Melissa's Flight Attendant Blog

Vilnius - KGB Museum/Museum of the Genocide Victims

2012-01-14T13:19:00.001+04:00

I mentioned in my previous post on Vilnius that I wanted to separate the photos from the KGB museum from the other shots taken on the trip. Aside from the other post being very photo-heavy, I think the subject matter warrants a post on its own. Much of the photography is very dark, and I tried to lighten them up where possible, but I wanted to keep the photos true to the experience as much as possible. If you see one place in Vilnius, this should be it.

So after arriving and settling into my room, and seeing as though I was so close, I decided to first visit the Museum of the Genocide Victims, also informally known as the KGB Museum. The first and second floor are worth a look, and are in fact what is recommended by the museum to visit first - they contained a plethora of memorabilia, letters, prayer books, handicrafts, uniforms, badges, bullet casings and photos amongst its vast collection.

But it's once you enter the basement floor that the museum really becomes poignant. Chilling. Disturbing. What I saw at the basement of the museum still enters my thoughts, had done so every single day during my visit to Vilnius. The basement contains the cells that victims were imprisioned in, some done up to focus on one particular group that was marginalized (such as the Jewish memorial in cell no. 3) but many were set up to recreate the exact conditions of the cell during Soviet occupation.

A cell with some shredded documents. Probably a recreation, but there was noting I saw written saying it was. For all I knew it could have had sensitive KGB information in those bags.

From the top, a 4 person shared cell and a 2 person shared cell.

The majority of the cells were in either the 2 person or the 4 person configuration, but there were other cells that they saved for those convicted of more serious offenses, such as espionage.

The interrogation cell. I think my photography here is a little misleading as the cell was only about 2m x 2m, not very large at all.

The water cell. The guards filled the cell with water until it was about 10cm off the ground. Those who occupied this cell had no choice but to either stand in the water or to stand on that tiny island. Considering how cold it can get during the winter in Vilnius this was, essentially, torture

Onto the most chilling room in the entire museum. That black thing in the middle is actually a straight jacket, and this cell is completely padded. Reserved for those prisoners that were, or had become, mentally insane. The padding was interesting to look at - it didn't look particularly soft, there wasn't a lot of 'give' when you pushed with your finger. I think the padding was more to stop whatever screaming and shouting from the prisoner becoming too loud rather than to prevent the prisoner from seriously injuring themselves.

Under Stalin, the prisoners were permitted 15 minutes outdoors every day, which increased to 1 hour of exercise time when he was no longer the one in power. The walls of the exercise yard was no larger than one of the 4 prisoner cells, so it was only really 15 minutes of fresh air that they were getting. As you can see there wasn't a whole lot of sunlight.

This was the room where all the executions happened - the plexiglass you can see in the photo is protecting the bullet holes from corroding further. The TV is playing on loop a movie that had some scenes shot in the room about the occupation in Lithuania. The transparent floor showcases some more memorabilia, some of them items left behind by the executed prisoners. The room also has this smell to it that is very strange, not in a putrid sense - it isn't yak-inducing, but in addition to the history of the room the smell really sends a chill down your spine. I wish I knew how to describe it.

Stock photo taken from here.

Dodgiest Train Line in Paris

2012-01-07T19:52:00.000+04:00

I love my Paris trips. If I'm not catching up with Ben, then I'm either shopping at Galleries Lafayette, having a browse at Collete to see what the hipsters of Paris are into, or just taking a short stroll around the Tulleries for some fresh air. It's one of these layovers that, unless the city is closed down for, say, Christmas, then I always make the epic journey from the hotel to the city for a few hours. It's worth the money. I can't mentally cope well trying to save on allowance eating pot noodles in my room when I'm in Paris.

One of the downsides to having a layover in a renowned 'world city' is that the traffic can be unreliable, and so the airline has us stay in a hotel at the airport, rather than where the action is. Well not *at* the airport, we're housed in a hotel in a village called Roissy, about 5 minutes from the airport, and it seems this is a specific hotel village, as there are some 30 hotels alone staying in Roissy. Not many stand alone restaurants in walking distance, but lots of warehouses and single storey office buildings. Horrible to go running as there is no clear footpath.

To get to the city we have a few options. The hotel has a shuttle bus service where you pay 5 Euros each way to go to the city and back. Which would be nice if the timing was better - the trip from the city back to the hotel has us arrive after our wake up call - so that isn't an option. There's a shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport, after which you can either take the Roissybus to the city, or take the RER train and then the metro to the city. I usually take the last option (RER & metro), as you very rarely wait more than 8 minutes for a RER train, and you rarely wait more than 4 minutes for the next train to appear on the Metro line. I like to have complete control over when I arrive and when I leave Paris, particularly when it can mean the difference to getting a few hours of sleep before pick up, and not even making it to your pick up on time.

So just the other day I had my Paris layover. Got to catch up with Ben. Got to do a little bit of sightseeing. Even managed to do a bit of shopping. When it came to making the trek back to the hotel from the Bourse I was well and truly shattered. I didn't really pay much attention to where I was standing or seated, once I got on the RER Blue line I was in my own little world.

So at one point (at Aulnay-sous-Bois I think) I looked above me to figure out how far there was to go on the journey, and saw this...

The metro map, with seemingly fresh blood stains. Was I shocked? Just a little. Was I surprised? Not at all. Most of the Parisian crew that we fly with are more than willing to tell you that both the RER Blue and the RER Green lines are some of the most unsafe lines you can possibly take in the city. Most of them take either a taxi or get family and friends to transport them around the city during their layover. The rest of us are left with the dodgy RER train. It made me wonder, especially since it was so high in the carriage, what on earth happened? Nothing that I could see around me was stained, so it had been cleaned since I had boarded. Was someone punched? Stabbed? Shot? Suffering from a projectile nose bleed?

I think I might take the Roissybus from now on...

Looking back on 2011

2011-12-30T16:19:00.001+04:00

It’s been quite a 2011 for me I must say. I feel as though this year I’ve seen change between becoming someone who has been here for ‘just a few years’ to ‘an experienced Dubai resident’. And I know it's somewhat of a cliche here in the blogging world, but I thought I'd do a summary post all the same.

Celebrating 5 Years

In February the blog hit the big 5 year mark. I didn’t think I’d even last 5 months. Many other blogs from others in this industry (some even from the same airline) pop up and disappear, and I never thought in the beginning that this was something I’d stick to. But the support from readers just blew me away and ultimately kept me going.

The Formspring Account

This blew up in size more than I could have ever dreamt of. The idea behind it was that people would ask me questions, then it would give me a few ideas as to what to write for my next post. Some of them did (The airline catering post is a great example) but mostly it’s a quick way for me to interact with you guys, as I really procrastinate with the email account nowadays.

The airline

Well they found out about the blog. Which as you can imagine led to a "Oh S**t” moment. But it also led to...

The Geneva Inaugural

Which was certainly an experience! A tough flight, both sectors full of management (including the President of the Airline) and non-stop posing and smiling. I must have done the Arabic Coffee service 5 times out of Dubai just so this one lady with a video camcorder could get the shot correct. The atmosphere amongst the crew was simply amazing, from the Captain to the Purser to the most junior Grade II. We were also invited to the gala dinner held on the same night we landed, the first ever inaugural crew to be invited, and we felt like celebs dressed in our cocktail gear, walking down a red carpet, wine and dined on the airline’s expense, which I have never experienced before. Mostly, especially in my old job at PCEC, I was the one serving the people who were wined and dined on their employee’s expense. We were lucky if we even had more than one choice at the buffet in the staff kitchen, let alone a 3 course meal. An amazing meal at that.

My inner 15 year old self almost squealed when I found out that Westlife were going to perform at the gala, and I even got to share the stage with them at some point! Talk about a good layover!

New Layovers

Geneva aside, I also operated flights to Amsterdam, Guangzhou and Copenhagen for the first time. Amsterdam was spent catching up with my mate Amy from my uni days, and Guangzhou was spent sleeping. Guangzhou was one of those unique Flight Attendant moments where you wake up in a strange bed and look around the room, think "Why am I not in my room?" then check the hotel stationary to find out where you REALLY are. And you all know what happened in Copenhagen...

Run Run Run...

The ultimate goal that I set myself for 2011 was to turn running from an occasional treadmill thing to a proper habit, and I’ve more than exceeded that this year. I never ran outdoors until I bought some sneakers during the Black Friday sales in New York, and I also bought a very basic pace monitor as well. It was probably the most motivating thing I could have done to kick my fitness into gear, and slowly but surely I started running more and more until it grew into an almost obsessive thing. First it was buying a new pair of Capri pants as my old ones were chaffing along the side seams. Then some good sports bras. Then more exercise pants and tank tops. Then a Garmin Forerunner for my birthday. Then it was trying out different recovery drink formulas and gels and energy bars that I would bring over from the US. Throughout all this I was pouring over my training log, seeing what was happening during my ‘off’ days, whether there was a correlation between poor running performance and lack of sleep, lack of good diet, too many flight hours. I love looking at the statistics and seeing how far I’ve come from a year ago, and I also feel that I’ve had less colds as well since taking it up and I have more energy during the morning and during flights as well, even night flights! Right now I’m booked to run my first ever 10km race at the Dubai Marathon, and whilst I don’t imagine myself having a cracking time, if I can just complete it it’ll mean the world to me because I know that I’ve come a very long way from what I was a year ago (running the 3km and getting beat by some very fit primary school kids), let alone from when I first moved here never having done any gym time before.

New Places Discovered

I don’t know why I didn’t do this more often – whenever I saw 4 or 5 days off in the roster, to book a mini holiday to Europe, somewhere I hadn’t been before. Riga, Reykjavik, Bergen and Vilnius. I had a ball, and took some great photos; I just hope I can do the same in 2012.

Eurovision - Dusseldorf 2011

By far the highlight of my year. I got to catch up with the friends that I made in Oslo and saw the rehearsals, went to the parties, hung out in the Press Centre, met some of the performers and had a great time. I’d love to repeat the experience in Baku, especially since I haven’t been to Azerbaijan before, but it’s looking somewhat unlikely at this stage so I guess I’ll just have to reminisce about my great week in Dusseldorf.

Looking forward to 2012

So what of 2012? Well I'm not going anywhere, this job is just too good to leave! But I have decided to bite the bullet and finally try to get my driver's license. I know I have lived quite well without it for the past 6 years here in Dubai, and could get around very easily with public transport when I was in Perth, but its been 10 years now since I first took my driving test in Perth and caught air over a roundabout, which scared me a bit. I think I am ready to take it on now. There will be frustration, there may even be tears, but I know this is something I have to do sooner or later and I may as well try it now.

On that note, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or other applicable holiday) and that you all have a wonderful New Year! :-D

Geneva photo credit to S. Perez

Vilnius, Lithuania

2011-12-16T21:39:00.002+04:00

Even though I love my job to bits, there is one thing that if the airline took away from me I'd be resigning straight away - my travel benefits. I know that there are very few other jobs that would allow me to travel and enjoy other countries and cultures as much as this one, and whether it be on a layover or on my own time I still have a passion for travelling 6 years on. So when I saw on my October roster 4 days off sandwiched between some rest days, I was straight onto Trip Advisor trying to find cheap hotels to somewhere I hadn't been before. I was gravitating towards Vilnius, as after finishing off the Nordics in August, this would be my last city in the Baltics to cross of my 'countries visited' list. Tickets were booked, hotel was booked, and when I landed I even had a tour booked.

