So for the month of April work were very short staffed of Economy crew, and aside from recruiting like crazy, they've had to resort to downgrading crew for a month. This has been going on for about the last 6 months or so, and I thought I had avoided it, but alas, I got the stinging email. Business crew were getting Economy rosters, and I got a Business roster. It's not all bad though, as being in First Class there are a lot of flights you're not allowed to fly to anymore because they operate in a 2 class configuration, and for me this means that as long as I stay in First I can no longer go to Venice, Manila, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Dhaka amongst others.

So I get my roster, and after a bit of swapping magic have ended up with something quite tolerable. But the layover I'm most excited to go on was Kolkata (or formally Calcutta) where I hadn't been in a good 2 years or so. I left Dubai at 2am after a sleepless night, arrived at about 7am in Kolkatta, and resolved to go out straight away for photos... it was tough, but here are the results...


Statue of Queen Victoria outside of Victoria memorial



Victoria Memorial


The entrance. I should mention that the weather here was about 40 degrees Celcius, which was hotter than Dubai! I've never felt so much sweat drip down my back before. So many people were sitting at the entrance because there was some sort of air con there, though it only cooled it down to about 30 degrees.


Lush gardens



St paul's Cathdral. When I went there it was closed :-(



Vidyasagar Setu Bridge


Small stall steup...

Hooghly Bridge, said to be the busiest bridge in the world...


Floating Hospital

Kali figures on the side of the road, along the Hooghly River


Kalighat Kali Temple, home of Kolkata's patron deity



Some random stalls outside Kalighat Kali temple

Colourful dyes, near Kalighat Kali temple

Now I know you're all wondering whether I was affected by the Eyjafjallajökull disruptions, and I kind of was, but no where near as much as I imagine others to be. I was rostered a Glasgow on the 17th of April which was cancelled and replaced with a Tehran turn, then my Birmingham on the 21st was changed to a London Gatwick as they needed a First Class crew to operate. We were the first crew to operate to Gatwick from our airline once the skies were open again, and instead of the torrent of abuse I expected (especially since I experienced something similar when Biman Bangladesh decided to nose dive at DXB) everyone was surprisingly sweet and just happy to be going home. We then got told our layover was cut short from 24 hours to 19hrs, then we arrived at the hotel to find our allowance had been cut to accomodate this as well. After an amazing flight back to Dubai I then found out I had been rostered a flight to Saudi which I should be operating tonight. So yeah a mixed bag of emotions...

Labels: Airline Stuff, Layovers, Random Thoughts, Work

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