the site then let me know. I realise that many readers on here will want to know about recruitment, and wherever possible I will try to answer those emails, but PLEASE check out pprune.org first as I'm pretty much a dinosaur now and the things that happened during my recruitment have definately changed now. You could also check out http://airboy.sodwee.com whcih is bursting with info. Labels: Layovers, Random Thoughts 8 commentsThursday, January 15, 2009
Just a small update guys on where I've been recently. Since my last post I've been to both Casablanca and Dusseldorf.I'd decided early on that because I'd been there before I'd spend the Morrocan layover studying for my SEP (Safety & Emergency Procedures) exams. Unlike last year when the exams were ridiculously easy (it was more hard work trying to decide what to order at Costa) this year I'd heard a few rumours, and have since found out that a batchmate of mine has failed her recurrent.  But upon arrival into Casablanca it was a different story. Slept straight away, joined the crew for Lamb Tagine at the hotel (we didn't leave the hotel, lame I know, but it was pissing down and I didn't exactly pack for going out in the rain) enjoyed a live Morrocan band, slept, had some free breakfast at the buffet, some Morrocan Tea in the room and then time to get ready for work. It was the first time in a while the entire crew were great to hang out with - from the Flight deck to Economy everyone was in a great mood which was so refreshing to see. Even met the lovely Veronika - an avid reader of this very blog! (Hello BTW!) Which brings me onto Dusseldorf. And my poor diet over the last couple of weeks had finally caught up with me. Similar to what had happened in Tokyo, about 1-2 hrs after landing I was sick as a dog. I don't know what it is, if it's the aircraft food, or something I'd had on ground. Since the huge fight with Flatmate No. 6 I've barely eaten anything, my weight has plummeted, and now I'm starting to eat properly again my body isn't handling it for some reason. I don't know what it is, but I'd packed to sightsee in DUS and only saw my room and the airport. So annoyed, I wanted some Pork Knuckle and Potato cakes with Apple Sauce :-( So now I'm back in Dubai, and have 2 consecutive days off for the first time in ages. Going to Houston next, which I'm not particularly excited about. Tonight is the big Ice Skating extravaganza my mate Dave is organising so will probably show off my triple klutz to whoever isn't on their bums getting wet or run over. Labels: Layovers 13 commentsWednesday, January 07, 2009
Well I'm back in Dubai, and have barely had time to enjoy the outdoors here before I have to get back on the plane again. London was probably the most beautiful I had ever seen it. I woke up super early, walked outside to the bus stop and it was snowing! The ground was all white, and whilst I'd seen snow before in Moscow, you hardly get to see it in Britain, so I rugged up and went out to do some shopping. Only bought some make up for work, a lot of stuff there that I wanted, particularly at Liberty and Dover St Markets, but in the back of my mind is the big Euro holiday I want to take in May so no big splurges this time.On the downside, I can't go 5 minutes without having a coughing fit. My asthma is playing up big time, and it's mainly due to my flatmate and her insistance on having the AC on at full blast in the middle of a Dubai winter. Been having huge issues with her, but I'm going to try to limit what I say about her on here. This is a Travel Blog after all :-) So tomorrow I am off to Casablanca, which I tried my best to swap out of but with no success. Having been there before on my reserve, and seeing as though my stay there is forcast for heavy showers, I will probably use the layover to study for my SEP recurrent coming up in about 2 weeks time. Last year the tests were a joke, I studied for 4 hours the night before and in the end scored 100% and a fancy certificate to boot. Have heard that this year's tests are much more challenging which is a very good thing. May squeeze in a tasty lamb Tagine in too if I'm good. Labels: Airline Stuff, Layovers, Random Thoughts, Work 11 commentsSaturday, January 03, 2009
Just decided to check my adsense figures, and believe it or not I've passed a milestone. Some time after yesterday's post, tampaxtowers.blogspot.com had passed...100,000 visitors! Goodness me! I just wanted to say a HUGE thankyou to you guys for supporting the site. Really made my day :-) Labels: Random Thoughts 17 commentsFriday, January 02, 2009
So I just came back from London Gatwick which was FREEZING!!! The max. temperature it reached was only 3 degrees Celcius! But I braved the elements, needed to get a decent coffee and some shopping done at M&S. Bought some ear muffs but that was about it. Have a Heathrow coming up so wanted to save some pounds for that trip and hit Oxford St. It's a hard life!Anyways, I'm now onto my second contract, but for some reason ever since I've re-signed it I've just had the crappiest luck. After having the Chile promotion cancelled and the whole Houston drama, it's been going downhill from there. Got given 2 Absent days last month to get my documents sorted, then when I get into LGW, realised they didn't change the expriy date on the ID! This caused a ton of problems on ground at the airport, and I've had quite a few reports written about it, but I'm seeing my manager in a few days so hopefully it will get sorted out. Now my flatmate is turning into a freaking flat-zilla and making life difficult for me in my own apartment. So things haven't been too good for me lately. After a lacklusture NYE serving nil passengers (I love first class :-P) 2009 has started off very poorly. Lets hope it improves soon. Labels: Random Thoughts 8 comments |