I had a great tour guide - if I do book one it's usually with a large-ish group, and I'm the youngest tourist there by about 15 years, and the entire tour is peppered with questions from others about history I've usually read about before the tour. So it was nice to be the only one on the tour (it was 4 degrees at 10.00am - I guess every other tourist wanted to sleep) and not only that the guide was actually my age - the lovely Natasha from Vilnius City Tours. She was as local as you could get, and very passionate about her home city. It was close to the best tour I think I've ever been on.

So now onto the landmarks, and the first stop was the Church of St Peter and Paul (Šv. apaštalų Petro ir Povilo bažnyčia)... I'm warning you all, this post is very photo-heavy, particularly with many places of worship, but I couldn't really help myself considering how insanely beautiful this was. The concept behind the sculptures in each chapel was that they were to be seen in some sort of theatrical sequence, with a clear beginning, middle and end. Also it is vastly different from every other church in Vilnius is that it doesn't go crazy with colour - white clearly dominates, but it still manages to be jaw-droppingly stunning.

Exterior of the church

Christening Bath in the Baptistery.

Chapel of the Holy Queens. The two large Turkish Drums somehow didn't seem to fit in with the church.

Chapel of St Augustine. The church is full of surprises, such as the elephant stucco sculptures on the left.

There was a christening on when I visited, but no one seemed to mind me taking photos, especially after a small Litas donation.

The stunning sailboat lantern, a gift from Venice. It's far more sparkly in real life.

The dome of the church. There's an inscription around the dome which is the same as St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, which I've inadvertantly cut out from the picture. If you look right into the highest part of the dome you can see the face of God looking down on His people.

Chapel of St Ursula

Chapel of the Military Saints

So following the sequence, we come to the Chapel of the Crucifixtion

Stucco statue of the Queen of Death

Lots of skulls in this Chapel.

Gates of Dawn (Ausros Vartai), in the south part of the Old Town. There are a lot of pilgrims who flock here from neighbouring countries, so I had to make a few attempts at trying to see the Chapel. After the 7pm mass I managed to get a photo of...

Chapel of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn. The sides of the altar is adorned in some intricate silver (possibly pewter) detailing. Such a joy to see.

So onto the Vilnius Cathdral and Cathedral Square...

Monument to Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania

Cathedral Bell Tower. You can climb here and take an amazing view of Vilnius, but I prefered to wait until I was at the Hill of the Three Crosses.

Front view of the Vilnius Cathedral (Arkikatedra Bazilika).

Chapel of St Casamir and sarcophagus.

Gediminas' Tower

Entrance to the National Museum of Lithuania, housed within the New Arsenal of the Vilnius Castle Complex. You can see Gediminas Castle Tower in the Background.

Žaliasis tiltas, also known as the Green Bridge, above the river Neris. There are still some Soviet realism sculptures on the bridge - there was much debate after Lithuanian independance as to whether or not to have them torn down.

A conversation between the banks of the Šnipiškės and Old Town sides of the Neris. This one is saying "I love you!"

"I love you too!"

So a few years ago someone floated about an idea of having local artists create sculptures to pepper throughout the city of Vilnius to make it more 'cultural' and 'tourist -friendly'. The rings underneath the bridge were derived from an old legend of someone scaring the residents and flying his light aircraft underneath the bridge - the rings were to prevent anyone from attempting the feat again. No explaination was given for the pipe-thing in the second picture, though I was assured by my guide that it was, indeed, a sculpture and not some city plumbing.

A short walk later and I was in Kalnai Park, also known to contain the Hill of the Three Crosses...

Amphitheatre in Kalnai Park.

The Three Crosses, from the front and rear.

View of Vilnius from the Hill of the Three Crosses. I know it looks like sunset here, but it was around 2pm or so when this shot was taken.

Vilnius also happens to contain its own micronation - The Republic of Užupis. Even in the gloomy weather it's one of the most colourful areas of the city and has a great bohemian feel to it. Very similar to Montmatre in Paris. Being a self-declared republic, it has its own army (of 12 people!), its own flag, currency, president and constitution. The constitution, especially, is a tourist attraction in itself, written in 8 languages and containing statements such as

"People have the right to have no rights."
"Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat"
"Everyone has the right to realize his negligibility and magnificence."
"Everyone has the right to celebrate or not to celebrate his birthday. "

And you get the idea. With the Independence Day falling on April Fool's Day are you surprised?

Entrances to Užupis.

The Angel of Užupis.

The infamous Constitution.

Užupis Bridge, covered with padlocks. Cute concept that can be found not only in Vilnius but in many places in Europe - A couple who get married, or otherwise commit, engrave or write their names on the padlock, sometimes as well as the date of the wedding, then throw the key away. Would have loved to have seen this tradition back in Australia - I think it's great!

The Frank Zappa statue. This is the most difficult thing to look for in the whole city - when driving past in the tour bus my guide pointed it out, and I couldn't even see it. I then went back, thinking I may as well get a photo, and missed it 4-5 times before finally seeing it. Apparently Mr Zappa has zero connection to the city of Vilnius - the proposal for erecting the statue was a 'test' of the new democratic processes by the artists just to see whether or not they could get the project approved. It was, they did up a bust (which wasn't too bad I must say) and hence you have the bust of Frank Zappa on a pole in a parking lot... I guess it ties in with the bohemian mindset that's seemingly everywhere here in Vilnius.

Choral Synagogue.

Church of All Saints, also built in the Baroque style. There was Sunday service on when I arrived, so I didn't go inside.

Church of St Catherine

St. Anne's Church, a Roman Catholic Church. Loving the gothic stylin'.

Vilnius University (Vilniaus Universitetas). The tiny tower on the left housed the old observatory.

Presidential Palace

The top facade of the National Theatre of Lithuania. Love the statue of the three muses.

The interior of the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit (Staciatikiu Sv. Dvasios Cerkve). Jaw droppingly beautiful.

Interior of the Church of St Theresa. This was my guide's favourite church, as she said it totally changes character after dark. I tried to enter at around 6.30pm and couldn't get in, so was only able to take a photo the morning after. Beautifully decorated, I must admit.

And of course I have to give some mention to the food! The cuisine is basically similar to other snow-prone climates, lots of soups, creamy sauces, potatoes and what not. Very artery-clogging. It all tasted amazing, so amazing in fact I pretty much had a Lithuanian dish for every single meal. If you're a vegetarian though then there isn't a whole lot on offer here, I'm warning you guys.

I love borscht (Barščiai) - if you're frozen to your bones there's nothing that warms you up like it. I've had borscht everywhere - Riga, Moscow, Vilnius etc, and I've never had a bad serving.

Balandėliai - Cabbage Rolls stuffed with some minced meat, boiled and served with the best sauce I've ever had in my life! I wish I knew what was in that sauce - the only ingredients I could make out were sour cream and paprika...

Kėdainių blynai - Basically potato pancakes served with some sort of remoulade with minced meat in the centre. It was alright but very oily - I wouldn't want to be having this very often.

Cepelinai - The national dish. Named after the Zeppelin, these are made from potato and minced meat and big enough to fit in my hand. It's boiled and served coated in this sour cream and bacon sauce. Tastes absolutely divine.

I'm not finished with Vilnius just yet - I have some photos from the KGB Museum/Museum of the Genocide Victims which I think warrants a seperate post altogether, so stay tuned!

Airline Catering - the Tampax Towers guide

2011-11-24T00:20:00.001+04:00

Well after a short absence due to training college draining most free time I had, I'm now back to blogging and Formspring. I just got my December roster, and whilst I got New Years Eve off, I'm sure I'll be working the 1st, so no partying for me this year. Christmas I'll be working, which I actually wanted, so it isn't so bad. Probably best for me to avoid eating a massive turkey dinner drenched in gravy with roast potatoes and vegies anyway...

We airlines get a really bad reputation when it comes to our food, and whilst this may have been true, say, 20 years ago, having been around airline food constantly over the last 6 years I think this is now unwarranted. There are some things that we cater that are just plain difficult to present to customers as intended by our chefs.

The worst, at least for me, is pasta. It is a dish that pleases the majority of customers – if you make, say, a spinach and ricotta cannelloni, it can please both the omnivores and vegetarians we have, unlike other vegetarian meals such as a tofu stir fry – so because of this even if you don’t see it in Economy that often you will very likely find it in both Business and First Class on almost all our flights. But even if I heat up a pasta meal for 10 minutes less than the recommended time, if there isn’t enough sauce provided (or in the case of First Class, where the sauce is heated separately from the pasta itself) it almost always comes out dried and disgusting. 'Al dente' doesn’t exists in the airline catering vocab. Rice is also notorious for coming out of the oven all dried out, though, if you have a good company packing the meals, all it takes is a cabbage leaf on top of the rice for the moisture to remain.

The test of a good galley operator is a breakfast service. If the meal has eggs in it, then there is a great chance that the eggs can overcook and be horrible to eat or even look at. With egg dishes, including, but not limited to, Omelettes, Scrambled eggs, Fried Eggs, Poached Eggs, and Frittata, if you overcook the meal, the egg portion can turn into a horrible grey-green colour. I guess it’s the same process which gives hard boiled eggs that horrible sulphur-grey ring around the yolk. Omelettes and Frittatas can be quite hardy to this problem, but I have seen it happen, mainly in Economy Class when the service can take a really long time in a 2 class configuration aircraft. Scrambled eggs are the worst – with this dish there is not a lot of buffer between heating them to food safety acceptable temperatures and then overheating them to the grey stage. Soft poached will almost always turn hard poached on board and it takes a galley operator with true skill and lots of experience (and properly working ovens) to have both a hot dish and a runny yolk.

We’re under a lot of restrictions on the aircraft when it comes to food preparation. Nothing can be cooked on board from its raw state. Even in First Class, with Dine-On-Demand service, which is slowly becoming standard on most 4 and 5 star airlines, when you’re served Chicken Breast, Beef Fillet, Fish Fillet, Rack of Lamb, whatever it is, must be cooked first on ground, then flash chilled at the catering facility, then loaded on board still chilled. Beef steaks in particular cannot be cooked to order – sometimes in First Class a passenger may ask for a medium-rare steak, after which we have to apologise and explain why this isn’t possible, to avoid their eventual disappointment after cutting into a well-done steak.

So having said that, I was quite surprised when, on my recent flight from Frankfurt to Dubai, I tucked into a crew meal and saw that the steak was actually pink inside. ZOMG! A pink steak! How could this be? To those of us in the industry, and to those frequent flyers, this is an extremely rare occurrence, so rare in fact I had to take a photo as proof.

And I’m sure those of you who are not as familiar with airline catering as we are will probably think “Pfft, so what, it’s a pink steak”. But take my word for it - this here is worth the photo. In almost 6 years of being subject to aircraft food, this was probably the best meal I’ve ever had on board (passenger meals included) which is somewhat sad.

