Melissa's Flight Attendant Blog





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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

My Perfect Day in -
London | Perth | Sydney | Melbourne

Site Feed -
http://tampaxtowers.blogspot.com/atom.xml

My Email -
tampaxtowers[at]gmail[dot]com

My Facebook -
Tampax Towers

My Twitter -
@melissaecholima

Links -
Airline Crew.net
Airline Uniforms
Airline Meals
Seatguru - Most Comfy Seats On Any Airline
Trip Advisor
Airtoons
pprune.org - Pilot's rumour network

Friends -
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

Blogs I read -
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

Credits -
Skin by Falter
BlogSkins


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Latest Updates
Monday, December 21, 2009
So at the moment I'm in Perth and enjoying myself :-)


Here's me at the NuffNang party! (Photo courtesy of Juslin - my mobile phone camera gets pretty average in twilight) The lovely RetroJetGirl invited me along to see what it would be like. I was a little unsure as to what the turnout would be, and when we turned up there was only Christine there. But after about 30 min the party was in full swing, all the girls dolled up in blue and a bar tab & finger food to keep us all occupied. It was also probably the only function I've ever been to where it wasn't rude to Tweet or browse Facebook - in fact it was encouraged!

So the list of bloggers I could remember - a big up to you guys! RetroJetGirl, Christine/Childhood101, Juslin and Christopher, Amanda, Tanya, Nick and Will! If I forgotten your names I do apologise, feel free to leave it in comments and I'll have it changed. All the time I spend in the air affects the brain cells a tad.

Meanwhile I've booked a hotel and leave for the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo next year (well the semi finals and the dress rehearsal anyways, I stuffed up my bids and my leave ends THE DAY BEFORE the final - silly Thai blonde!). It's Part II of my life's dream realised, with the first being to visit the beautiful old town of Estonia. However since booking the hotel, it's dawned on me how much this whole trip is going to cost. The hotel is the most I've paid out of any of my Euro trips, and it's actually very cheap compared to the rest of Oslo. I decided to book now because the whole reason I couldn't go to the ESC last year was because all but ten of the hotels in Moscow were already fully booked, and the ones that were left had a starting rate of $400 USD a night! Flights aren't going to be a problem, but then there are the tickets - 2 semi finals and a couple of dress rehearsals, price unknown. Food has me the most worried. Apparently it has the most expensive Big Mac in the world - and a large Big Mac meal there costs a whopping(?) $17 USD! I'm going to be living off tinned soup and pot noodles for 8 days!

So my mission between now and May is to be as much as a tightarse as possible. More than what I used to be. Saving as much as I can of my per diem as possible. If I'm at a cool layover, like say, New York, I need to stay away from shopping. Spend my time taking photos of landmarks and random stuff like I used to when I joined.

Same thing with Dubai - I need to eat out less. I'm actually kind of shocked by my actions over the past month - simply driven by a desire to avoid staying in at home watching crap TV, I'll hop on over to a restaurant for breakfast, then walk around a mall, then have a late lunch somewhere, and usually go to bed early without having dinner. So I need to cook more.

Which leads me to what I got myself for Xmas this year...


I spent the week before my Perth leave attempting to make sourdough starter, but the day before it wasn't active enough for me to leave in the refrigerator during my absence so I decided to ditch it :-( It was promising though, there were bubbles, so it was alive, but it wouldn't double in size - if anything the most growth I had out of it was maybe when it rose 1cm above the glass. The cookbook is great because it has a once-a-day then forget method which is definitely me. Unfortunately I have a lot of long trips coming up (SFO, BNE/AKL, MEL/AKL) so I am still trying to work out how to do the feedings within my schedule. As an aside though, with the trip to San Francisco, which is supposed to have THE BEST sourdough in the world, I can buy some already active starter from Fisherman's Wharf and use that to build my own.

If the whole sourdough thing is a bust, well I have already bookmarked recipes for meringues, summer berry custard tarts, vanilla and lime pannacotta, ginger brulee tarts, and pork & fennel sausage rolls. Oh how I miss a good sausage roll!


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5 comments
Friday, December 18, 2009
This is disgraceful... those poor Singaporean Girls! From the Daily Telegraph -

Punches Thrown in Luggage Rage

Just for the record, when you board the plane, the space in the hatrack is not 'owned' by you. It is ours, the cabin crew, to use as we please. If you get irate because there is someone else's bag in there, or there is no room for your 5 bags of Duty Free perfume/booze/cigarettes, then maybe you should pick your battles. And pack lighter next time.

And don't get me started on passengers who shove their stuff in the hatracks blocking access to the Oxygen, Fire Extiguisher and First Aid Equipment, then complain when we have to remove it later...

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5 comments
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Well very soon I'll be coming up to my 4 years with the airline, which means that I'll be getting all my work luggage replaced. I'm not sure whether I'm going to buy back my old suitcase and cabin bag, if I do it will be more than likely I'll give it to my Dad, or give him the new set and continue to use the old set.

When I moved to Dubai I did so having borrowed my mum's cheapo luggage she brought back from Thailand. Many crew buy a brand new set for their move here, my first roommate being one of them. She arrived with a whole set of purple suitcases, then only used them for when she went on leave, as we're only allowed to use company issued suitcases for work.


I know other airlines allow some freedom with their crew regarding suitcases, but I think for us having them all uniform looks more professional, especially when walking through the airport. It does cause some problems though, as I've heard quite a few horror stories of crew coming out of briefing and finding that someone has made off with their suitcase by mistake. That crew member would then open 'their' suitcase on the first leg of a Singapore/Brisbane/Auckland flight with clothes better fitting for a Moscow layover.

So where am I going with all this? Well the other day I had a bit of am impulse buy...



I've wanted this ever since my mate Oz dragged me into the Samsonite Black Label store 12 months ago, however it was very expensive and even over the past year when the whole store went on sale, this was a no-sale item. The I walked past today, and it was selling for 40% below the RRP. And it was the last one available for sale in Dubai. Score! I got to test drive it yesterday when I flew from Dubai to Perth on leave, and whilst it was easy to manoeuvre the buckles were a bit stiff - though they should get easier to handle over time. I love it to bits - even when I'm not flying it looks great in the bedroom on top of the dresser.

My next luggage purchase will be a suitcase for checking in, probably a Rimowa as they look pretty sturdy. Have had a few instances of my oyster shell work suitcase getting warped from the baggage handlers at Perth International. Only downside is that they won't look as nice on top of the dresser in my room...

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4 comments
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Due to a recent surge of spam comments on this site, I have decided to enable comment moderation. I have tried for the longest time to resist this, and very rarely have I had to delete any one's comments, but it has come to a point where something has to be done.

Generally I am pretty easy going, but if any comments are submitted that are completely off topic, are advertising products you think I or my readers may vaguely be interested in, are defamatory, call into question the religious or moral beliefs of the country of my residence, or if anyone posts up the names of hotels different airlines currently stay in or compromise any other secure information, they will not reach the final post. If I'm in a really bad mood I might even make a report to Blogger/Google.

Apologies to the majority of those who genuinely enjoy reading and commenting on this site for any inconvenience this may cause.

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2 comments