And so, to follow up, here is my mini-guide to aircraft food. I had someone ask me on Formspring what I would recommend to eat on board a full service airline. To be honest, I would treat airline food like you would fast food. If, for example, you eat McDonalds/KFC/Dominos only once every 2 weeks, then treat aircraft food as your junk food fix. It certainly has the salt, sugar, preservatives and calories to be equal to them. It’s very hard to diet on the aircraft – you’d have to bring your own food almost every time, and with the LAGS rule in place is isn’t a viable practice for everyone - you’re better off choosing items off the menu based on taste, and putting it down to your 'cheat meal'.

If you have any dietary requirements, such as Vegan, Diabetic etc then most airlines cater for this, and you do get served first on the aircraft, but if you do order it with your ticket then please, please eat it on board. I remember one flight I did to Melbourne where a group of about 8 over 50’s all ordered different special meals. One Fruit Platter, one Asian Vegetarian, one Bland meal, one Low Sodium, one Oriental meal etc. But when we served all of them their food and they saw what was on their tray, they suddenly wanted a regular meal. We asked them why did they order a special meal if they weren’t in need of a Bland Meal/Oriental/Fruit Platter etc? They said they wanted to see if they would get served before everyone else on the plane. We had to tell them that we couldn’t give them a normal meal – it just isn’t fair on those passengers who didn’t order a special meal to be given zero choice, or worse yet, to be given a special meal when they haven’t even requested one. If they simply asked us during the flight whether the special meal requests get to eat first we would have had no problem telling them. It’s not a secret by any means.

THE TAMPAX TOWERS GUIDE TO AIRCRAFT FOOD

Breakfast –

BEST – Stick with a continental breakfast if you can. Fruit, cereal, museli, yogurt and bread, with a glass of OJ, a Virgin Mary or Black Tea. If there’s a cold cuts selection then this is what I’d recommend. I’ve never had a bad continental breakfast, not on my airline or Lufthansa.

IF YOU NEED A HOT MEAL – The mixed grill option is a somewhat ‘Aussie’ thing, but it holds up the best out of all the breakfast options I’ve eaten/served. Also if there is a ‘regional option’, such as Congee on Far East Asian flights, Nasi Lamak on a South East Asian flight, or Aloo Burji/Palak Paneer on a South Asian flight, then this is usually very good.

ACCEPTABLE – Pancakes. They’re usually served with some sauce, compote or reduction of some kind, so not only do they have decent flavour but they also don’t taste THAT dry on the tongue. Even if it doesn’t come with a special sauce on the side, most breakfast trays on airlines have portion control packets or jam or marmalade which serves as a decent alternative. If you don’t have an issue with the sugar content, then this is what I would recommend.

MEDIOCRE – Waffles (always super soggy, esp when served with sauce/compote). Taste is OK though.

IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE EGGS – Omelettes or Frittata. I would recommend the Frittata over the Omelette option though as it tends to be more ‘meal’ like. I can honestly say I have never ever had a nice Omelette on a plane, ever. But then again I believe that they should be super moist and somewhat runny in the centre, which is not possible to do on board. Frittata is always better.

AVOID IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN – Fried Eggs, Poached Eggs, Hard Boiled Eggs and Scrambled Eggs. The exception with Scrambled eggs is if you are flying First Class on a Dine-On-Demand service airline, but you’d be hoping the galley operator knows what they’re doing. Just like your home oven has ‘hot spots’ and uneven temperatures, the aircraft ovens are very unpredictable (especially with so many aircraft, you can’t keep track of which aircraft has good ovens and which has bad), so it’s not uncommon to see overcooked scrambled eggs go out into the cabin.

Lunch and Dinner –

BEST – Curries and Stews. The reason why you see this as one option on most flights is that they preserve the best. The meat is usually very tender, boneless, and very flavourful. I would also class meat pies and hotpots in this category as well. They can be a little too salty sometimes, but even then they win hands down over the other options you're likely to be offered.

ACCEPTABLE – Fish. I don’t know what method catering companies use to cook fish, but I suspect they either poach or steam the fish. It is almost always served to the passenger super moist. I don’t even like eating fish, but I have to admit that on board its actually quite tasty. Maybe my tastebuds are messing with me.

HIT AND MISS – Beef Steak, or a Chicken Breast. Most of the time they’re overcooked, very dry, if they’re served with sauce there is never enough. Hence why a crew meal steak made me snap-happy with the iPod.

AVOID – Non-fish seafood. Prawns, Calamari, Scallops, Lobster etc. Almost always overcooked. Some catering stations don’t even remove the vein from the Prawn. Even though it may be dressed very well, or served with a nice fresh salad, the gritty after taste is just nasty.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE – Sushi. We have this on our Japanese flights, and whilst I haven’t done one in a very long time, I am, quite frankly, embarrassed to serve the sushi onboard to our Japanese passengers - Especially the Economy Class sushi. Everytime I’ve tried it the rice is undercooked, there’s no rice vinegar mixed in, the seaweed is super dry and flaky. All the fish has to be cooked anyway so it’s not even proper sushi. It may look somewhat appetising but take it from me – you’re better off having it on ground.

Have any thoughts on airline catering? Agree/Disagree with the above? Let me know in the comments section :-)

First time in Copenhagen

2011-10-17T11:55:00.000+04:00

I thought I was lucky at the time. Only 5 days after launch of the route, I was rostered to operate Copenhagen. It was to be the highlight of what was an undesirable roster – no where I bid for, 3 turns, the 5 days off before my leave that I requested were not granted, wheras others in my bid group who were less senior than I was were granted the days off they requested. I was going to be missing out on the Reykjavik marathon, and I wasn’t happy.

I guess the first problems were that it was overbooked in Economy, so with an originally empty First Class this was expected to fill up quite fast. We arrived at the aircraft to discover that we were catered 8 out of a possible 12, but the ground dispatcher told us to be expecting a full house. As the galley operator for the flight, this is quite frustrating, since the catering personnel has to load the new catering by hand, and on the Airbus 330 there isn’t a lot of room left in the chillers for the dine-on-demand top up. Maybe back when we bought the aircraft and it was a scheduled full service the galley was useable, but with both breakfast and lunch for dine-on-demand it is just unworkable with a full cabin.

When everyone boarded, we saw that about half of the passengers were upgrades, and the other half staff. Pilots, to be specific. When staff travel they’re not permitted to use the lounges in the terminal, so almost all of them will eat on the plane. The upgrades would have all had J/C lounge access, but after finding out they had First Class boarding cards, they ordered what they were not normally entitled to otherwise, such as the caviar and the Dom Peringnon. I take a lot of pride in serving our caviar – but the plating is extremely problematic and chews up a good 10 minutes of a single crew’s time just to make the plate look first class standard. Every single passenger ordered the caviar, some ordered seconds, 6 did so at the same time, and it really felt like I was working at McDonalds, but instead of compiling burgers I was plating caviar worth almost 100 USD a tin.

The service just didn’t stop. The only time I had to sit down was in the cockpit waiting for the pilots to get their tray table out whilst I held their meals. We didn’t have time to eat, we didn’t have time to pee. It was probably the hardest I’ve worked in First Class in the last 2 years.

After the flight had finally ended, all I wanted to do was just lie in bed with the duvet over my head and emerge only for the wake up. But then I thought, at the very least, I should shop for groceries , so I went to the nearest supermarket. On the way back I saw some bicycles parked outside the hotel available for hire, thought ‘I may as well’ then went for a bike ride around Copenhagen. I was so pleased afterwards that I did, the fresh air really lifted my mood. I took a few photos, nearly crashed the bike a few times, but you’ll have to excuse me for the lack of photos and detailed labelling as I was still recovering from that spirit-defeating flight.

Church of Our Savior - Love the spiral on top.

Christiansborg Palace

Central Train Station

Entrace to the Tivoli Gardens.

Copenhagen Town Hall & Square. At the time there was a fashion show being held inside as it was Fashion Week.

Kunstmuseum

Later on in the evening when I was on my way back to the hotel on the hire bike I saw a massive gathering of people along the Kalvebod Brygge - What seemed like almost 1000 people donned their roller blades and roller skates, and with boomboxes in hand went for a sunset skate. Very cool.

Leprosy Museum - Bergen

2011-10-02T20:03:00.000+04:00

I love seeing strange museums - remember when I went to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Japan? But when S. told me that there was a Leprosy museum in Bergen, I have to admit, I was sceptical. We’d only just arrived in Bergen a few hours ago, an 8 hour journey from Oslo by train, so I was a little more tired than usual. I thought that if I went straight after the epic train ride, then all the reading that usually is the norm with museums would send me sleepwalking through the beautiful streets of Bergen. It was decided that we would spend as much time sightseeing on that afternoon as we could, and work on the museum the next day.

I’m not going to lie – even though I was keen on the idea initially, I was quite freaked out when I walked inside. I knew nothing about the disease, and didn’t know whether it was contagious or not (stupid, I know). I figured that it should be okay to enter if they allowed tourists to enter and other locals to work there. I later found out that the building was the former St Jørgen’s Hospital which housed leprosy patients, and that the last patient housed was there over 500 years ago, which made me feel a bit silly.

The museum is unique to say the least – it details the work of Gerhard Armauer Hansen, of whom Hansen’s disease is named, and who is thought to be the most famous Norwegian outside of Norway. It goes in depth into his effort at finding a cure, a treatment, anything that would give the lepers a chance at self-affirmation and worth. As you enter the rooms that formerly housed the lepers, you read their stories, many outcast from their family and the rest of society, some still loved by their families but hid away whilst the disease took its toll, some left with no choice other than falling into a beggar’s life. Their struggle with limb amputation, enormous boils, scab sores and other ailments made it very clear how brutal this disease was. I think what shocked me the most was reading that it was not uncommon for sufferers to be dealing with kilos of bacteria inside their bodies. KILOS!!!

So, here are a few photos from the museum that I took. I really wanted to take pictures of the chapel, which had sculptures of Jesus Christ surrounded by lepers, but there was a guided tour in Norwegian happening there at the time, and I didn’t want to disturb them with my photo taking.

Displays, now located in the patient's former living quarters.

On the left were the rooms where the lepers stayed, and on the right were the treatment rooms.

I have a strange facination with scientific equipent from the 1800's.

Hospital Kitchens.

Beautiful Bergen

2011-09-23T20:04:00.000+04:00

Now that I had my own personal Norwegian Tour Guide (who shall now only be known as S here in this blog, to protect his innocence), he had kindly arranged a day trip to Bergen for the both of us. An 8 hour train journey there, which was said to be the most beautiful train Journey in Norway, and a 2 hour plane trip back to Oslo, just in time for my flight back to Dubai.

At least for me, the highlight of the train ride was the 20 min rest stop at Finse, which had views of several glaciers. For an Australian now permanently based in the desert, this was the coolest thing ever, especially since the only other time I had seen a real glacier was in Iceland on the Golden Circle Tour only a week before. It was similar to the feeling I had when I saw snow for the first time – something you’ve always wondered what it looks like in real life, that you’ve only ever heard of through documentaries, have only ever seen in photos and video footage. S also told me that this was the location of the mountainous snow scenes of Hoth from Star Wars – The Empire Strikes back. So by looking at these photos you can imagine what Hoth would have looked like if it had a maximum temperature of 17 degrees Celsius...

Finse, at 1222m above sea level, the highest station in all of Norway.

Glacier close-ups

We also managed to pass some fjords during our journey, which I really wanted to do on my last holiday in Norway.

Eventually we do arrive in Bergen, and whilst we were both tired, a few small naps on the train meant that we still had some energy to sightsee. Firstly it was off to Bryggen (Norwegian for Wharfs), a UNESCO Heritage Site for which Bergen is so famous for.

Next we took the Fløibanen up to a lookout tower at Fløyen to get the best view of Bergen.

Have to admit - was pretty hard getting an acceptable shot of the cable car, the angle was insanely steep.

A troll!

And here are the rest of the highlights of Bergen...

Monument on Torgallmenningen

Statue of Ole Bull, Norway's most famous violinist.

The Grieghallen, named after Edvard Grieg, and also host of the ESC in 1986 (I couldn't help myself). If you haven't heard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, please do, it is absolutely brilliant.

Den Nationale Scene, Bergen's largest theatre

A wonderful statue of Henrick Ibsen outside the Den Nationale Scene.

Johanneskirken, also known as St John's Church.

Vestlandske Kunstindustrimuseum, or the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art.

Reykjavik - Hard to Say, Easy to Love...

2011-08-28T22:37:00.000+04:00

I don’t know what compelled me to fly here to be honest. Maybe it was to get the last of the Nordic countries out of the way before starting on the Balkans. And I think the koruna being somewhat cheap also had something to do with it. None the less, it was August, still summer, and I needed somewhere new to go. Also on my mission to make road running a habit rather than just an occasional hobby, I also saw the Reykjavik Marathon was on very close to my annual leave, and fortunately I was top bid in August as well. Sadly, when I did at last receive my August roster, I didn’t get the days off I wanted. Massive disappointment and my training suffered now that I no longer had a set goal, but what could I do... What was even worse, because of the lack of connections between my airline and Lufthansa and Icelandair, I had a massive 8 hour wait at Frankfurt airport between my flights from Dubai to Keflavik. None the less, I still arrived with my sanity and energy somewhat intact, booked a few tours online, and saw the natural beauty of Reykjavik and Iceland.

The first thing I wanted to do was visit the very famous Blue Lagoon. I arrived at 9.00, the opening time, and the crowds weren’t too cumbersome. It was great to just chill out, slather on the silica mud onto the face to soften the skin and sweat it out in the steam rooms (I can’t cope in a sauna). After what for me was a very tough month work-wise, this was exactly what I needed. The waters were like something out of a dream – milky blue, unique to the Blue Lagoon due to the unique combination of minerals and algae in the water. It was raining during the whole time there, but the waters are around the 40 degree Celsius mark, so you never felt uncomfortable.

It’s claimed that the water even helps Psoriasis sufferers, but I didn’t need any help in that department. The water though does have its disadvantages. I dunked my head in the water, once for 2 minutes to get the silica mud mask out of my hair, then I went under the waterfall for about 90 seconds later on, as this was supposed to be the hottest part of the blue lagoon. I’m now cursing myself for not wearing a shower cap, because my hair was totally trashed afterwards. It took 30 minutes of brushing in the toilets afterwards to make it look remotely neat, and as I write this I’ve done 3 x 1hr sessions of moisturising mask and it’s still not back to the shiny silky Asian hair it used to be. Actually the texture looks like I’ve dyed it black after doing a full blonde peroxide bleach. It’s just awful, but considering how unique the experience is at the Blue Lagoon, it is totally worth it.

So after I made it back to Reykjavik, I hopped on the Golden Circle tour, the most popular tour in Iceland. First stop on the tour was Þingvellir (which to my native English ear sounded a lot like Thing-vet-leer!) national park, the very first location of the Icelandic Parliament Alþingi, which at 930 AD was said to be one of the first parliaments ever established. Because of the location’s significance in history it is an official UNESCO World Heritage site, and is also notable for all the gaps & cracks in the landscape, as it also happens to be where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates are separating at a rate of 2cm a year.

Next up was a trip to the Gullfoss waterfalls

Gorgeous to look at, but you do have to have some good shoes on, as the pathway is lined with stones and the mist from the waterfall makes everything you step on very wet. Luckily I had on my Hunter Wellies, a last minute pack job after seeing it was forecast showers during my stay.

At the cafe at Gullfoss I also tried some of the Kjötsúpa, the Traditional Icelandic Lamb Soup. It was pretty tasty, reminded me of some stews my dad had cooked for me as a child. Considering it was rainy, windy, and cold from a Dubai perspective, it was exactly what I needed. They love their lamb here, the quality is amazing, and now that I think about it I didn’t have a single bad meal during my entire stay.

So the next and final stop on the Golden Circle tour was the Geysir, which was the origin for the English word of Geyser, a type of spring that bursts from a build up of heat and steam from below. The waters around the Geysir area were all around the 80-100 Degrees Celcius mark so there were bordered areas where we could not pass. The famous Geysir had not erupted for quite a while, but the reported sightings were that when it did erupt it could reach up to 80 meters high. Another smaller geyser called Strokkur is much more reliable, erupting once every 6-8 minutes on average. The danger with Strokkur is that it’s hard to get the perfect shot, you don’t know how high it’s going to be until it’s erupted, and if you get too close and get wet you end up smelling like rotten eggs from the sulfur.

Strokkur in full force.

Everyone waiting for the Strokkur geysir to eurpt.

So much steam...

So onto greater Reykjavik, and the first place we visited was Bessastaðir, the official residence of the President of Iceland. It’s not actually in Reykjavik proper; it’s on the peninsula of Álftanes, east of the capital. It has a very modest Lutheran Church but the area is just loaded with wildlife, which is perfect for what seems to be the Icelandic hobby of choice – Bird watching! (ZOMG!)

Lutheran Church.

Next it was onto the old fishing harbour of Hafnarfjörður, the third largest city in Iceland. The fishing industry is vital to the country, which you notice more than anything in the dining choices you had in the city. It also rears a lot of lamb and swine.

So the next stop was Höfði, a house that was made famous for being the chosen location of the 1986 Icelandic Summit meeting between Ronald Regan, then the US president, and Mikhail Gorbachev, then the president of the USSR, a meeting that, despite being unsuccessful, was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Outside the house there are three commemorative plaques, in Icelandic, English and Russian, detailing the significance of the meeting.

One of the landmarks that you see when driving from the Keflavik airport to Reykjavik is the Perlan. Built originally as a Geothermal Hot Water tank it has now become one of the main tourist attractions in Reykjavik, with a viewing platform, gorgeous architecture, a revolving restaurant, cafe, a museum, and tourist shops galore. The view of Reykjavik from here is pretty amazing, and free to check out, so it’s a place I didn’t want to miss.

View from the Perlan.

Now onto the most architecturally-appealing building in Iceland – the Hallgrímskirkja. It took 36 years to construct, and has a statue of Icelandic explorer Leif Eriksson seemingly guarding it. It doesn’t have any fancy paintings, and isn’t adorned with gilding or extensive sculpture work that other churches have, but the simple concrete structure does look strangely beautiful against the Reykjavik landscape. There was a funeral the day I visited, so I was kind of rushed as to what I saw and the photos I took, and looking back on it now I wish I went to the observation tower.

Statue of Leif Eriksson outside the Hallgrímskirkja.

I don't know why but everytime I visit a church I always find the organ to be the prettiest thing inside.

And finally the last landmark I visited was Harpa – Reykjavik’s Concert and Conference Hall. The building is gorgeous to look at – it has a steel skeleton and irregular glass panels that catches the light. It’s quite nice to walk around the building and see the change of the glass panels and the change in colours as well. The photos don’t really do the building justice – and to think the project was at great risk of collapsing in 2008 during the global financial crisis – it would have been a great shame.

I guess I should mention the places I dined at, because whilst I was in Reykjavik I didn’t have a single bad meal. Long time in a while that has happened on holiday I can tell you!

Quick Update from Reykjavik & A Shelf Full of Tang

2011-08-24T22:52:00.004+04:00

Hey guys, just thought I'd send you a quick update. At the moment I'm on my annual leave, and in keeping up with my "Must visit a new country every 6 months" rule, I've decided to head to Reykjavik. At the moment I'm working on a draft for one post, and the Reykjavik notes for another post has gone to two pages, so there will be a decent amount of culling on my part. Today is my last day here, then I'm off to Oslo and Bergen from tomorrow. Can't wait.

Meanwhile, have any of you seen anything like this at your airport? An entire shelf of Tang? They also had a whole shelf dedicated to Powdered Milk, all in the Duty Free section of the Terminal 1 at DXB, nestled along the cigarettes, booze and cosmetics. I remember being stunned seeing massive bags of Persil washing powder being available for sale here once, and thinking "Why would someone buy washing powder at the Duty Free?" Only in Dubai!

The Cheapest Michelin Starred Meal in the World

2011-08-02T14:45:00.001+04:00

So I was fortunate enough to be rostered the 2 day Hong Kong on my July Roster. I knew that the trip wouldn't last for very long as the Airbus 380 fleet were bound to take over the remaining flights in the near future so I made sure that during a high bid month that I would bid for HK. To be honest, back when I was working in the Business Cabin, after being rostered 5 Hong Kongs in 2 months I was kind of sick of the trip, and the fact that the crew hotel had been moved from a great location in Causeway Bay to an Airport hotel made it even less attractive to me. But my friend Paul told me a wonderful thing - Hong Kong was notorious for housing the world's cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant. A tiny place called Tim Ho Wan on some back street in Mongkok, signage in Cantonese, a very modest place serving amazing Yum Cha.

The queues outside had become almost as famous as the food - since it refused to take bookings, and refused to inflate the prices after being awarded the coveted star, it was not uncommon for lunchtime crowds to wait longer than 4 hours. So in an effort to avoid this, I turned up to Tim Ho Wan at 10.15am. The original plan was to arrive at 9.30am, but navigating through unfamiliar streets in Mongkok chewed up more time that I wanted it to. Even though I was there a good 2 hours before the lunchtime rush, the crowds had already gathered and after I received my queue number (#31) I was told I had an hour to wait. The last number called out was #4.

Waiting outside is in itself a show of resilience, there's no chairs or benches nearby - you had to stand, so the elderly were already going to find this challenging. A young couple couldn't cope anymore and rested on the seats of some nearby motorcycles, before one of the restaurant staff gave them a verbal smackdown in Cantonese. It was also incredibly hot and humid - you'd think that with living in Dubai I'd already be acclimatised to the conditions, but I still felt gross every time drops of sweat went down my back, or down my neck. The smart ones of the queue had wet wipes with them. And at some point some street workers got a massive hose out and sprayed the footpath outside the restaurant, spraying some grey gunk onto a few unlucky bystanders. But being the stubborn fool that I was, it was going to take something extreme, like a kitchen fire, to stop me having my cheap Yum Cha that day.

There's a fierce looking woman outside whose job it is to keep the tables filled to the brim, to keep the turnover swift, and to make sure no one jumps to queue. To save time, the queue numbers are written on the top of the actual Yum Cha menu, so you can order your meal while you are waiting. I was in an even better position though, as since I was eating alone, I had my queue time cut by 20 minutes as they could fit me in on a table of 5. I was seated in the middle of 5 Cantonese speakers so I felt like a right loner, but it didn't matter - I skipped the queue!!!

So after handing the waitress my queue slip/menu order I was served some pu-erh tea (which I later read was from China's Yunnan province) by the fierce-looking woman, which was super-cleansing and refreshing after 40 minutes of breathing in the Mongkok smog. In your mind it feels strange to be eating lunch at 11.15am, but your stomach knows what's coming, and despite also having breakfast that morning it wanted to be fed again. It didn't take long for the dishes to come thick and fast.

I ended up ordering only 5 dishes. I didn't want to over-indulge and finish my stay with a ton of leftover's I'd have to later lug around with me in Tsim Sa Tsui whilst shopping. I ordered the Har Jiao (Steamed Shrimp Dumplings), Steamed Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce, Char Siu Bau (Baked Bun with BBQ Pork), Stuffed Vermicelli Roll, and Steamed Pork Dumplings with Shrimp. I should also add that there's no drinks menu here, and you can't ask for the chef to do anything special for you (ie Vegetarian) since most of the dumplings are created before the restaurant opens - there's potentially hundreds of customers waiting outside for you to vacate your seat who are more than willing to eat from the menu as-is.

I don't know what to make of the food to be honest. I don't eat Yum Cha often, and whatever I've had here in Dubai has been so heavily altered for the Western/Arab tastes that I can't really tell the difference between excellent Yum Cha and rubbish Yum Cha. But I knew that above all I was there for the novelty factor, to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant and knowing that I didn't have to go through the heartache of booking months in advance (which is pretty darn hard in this job) and pay through the nose. The prices, the restaurant and the staff were all unpretentious which I think was even more attractive to me than their food. It's a proper "Hong-Kong only" experience, that's for sure.

The best part? The fierce lady handing me the bill after my meal. I only had to pay 82 Hong Kong Dollars, a mere $10.50 USD.

My Perfect Day - Melbourne

2011-07-14T21:31:00.002+04:00

So after being rostered a Melbourne-Auckland and a Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne for the end of June, I thought it was about time I did another My Perfect Layover post. I love Melbourne, aside from being born there it has a great vibe to it that even makes the Sydney, Brisbane and Perth mates I have want to move there. The weather is horrible though, constantly changing. So good luck if you're visiting and want to pack light. I had my Hunter Wellington boots on pretty much the entirety of my stay.

First place I'm going to feature, and the one place I cannot miss out on in Melbourne above any other is Cumulus Inc.

I love this restaurant. I love how close it is to the hotel. I love the decor, the name and even the logo. And I especially love their breakfast. The baked eggs, also known as the shakshouka, make me happy. I cannot rave enough about this place. My only complaint is the price. And the chef's hat it now has means everyone is going to dine here. Oh well.

I think I've mentioned before that some of the best things I've ever bought have been at art gallery gift stores, and one supplier of these is Third Drawer Down. It's most notorious for the tea towels it sells, all of which you can get stretched over a frame ready for hanging.

The last item I bought from here was a thermos mug disguised as a Canon lens. Awesome no?

So just around the corner from Third Drawer Down and Arcadia is one of those places that for some reason I never plan to visit, but I always end up here for a muffin and a coffee.

Trust me guys, if you order only one thing from this cafe, make sure its a muffin. Last time I was here I grabbed myself a Coconut, Boysenberry and Chocolate muffin. I think the muffin batter was around the 20% mark, whereas the rest of the filling was the remaining 80%. It was full of flavour and so moist. A joy to snack on :-)

So a short 5 minute walk later and you reach Brunswick Street, which is a great place to go if you don't know what to do for the day and don't mind window shopping. Everything can be found here - thrift stores, rug shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs, art stores, clothing shops, and everything you can think of. It also has Panelpop.

I've mentioned Panelpop on this blog before, and everytime I go there my eyes light up seeing the art they have on display, imagining how my apartment will soon take shape. Last time I was there I walked away with some Drew Funk graffiti artwork and a gorgeous Beth Emily piece, and I'm itching to go back to buy more.

I only found Panelpop whilst walking towards Clear It, which is a factory outlet store. They mainly stock Alannah Hill clothes, which is my favorite Australian designer, and the first 3-4 times I was in Melbourne for work my sole mission of the layover was usually spent shopping here. Worth checking out anyway...

Lygon Street is a must do when you're in Melbourne. Every cuisine imaginable is available, but the best stuff is the Greek, Italian and Turkish food. Thai, Indian and Chinese are in abundance as well, and all of it is reasonably priced, especially compared to the restaurants in the CBD and Southbank.

I wish I could just nail down one place for you guys that is just the epitome of awesome, but I really can't. There are so many hidden gems here, and you probably need about 2 weeks stay to dine at all the restaurants along here, there's bound to be something here for your tastes. I'm partial to the Italian food here though :-)

So a short walk back to the city, and you'll find Flinders Street Station...

Nothing says Melbourne to me more than Flinders Street Station. The building is gorgeous, and is a flurry of activity at all times of the day and night. And it's just directly opposite from...

Federation Square. Personally I think Federation Square is worth seeing for the architecture alone - whether you love it or hate it, it is certainly eye-catching. It houses the tourism office in case you get lost, it houses the National Gallery of Victoria and has a bar called 'Transport' if you're at a loss as to what to do on a Tuesday night.

So a short stroll from Fed Square and in 5 minutes you end up at the best cafe in the Melbourne CBD - Brother Babba Budan

Strange name aside, the CBD isn't really the place for amazing Melbourne coffee, but this place was recommended to me by another crew member, so I decided to check it out. It's very difficult to find without having the address beforehand, there's no sign outside the store. You just have to know... It's more catered to take-away orders as there is hardly any seating space, but the coffee is worth it. And the decor is pretty cool to boot.

And for my last recommendation, just a short stroll north is the Queen Victoria Markets. If you do one thing at these markets, you simply have to get yourself a doughnut from this van.

The jam donuts from this van are freshly made, coated in the sugar and served warm, and are for sale for 6 for $6.00. I really had to restrain myself from buying 15 of them, but they were so good with the take away coffee from Brothers Babba Budan. The Market itself is well worth a browse, and I've lost track of what I've bought here - I visit so often. I'm currently in love with this jar of passionfruit butter I purchased from one of the fresh fruit and vegetable vendors. Definitely a place I recommend for anyone visiting for the first time.

Images from here, here.

EDIT - As per a wonderful suggestion from Sodwee, here is a map of all the locations. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this sooner...

View My Perfect Day - Melbourne in a larger map

Cumulus Inc - 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Open Mon-Fri 7.00am-11.00pm, Sat-Sun 8.00am-11.00pm.

Third Drawer Down - 93 George Street, Fitzroy. Open Tue-Wed 11.00am-5.00pm, Thu-Sat 11.00am-6.00pm

Arcadia - 193 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Open Mon-Fri 8.00am-5.00pm, Sat-Sun 9.00am-5.00pm

Panelpop - 117 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

Clear It Factory Outlet - 188-192 Brunswick St Fitzroy. Open Mon–Thurs, Sat 10.00am – 6.00pm. Fri 10.00am – 7.00pm. Sun 11.00am - 6.00pm

Lygon Street, Carlton. Various Hours

Brothers Baba Budan. 359 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. Open Mon-Sat 7.00am-5.00pm

Queen Victoria Market - Cnr of Elizabeth and Victoria Street, Melbourne. Open Tues and Thurs 6.00am to 2.00pm, Fri 6.00am to 5.00pm, Sat 6.00am to 3.00pm, Sun 9.00am to 4.00pm

Malta - on no sleep :-(

2011-06-17T19:38:00.000+04:00

So when I received my May roster there was one flight I was dreading - and for a change it wasn't a red-eyed Hyderabad turnaround. I had on my roster a 24hr layover in Malta, which sounds like a paid holiday but considering it features both ways a stopover in Cyprus (LCA) it can be a very tiresome pairing. I hadn't done this flight since I was a Business Class crew member, and have only had memories of the flight being demanding, tiring, and the service never ending. It was so bad in fact that the last flight I did in the 2 class aircraft I volunteered to take on the Economy position, and in the Business Cabin the service was so short on time that when the Captain made his decent PA in the cabin the other Business Crew were still on their first round of the Dessert/Cheese/Fruit trolley, with both second round and clearence of the passengers to go - at least another 40 min from finishing.

So onto my Malta flight this time around, and I was glad to see the service department whittle down the service to one more appropriate for the flight time, however it was still incredibly busy in First Class during the DXB-LCA sector. But once you land at the tiny airport and breathe in the fresh sea air, your mood totally changes. I missed the scenic drive to the hotel (I had zero sleep the night before) but I booked myself in for a night time bus tour and gave myself a few hours to power nap. I stocked up on my energy supplies first by dining on some Rabbit Stew.

I'd been strongly advised to try this by a freind of mine, and at first I loved it to bits, but after I was halfway through the dish I'd has enough, and found the stew far too strong for my pallate.

So onto the tour! Everytime I'd been to Malta I would spend the layover out to dinner with the crew, or spend it on the beach topping up the tan, but I'd never spent the layover sightseeing properly. I went during sunset, so the light wasn't the best for photos (nor was the moving open-top bus!) but I tried my best. Here you go.

Gorgeous Promenade.

I wish the exterior of my apartment was this nice...

I don't know why I found this picture worthy. I just love the easy miniature petrol pumps!

Random anchored ship in the bay.

I think that's Valletta.

Too many boats.

My sleep-deprived brain didn't register what this building was. I think it was the National Parliament.

View from the alleged National Parliament.

Big Bell, blurry.

Church. Very Pretty!

So at this stage we were able to explore the ancient city of Mdina, but as it was night time there were very few places open, so you were left to appreciate the architecture.

Entrance to Mdina (pronounced Em-Deena, apparently)

Spooked?

Just Gorgeous!

The next morning was spent jogging, as I want to compete in a 10k event in August (though I'm still pussy-footing around with the registration as my attendance depends on days off from the airline) and it was probably the most beautiful run I've ever done. The scenery was just breathtaking.

Random statue

Yet again more boats.

This road is just begging for joggers to test it out.

I was told to take a photo of these buses before I left. In June they were being replaced by more clean and more environmentaly friendly buses. But these yellow buses were notorious for their iconic 'flair' each driver would use near the drivers area to personalise their bus.

I thought it was cute how they use empty bottles of Fabric Softener as buoys.

Paparazzi Restaurant, which gave me a full English Breakfast for 7 Euros. Just what I needed.

I was absolutely shattered (and sleeping for the last 30 min) when the tour ended, but the morning run really lifted my mood and my opinion about the island. After landing back into Dubai I thought that it was a really great trip, not one that I would bid for, but should one pop up on my roster I'm not going to actively get rid of the trip. I can understand why it was the paid holiday all the other crew had made it out to be - Malta is just gorgeous! If only I had more time...

So I operate a flight on my birthday...

2011-06-06T23:12:00.000+04:00

Well for those of you who follow me on Twitter, or Formspring would know, it was my Birthday yesterday. One of the downsides of this job is that since planes take off 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you do not get Christmas off, nor Easter, not even Eid, and it’s inevitable that you’ll have to work on your Birthday. I’ve been lucky in the past, I’ve either had the day off in Dubai, been on a Perth layover, or had a great layover with crew, but this time I was lumped with a Red Eye turnaround flight to Hyderabad. And of course, it was paired with a Geneva that I didn’t want to swap (nor could swap – it was the inaugural flight!) and a day off, and my roster was so packed that giving away that one day off would make my roster ‘illegal’. I was operating the flight whether I wanted to or not.

In hindsight, the circumstances weren’t too bad. The crew were amazing and did their best to cheer me up - they even bought me a bracelet from the On Board Duty Free. Our cabin was actually booked to be a Business Class cabin, which made the turnaround service for us in First Class much easier. The timing of the flight was such that it was completely dead inside the Terminal, and even more dead in the Business Class lounge, so many of our passengers tend to eat there in preference to stomaching the aircraft food and spend the flight sleeping instead. So it wasn’t that bad. In theory...

The most horrific part came much later. It didn’t really affect me – I barely went down to the Economy Cabin. As the Birthday Girl I was spared the trip to Economy to help out, and we were full up the front so I couldn’t have gone down even if I wanted to. Whilst on ground in Hyderabad the Purser told me that there were 12 Economy seats that passengers had urinated on. They just...peed in the seat. And not told the crew until we all found out on ground and everyone had disembarked. Grown adults, who were very likely intoxicated, who were happy to walk off the aircraft with urine-soaked pants. Unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so mortified in my life.

I guess I could understand it if there were young kids who had done this that had a history of bedwetting. Or even someone elderly who may have been suffering from incontinence. Or even if it was turbulent and the constant shaking of the aircraft made this more likely, and possibly prevented people from reaching the lavatory for long periods of time. But this was not the case. These men (and after asking the door operator that was there for disembarkation, it was grown men who had the tell-tale crotch patch) had started drinking at one of the airport bars, gotten semi-sloshed, asked the crew for another drink and couldn’t handle anymore. I find it hard to believe that they could walk onto the aircraft completely sober and become so drunk in such a short period of time purely from what was served from the aircraft bars – the flight simply isn’t long enough, nor the service quick enough for that to happen. What would be most likely is if they bought their ‘Walking Johnny’ in the Duty Free in the terminal and drank it on the plane. This is what happened on my infamous Moscow flight, which was 1.5hrs longer and even then we saw only one guy walked off who had peed his pants. But 12 grown men urinating on the seat mid-flight must be an industry record surely...

It should be noted that we do carry seat covers on board. I mean, we have passengers who are motion sick and stain the seats every now and again, so this would need to be changed for the next sector, regardless as to whether it’s a turnaround or a layover. But we only stock 10 seat covers on the aircraft at any one time, so 2 seats on an overbooked flight were still wet by the time the cleaners were finished. We asked the ground staff to block the seats from sale but after the boarding had finished I looked at our passenger list and it said 54 in Business Class and 183 in Economy Class – Not a single seat was blocked from sale and every seat on the aircraft had someone’s behind on it. The strangest part of the whole day, for me anyway, was that neither one of the 2 passengers made a complaint of a wet seat. Simply unbelievable.

Aside from that, the flight wasn’t too eventful. The Captain said he was going to hire a Hyderabadi stripper for me for my Birthday, which made me laugh a little. I’ve never been one for strippers, so I had to pass. After hearing of the horror occurrence in Economy all I really wanted for my Birthday was to chill out at home for the rest of the day, complete with a VERY long bath. With a shower in bleach to start off with.

Image from here.

Pilgrimage to Eurovision 2011

2011-05-28T15:20:00.001+04:00

So I’m going to ask all of you to indulge with me for just one post. I try to keep my Eurovision stuff here to a minimum, it is a Flight Attendant blog after all, but I know some of you were asking what I’ve been up to all week and why I haven’t been posting for three weeks, and this should explain why. Many of you know that I’ve been in Dusseldorf all week for the Eurovision Song Contest. I bid for leave specifically to attend this event, and this is the first time that I’ve done so and been available to attend the final. Last year I was given the bid 2 days out of the final so was stuck at home in Dubai watching it from the internet after attending the two semi finals - an anti-climax to an amazing week if there was one. But this year I got the leave I wanted, and not only that, I also scored myself Fan Accreditation.

In previous years, this was the pass to get if you weren't a member of the Press or a Country's delegation. As I'm Australian, it's a special case - each country's delegation gives out 10 passes a year to members from their OGAE club, and since Australia doesn't have an OGAE club we have to apply directly through the European Broadcasting Union if we want accreditation. And if you're a frequent viewer of the contest you may have noticed an increase in Australian flags in amongst the crowd - there was even an inflatable Kangaroo in the crowd last year in Oslo, so the EBU loves the Aussies so much and the exposure they give back in their home country they have no problem approving their Fan nor Press Accreditations. And to know that I was possibly one of only 10 people to be blessed with a Fan pass from the International Delegation made me feel just a little bit special.

Usually I take Lufthansa when I want to travel to throughout Europe, as they let me buy Business Class standby tickets, but since LH were one of the sponsors of this year's contest, I knew there was no way on earth I'd get a spare seat on their aircraft, so I had to sacrifice my Annual Leave ticket with my airline just to make it there and back within my leave time. Another Christmas without my family this year I'd be sacrificing, but oh well, what to do.
About an hour after landing in Dusseldorf I found myself with an invite to the San Marino party, so I picked up my pass, headed onward to the Main Press Centre, read through what I had access to and what I didn't have access to, and found out that Jedward were having their press conference in 15 minutes. Had a look at the manual, saw that I had access, then tried to get inside and a security guard stopped me. "Press only." Oh poo. Wandered over to the lounge for free coffee (!) and tried to at least watch the upload from youtube. Sadly the free Wifi that was promised wasn't working either. Double poo. With nothing really left to do I headed to the arena, and so happy that the pass actually gave me access somewhere for a change. And who else was there but Blue?

Their LED screens weren't behaving. They didn't want to work, and when they did work they were out of sync. I wish they never had them to be honest and just concentrated on their vocals, which really did need some work. Russia's Alex had the same LED effect and the same result - hovering around mid table in the final.

Lena Meyer-Landrut, the first German since 1982 to win (The first winner since German reunification) and the first returning champion since 1958. I quite liked her song, more than Satellite which gave her the win, but with no chorus, no crescendo and no big ending it was going to be a hard for her. She's definitely sexed up her image since last year, so she was one of the few artists that had the straight men's vote going for her this year.

The Spanish entrant, Lucia Perez. I hated this song when I first heard it, then I saw it on stage, and how much energy it had and how fun it was, and now I love it. Plus the chorus choreography is super easy, even a few blocks in the audience were dancing along.

So it was off to the San Marino party, which was invite only (no pass access again - someone later remarked that the F pass really stood for the F**k-All pass as that's what it really entitled you to...) and thank goodness I had an invite, because it was free everything! Free food, all of it genuinely Sammarinese, and best off all free booze!

Many acts from this year's contest decided to make an appearence, including Aurela Gace, Paradise Oskar, Alexey Vorobov, Loucas Yiorkas, Magdalena Tul, and even Alexander Rybak! But of course the star of the show was Senit, who put on an amazing show, and even sang some old Eurovision classics. A great way to start my trip, aside from losing my 2 month old iPod Touch in the back of a taxi whilst trying to pull up my hotel details from my email. That wasn't good.

The next day wasn't especially eventful, during the day I watched the First Semi Final dress rehearsals, which made everyone re-think their 10 qualifiers, and it also dawned on everyone how bad the hosts were going to be for the show. I don't think it was the host's fault to be honest, they had to make do with some horrible script writing. None of their jokes or gags went down in the arena too well. It might have appeared differently on TV, I'm not sure.

This year's hosts on the monitor.

That night was the Israeli party, complete with an appearance from Dana International, however after learning from the San Marino party (party started at 7pm, she didn't appear until 9pm) I didn't rock up to the Israeli party until midnight, by which stage she only performed 2 songs when I turned up. And in a massive contrast to the San Marino party, NOTHING was free. Queues to get in were insane, and whilst the venue was great, it was hard to move around and enjoy.

The next morning I set off for Brussels - I had to make a trip there. Train from Dusseldorf to Cologne, then another train to Brussels. Same way back again. I worked the route out on the internet, and if I did it right then I would only be away from Dusseldorf for 7 hrs, so I set off very early in the morning to do so. Only the train from Dusselfdorf to Cologne was 90 minutes instead of 20 minutes, and I missed further connections. So by the time I reached my hotel room in Dusseldorf for my tickets the doors were already closed at the arena. :'(

I decided to head to the press centre anyway, at least to watch the contest with some people I knew and to drink my free Peppermint tea whilst doing so. I was gutted, but I had mentally prepared for the possibility whilst on the Thalys from Brussels to Cologne (the kind people at the ticket office had upgraded me because one of the trains I had taken was late.) It wasn't until one of the Vodafone workers in the press centre tried to get me into the arena, then being denied again, that I lost it. I guess it serves me right for being so stubborn.

So in the press centre there were teams from all over Europe covering the contest, and the biggest contingent was from Russia, who all went mental when Alexey made it through to the final. But the biggest surprise for everyone was when Lithuania went through. It was destined for semi-final purgatory, but had a great draw, and stood out as one of the few real ballads in the semi, so seeing them get through and Poland and Norway not getting through was a bit of a let down.

Second Semi Dress rehearsals were scheduled for the next day, and everyone's mood perked up for this, as it was considered to be the stronger semi final of the two. There were two acts here that blew me away.

First one was Ukraine, who along with Mika Newton singing what in my opinion was a mediocre song, featured Kseniya Siminova, a sand artist who won Ukraine's got talent with her live works of art. In the arena it was just jaw dropping to watch it all live, you totally didn't know Mika was there on stage with her massive feather shoulder pads. It was beautiful to watch.

The second stand out performance were, surprisingly, Jedward. Those two boys, high on red cordial and hairspray fumes (to quote Grahame Norton) were just full of boundless energy wherever they went. As they came on stage, they were doing one-armed cartwheels and constantly jumping about. The very first press conference they did has now become legendary. Whether you love them or hate them, they were a great sight at Eurovision and didd a great job at livening up some dull days at the press centre.

Later that night the invites went round the press centre again, and this time it was the Russian party, and not only did the Russian Delegation already have a reputation for hosting great parties (ie. Free Booze), Alex was also turning out to be the Playboy of Eurovision, making out with everything that moved in Dusseldorf. So everyone wanted to be there just to see what would happen.

Axle aka. Paradise Oskar and Alex trying to rap with him. I didn't think it was all that good but the crowd loved it!

Ell and Nikki, the future winners of the ESC.

Sjonni's Friends. I wouldn't mind friends like these :-)

Me with Emmy. I look like I just rolled out of bed and she looks super fresh.

Amaury! Glad you could make an appearance.

So second semi-final time, which also meant the second annual Australian Eurovision meet-up, which was christened Ausseldorf a week earlier. For the second year in a row I made the official Eurovision website but it was great meeting up with some friends again after meeting them in Oslo from last year.

Euroclub absolutely packed. The Finnish meet-and-greet was held at the same time as the Aussie meet-and-greet, so Quartier Boheme made quite a bit of money that day...

My buddies from last year's Aus-lo meet up.

Someone's been working hard at home with the Sharpie markers.

Me and Darrin, from Sydney, who I haven't seen since Oslo a year ago. This is my favorite photo of the whole week :-D

Someone from a radio station back home (I think it was ABC radio) asked me what my favorite Eurovision song was. I said it was 'Hold Me Now' by Johnny Logan. He asked me to sing it for him. I said I'd rather sing in Serbian for him. So here I am, singing Molitva :-)

Crazy Swedes.

Crazy Irish Leprechauns.

Stadium for Semi 2 filling up.

A few of the Dutch contigent. There were heaps of them here, quite easily explained by the very short 2hr non stop train ride from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf. Judging by the look on their faces they all knew that 3JS weren't going to make it, though I thought that a LAST placing in the second semi was a tad harsh and undeserved.

My friend Paul was pulled up onto the stage during the warm up. Whilst it didn't make the show airing we've been told it will make it onto the Blu-Ray DVD extras. This incident has sprouted a lot of "I knew Aussie Paul before he was famous" statements from the rest of us in the Aussie posse.

The outfit this guy was wearing was amazing. Flowered vest - only at Eurovision. It looked like the LED had regurgitated the Swiss graphic from Semi-Final 1 onto his top. He was supporting Denmark, who I thought had an amazing entry. So glad they got through...

Despite paying top dollar for my ticket, I couldn't get any nice shots of the performances :-( We had this one girl, rooting for Jedward from the looks of her get up, that absolutely refused to sit down for any of the performances, including the ballads. It took about 40 people to abuse her before she had some sense and sat down so the rest of us didn't have to stand as well.

Did we have time to recover from Semi Final 2? No way! It was the Grand Final Dress Rehearsal up next!

The boys in red and sky high quiffs.

Amaury Vassili. As you can see I have no idea how to keep a camera straight...

Ell and Nikki and wind machine effects.

Slovenia's Maja Keuc. I LOVED this song, but thought it was much better in the Slovenian language. And look at those boots!

Sjonni's Friends, performing Coming Home.

Serbia's Nina performing the 60's influenced Caroban

Later that night I had tickets for the Euroboat, and after looking at the ad and having it recommended to me I booked the ticket in advance. But most of my friends were at the Jury final, and even after paying for the ticket on the boat, seeing that we had to pay for everything else on the boat, and how crap the vibe was on the vote, me and the other girls decided to give the Euroboat the flick. We left it not even 3 minutes before it departed the docks. Best 25 Euros I've ever wasted.

So onto the day of the final, and after a decent sleep in it was time to head to Euroclub again to meet with everyone before the trek to the arena, and there were a few characters...

I think this guy was from the UK.

A Verka Seduchka costume! Love the headgear...

We arrived at the arena, and there was a plethora of cocktail bars. The queues to get in were insane - far more than the semi finals, and not only that there were people flogging finals tickets outside the U-bahn and entry points. Good to know for future years that if tickets are sold out its always possible to get them on the day. I also know of Mark and Bethany, the Aussie honeymoon couple, who managed to score OAGE fan tickets very close to the stage because some fans who had already requested the tickets couldn't make it to Dusseldorf for whatever reason. They were at Eurocafe at the right moment and scored excellent seats. Good to keep in mind for next year :-)

I was very fortunate to get a seat behind the control area. Yes there were a few poles and cabled microphones blocking my view, but whenever there was something on stage I was unable to see (and this happened quite a bit) I just had to look at the monitor in front of me.

Amaury on the monitor.

The show was great! I enjoyed myself so much, and so glad that I finally managed to watch the final in person after missing out in Oslo. The opening rendition of Satellite was really well done, but the interval act was so incredibly boring, I wish I'd left my seat for a pretzel and another drink instead of staying in and watching Jan Delay. Worst interval act in years.
The voting was interesting, and had a few surprises and some expected happenings. The best fun was hearing everyone boo Cyprus when they gave their 12 points to Greece - The sweetheart deal has been happening for as long as I can remember (since before 2002!) and doesn't look like being broken any time soon. Ireland giving 10 points to the Lithuanian entry was a massive surprise too, it was a painful song for me to hear and I thought there were far better songs in this years contest that would appeal to the Irish audience. But after about 25 countries awarded their points it was looking pretty obvious that Azerbaijan had won and that we'd all be booking tickets to Baku next year.

I don't know what to say really about the winner. I think it's a good song, but not a winning song by any means. If they'd won last year with Safura's Drip Drop, then I would have been very happy, it was a brilliant song that Safura, sadly, performed badly on the night with a horrible draw. Italy getting 2nd was a huge surprise, abeit a happy surprise, and the UK down in 11th was very undeserved in my opinion. After the Jury/Televote results were released a few days ago you can see why some countries placed where they did.

So that wraps up my insane week of Europop. I really enjoyed myself, even though I was totally drained of energy by the end. I'm already looking at ways I can go to Baku for next year's contest, but at the moment its not looking good as I will have to give up my passport for 2 weeks to get the visa processed which is just not possible in my current job. We'll see.

Some images courtesy of D. Redgate, G. Webb and B. Conn

The Dreaded AB/CU/CU

2011-05-01T16:37:00.001+04:00

Greeting from my favorite breakfast hangout in Johannesburg - Tashas!

And I can tell you I'm really glad to be here after doing the unthinkable - No Show for a flight. Five years of working hard to keep a great personal record has now gone down the drain due to a small misjudgement of one day.

I know how it happened. After swapping onto the Perth flight I'd reduced my days off after the BKK-SYD from 2 days to one day, and since the Perth trip took up the same number of roster days as my original London trip I thought I had increased my number of days off afterwards from 2 to 3. It was really an increase from 1 day off to 2. Confused yet? I don't blame you.

So on my 'third day off' I saw my batch mate post on Facebook how stoked he was at getting such a great May roster, and immediately I went to the crew portal to see what the Scheduling Gods had granted me. To my horror I saw that instead of the trip number for Johannesburg the next day, I had instead AB/CU/CU. AB means Absent, CU means "Can Use", which are essentially short term reserve days. My stomach went into knots - not only was I no-show for the flight, it was a flight I actually liked! No breakfast at Tashas, no 50dh slab of Prime Rib with Baked Potato, Creamed Spinach and Gin and Tonic! It wasn't as if I no-showed for a Red-Eye Male turnaround.... Worse still was that I realised I no-showed a whopping 3 hours after the flight took off - much too late to put on the uniform and 'sign in' at work and then feign lateness.

I wrote to my manager after calling the office, and because it was a total no-show for the flight, and not just an absent for being late, I was now facing a verbal warning. Me? A Verbal Warning? But that only happens to the Zinc-clubbing set, not to me! He said that I didn't have much to worry about, just to be good for the next 6 months, but still, anything can happen in 6 months. Who knows if a passenger is having a stroppy day, sees my name badge and want to include my name in a complaint form without telling me?!? Then the verbal warning turns into a written warning and that changes everything...

So yes, a little stressed right now, and even though I had another Johannesburg flight straight after the one I missed, it still bothers me. Not really a nice way to spend Easter.

How to Emergency-fy your suitcase.

2011-04-22T23:50:00.001+04:00

So every now and again I have one of those days where I'm more absent-minded than normal. I guess it doesn't help things that in the 2 hrs I set aside to get ready for a layover, only about 20 minutes is spent packing. I can't start packing the previous night as I tend to forget things from my mental checklist. The list has a tendency to chop and change, and the items don't go in the case in any particular order, but in a strange way if I leave things to the last minute I usually get everything in there. I sometimes get this uneasy feeling I've forgotten something when its too late - usually when I'm on the bus headed for the aircraft and it isn't until I open the case again at the outstation that I realise what it is.

I've had before forgotten to pack shoes (easy - just use work ones) my toiletry bag, also easy - but very unpleasant as you're forced to use body lotion as a facial moisturiser and struggling to find an alternative for roll on deodorant, which might not be needed in flight but is definitely needed when you land back into Dubai in 40 odd degree heat. For me the make up bag is the worst to leave behind, as this is a grooming requirement and super costly to replace (and extremely difficult if you have my skin tone.) As far as the uniform goes, its just you have to live with the feeling of unpleasantness of using re-used stockings. I've had a Purser remark once, soon after the whole Eyjafjallajökull Volcano incident, that if we were delayed again for a week that rather than spend the allowance on clothes to just wear your knickers inside out. Yuk.

So one jetlagged morning I decided to emergency-fy my suitcase. A bit like Batman's utility belt, if you will. All you need is a roll of Duct Tape and your best collection of envelopes and travel sachets. They're kind of hard to come by in Dubai but have seen them in abundance in the US, Australia, UK, Singapore and even Bangkok, so its worth heading to your pharmacy and supermarket and seeing what is available there. I guess this method is also good if you're travelling for 2 weeks or more and suitcase space is rare.

(Sorry for the numbers being a little small)
1. Washing Powder Sachet. In this job you just never know when things are going to take a turn for the worst. You could have the aircraft go tech, the airport could be snowed in, you just never know. I haven't had to use these yet, thank goodness.
2. Nail Polish Remover wipes. Since we're required to wear nail polish, this works out so much better than carrying on board a bottle of remover. I've had countless cases of the bottle leaking and going everywhere, which not only stinks but causes every item in contact with it to have their labelling run, which then ends up on the suitcase itself and isn't nice to remove.
3. Medication. No vitamins here, just stuff like pain killers, hayfever meds, and most importantly Imodium, because I know that I'm really tempting fate with all the street food I consume on layovers.
4. Shampoo. I guess if you are staying in hotels quite regularly then this isn't needed, but housekeeping tend to be quite sparse on these products when it comes to crew rooms.
5. Hair net, clips, pins.
6. Mini First Aid Kit. Inside I have some disinfectant, band aids (very good quality, fabric ones like Hansaplast. Band Aids don't really do the job right, and the ones on board are flimsy at the best of times)
7. Stockings, both knee high and pantyhose, another must-have grooming item.
8. Photocopy of my Passport, just in case it gets stolen, I have something I can show the police and embassy/consulate.
9. Colgate Wisps. Whilst not as good as toothbrush as toothpaste, these do not need water, and are tiny, and will last me until I reach the aircraft again where there are real toothbrushes and toothpaste for me to sort myself out with.
10. Cleanser. Some people can get away with just using bar soap on their face. These people must not be using the insane amount of make up we Flight Attendants do. Quite often when I'm buying beauty products at a department store the sales assistant will try to ply these sample sachets onto me, most of which I don't really need or use, but here they definitely come in handy.
12. Spork - I've mentioned this before in my Formspring Q&A as the one thing I can't bear to not pack. I get them in camping stores and some design stores in Europe stock them. Some hotels refuse to bring cutlery to your room without ordering some room service, but I quite like getting my basics from the convenience store. Sometimes the timing of the wake up-pick up calls are such that you cannot order breakfast from the room service (most have a 6am start time), so picking up some yogurt and a muffin from the supermarket is your only bet. This spork is a fork, knife and spoon in one, and the serrated edge I've used quite well for cutting stuff like plastic and paper labels. Just make sure you rinse with soap before tossing it back into the suitcase.

Speaking of Duct Tape, this is great to pack if you're planning on doing a country-hopping kind of trip for 2 weeks or more. It's great for repairing torn backpacks, shoes, sorting out hems on clothes, removes lint and hair from clothes, and to tape hotel curtains together to block out the sun. I currently use it on my space bag, as there were massive tears and it wasn't keeping the air out and taking up more space than was designed.

The best advice I ever read was in a Travellers Tips book by Lonely Planet that someone gave to me as a going away gift before my move to the Sandpit. As to what the most essential item is that women should pack...

The Sarong. I've used it as a bag, a curtain and a sunshade. I've worn it as a skirt (long or short), a scarf, a shawl and I've swum in it. Sometimes it's a towel, sometimes it's a blanket. I could even tear it into strips and use it as a bandage if I ever needed to. This is the one thing I take wherever I'm going.

Do you have any emergency travel items? What would you include?

Quick April Update

2011-04-13T13:34:00.001+04:00

Hey guys and gals, just thought I would waffle on a little about what's been going on lately. I've just landed from the most epic trip - the notoriously sleep-depriving 8 day Bangkok-Sydney trip. It was okay, the crew were the most fun I've operated with in a long time, and first class loads we dead which was surprising considering it was school holidays in Sydney. The only time I operated the cabin with more than 2 people was on the full Sydney to Bangkok leg. Also had Gok Wan on my flight, who has to be the coolest gaysian ever...

He slept for much of the flight, and drank heaps of water like any good flyer should, but the best part was he brought his own Paul Smith PJ's! I mean our F/C pyjamas are quite comfy, but his definately added a bit of fashion to the flight! If I wasn't stuck flying Economy as a passenger I'd wear some PJ's as well. On an 11hr Perth flight you definately need them :-D

Next up for me is a layover in my home town of Perth, which will do wonders for my spirits as I don't intend on taking leave there until November. Just a nice hug and a dinner with my dad, that's all I need. Plus I'll get to do some grocery shopping at Woolworths and stock up on my silly neccessities, such as skincare and haircare (esp Morrocan Oil, which everyone who washes their hair with desalinated water needs to have in their bathroom) and nail polish and what not.

Speaking of nail polish, and this is one for the girls, my friend Alle (who also gave me the Formspring idea) just put up the ultimate blog post on nails, which for all you current and apsiring Flight Attendants is a necessity.

I'm actually relieved that there's someone that also advocates the minimal use (read - NONE WHATSOEVER) use of nail clippers, but there are methods on here which I haven't heard of before which I am going to try from now on, like initially polishing the tips and the undersides and letting it dry before painting the entire nail for extra reinforcement. I can't get the NutraNail stuff she recommends until my next US flight, but if you're in Oz I definately recommend the DrLewinn's strenthening and top polish products, as this was recommended to me by a few QantasLink hosties who's made the change over to my airline. If you can't get either of those brands where you are then I suggest the Sally Hansen range - that's what I was using before the switch to DrLewinn's.

Meanwhile, keep all the Formspring questions coming! I'm currently onto 151 questions, and counting!

Images from here and here.

Ask me Questions!

2011-04-04T18:19:00.004+04:00

Hey guys, after seeing a dear friend of mine open up a Formspring account with quite a bit of success, I thought I would do the same and up the interactivity here a tad. So if there's anything you wish to ask me, feel free to send me a question on my Formspring account and I'll do my best...

http://www.formspring.me/melissaecholima

It could be about the airline, the job, about Dubai, about Perth, about personal stuff, I really don't mind.

The only exception is that if there are questions that mention my employer specifically, I will change XXX airlines to "the airline" so I don't risk a violation of my contract. But I'm sure you've all worked out who it is by now anyway. I also cannot answer anything that may endanger security of my fellow crew, such as confirming which hotels we stay at, and what not.

If I get enough responses the questions and my responses may be featured in a future blog post... So get cracking!

Jetlag, Time Differences and your Circadian Rythym

2011-03-30T17:01:00.000+04:00

It is the bane of every flyer here on earth. The frequent flyer, the flight attendant, the pilot, the family on their bi-annual holiday – no one is immune from Jet lag. It can ruin your stay by chewing up many hours of sleep in daylight that should be spent working or sightseeing. It is such an issue in aviation that there are legalities that govern our rest to counteract it's effects.

Even though our rosters are anything but normal, I try to keep a normal routine here in Dubai. Wake up at 6-7am, bed by 9-10pm. Run in the morning, catch ups and blogging during the day, chillaxing at night. With the majority of trips I do, regardless of where they are and how long they are and whatever horrendous timezone they are, after 5 years of flying I have it pretty much sorted as to when to sleep so I'm not totally wrecked for the operating flights, and when I'm back in Dubai after such a trip it usually only costs me at the most 18 hrs to get back into the swing of things.

At the moment though I'm really struggling to get back into my preferred pattern. Up at midday. In bed by 4am. If I was a member of the numerous party crowd here in the airline, things would be perfect, but alas, I am a morning person through and through and this is not sitting with me very well.

I think the worst case I went through was when I did my first Nagoya layover. After arriving back in Dubai I was going to bed at 5pm and waking up at 2.30am. And Dubai being Dubai, nothing is open at 2.30am, except for the KFC on Sheikh Zayed Road. It was horrible, frustrating and it took me a good 2 weeks to finally adapt to a more human body clock. I think that when things get that bad there isn't a whole lot you can do, just let the body work itself out and try to avoid really harsh sunlight so it doesn't translate into headaches later on.I think every crew member has their own way to deal with jet lag. I guess my best advice would be to never change your watch to the local time, so you always know what time it is back in your home city, and behave accordingly. Some crew wear these dual-time watches, since most of the timings we use on board (to know when service begins, top of decent etc.) are all in Dubai time (GMT +4.00), unless you step foot into the flight deck, where everything is expressed in GMT+0.00, otherwise known as "Zulu time". I find dual-time watches very confusing, especially when you're on a multi sector trip such as BKK/SYD/CHC, so I'm not about to buy one any time soon.

Being a 'Thai Blond', it also took me a few years to work out that there is such a thing as GMT + 13.00. The conversations were hilarious for everyone else, especially the flight deck...
"How can Christchurch be +13.00? Wouldn't that make it GMT -1.00???"
"Well no..."
"If the world is divided into 24 time zones, and from GMT +/- 0.00 are either plus or minus GMT, then how can you have GMT +13.00???"
Oh goodness I confused myself and everyone else around me. I avoided doing the English PA into New Zealand. I am much wiser now I can assure you :-)

The general rule seems to be that for every time zone that you're out of whack, it's going to take one day to recover from. So if I fly from Dubai (GMT +4.00) to Perth (GMT +8.00) then it will take me 4 days to adjust to the new time zone. I know what happens in reality - my flight arrives into Perth at 1am - I get to my family home at 2.30 am. I don't get to sleep until 4am. I wake up at 11am and try to do stuff - then experience a crash at 6pm - where I tend to completely pass out on the couch with my brother watching TV loudly, then I have to be woken for dinner at 7pm. After which I cannot sleep again until 3am. This happens to me on every Perth leave I take, without fail. It really sucks, especially since there are many things I plan to do at home, like for example see the dentist, or visit uni/school friends, and I tend to be either groggy or cranky with both, which isn't me in the slightest.

In theory our rosters can be a lot more harsh on our bodies than people want to believe. If I do a 5 day trip in January, I could be in Auckland (daylight saving GMT +13.00) on the 3rd of January, Melbourne (daylight saving GMT +11.00) on the 4th, Dubai (GMT +4.00) on the 6th, have 2 legal days off then fly to London (GMT +/- 0.00) on the 9th of January. So within the space of 6 days I will have travelled 13 time zones, which is insane. The majority of passengers on our Kangaroo Routes do this trip in 24 hrs, which in itself is quite scary.
The worst case I heard was when a friend of my cousin Katherine wanted to travel from Los Angeles to Perth for a triathlon meet. She went direct from LA to Dubai, a 16 hr flight, then from Dubai to Perth, which is 10.5 hrs. I think the travel agent just wanted to screw with her, because it would have been better for her (and cheaper!) to have the stop over in Sydney, or Melbourne, then catch a domestic flight. It's just as well she was an athlete and not someone who was elderly or a prime target for developing Deep Vein Thrombosis. It's also on these crazy long trips that most people start to get sick, then instead of serving food and booze I'm administering Oxygen and cleaning up vomit. Fun times.

During our medical training we do get taught about sleep deprivation and how to best handle jet lag. They teach us about how a power nap of 45min-1.30hrs is best for the daytime. Try to sleep with light-blocking curtains and an eye mask. Drink plenty of water, and no caffiene.

But when you're online, in the hostie uniform, you're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. You cannot just nip off for a 45 minute power nap when customers *need* you to serve them. You can try to avoid caffiene, but when your wake up call is 9pm and your pick up is 11pm, departure is 2am, then yes, you are going to head straight for the nearest coffee machine. Even when you're on a long haul, and you're in the super comfy PJ's and have been assigned 4 hrs rest, drinking plenty of water before the rest will just lead to many toilet breaks during your rest, and after the bunk time is over you find that you haven't rested well at all. It's pretty frustrating.

So what solutions are out there?

Jet Lag Pills -
There's such a huge market for Jet Lag pills, I'm surprised we're not handed a packet in our welcome gift basket when we land into Dubai. I'm not really keen to try this after my Melatonin episode...

MelatoninMelatonin, which you can find all over Dubai in any vitamin and supplement shop, is supposed to help with sleep, but the only time I've taken this (On my leave mind you, I'm not about to risk taking a sleeping pill and completely miss my work pickup) I had some of the worst nightmares I've ever had in my life. I did a bit more research and read that if the bottle doesn't say 100% natural then these nightmares can happen, but the bottle said 100% natural, so after seeing that it promptly went into the bin.

Aromatherapy (Scented Sleep Spray/Roll On)These tend to be Chamomile and Lavender based. I find they don't really work for me. I do carry around with me on flights this Ginger Flight Therapy roll on stick from Aesop, since this is the one shop where they are guarenteed to sell me everything they promote. I save the roll on stick for the bunks on U.S. and Australian flights, and whilst it doesn't work it does smell nice. Much better than the stinky socks of the crew member in the bunk behind you.

Light box therapy
The only method that looks promising for combatting a muddled Circadian rhythm is Light therapy. Until I'm prepared to fork out USD $200.00 online for a box I don't even know will work then I guess sleeping in at home is the only method that will work for me.

The best thing I did when I first moved to Dubai was to buy the best sheets, duvet and pillows money could buy. It put a dent into my then-woeful salary, but it really makes a difference when you've just come from a Bombay turn at 2pm and all you want to do is fall flat on your duck down duvet wrapped in 1000 thread count sheets. If you're super tired it's almost like you are falling on clouds. Just remember to take the make up off first ;-)

Images from here, here, and here.

Riga, Latvia

2011-03-24T16:19:00.002+04:00

So when I received my March roster last month I saw something I have rarely seen since I became a First Class crew member - 4 consecutive days off. Not only were they 4 days off, they were both buffered by rest days, and the first thing I did was check Trip Advisor for cheap hotels to stay in - I just wanted to get out of Dubai and do something different. A place I had never been before, that I was certain my airline were not going to start flights to anytime soon. The destination was clear - Riga.

I fell in love with Baltic Europe back in 2002 after seeing footage from this documentary being filmed in Tallinn, Estonia. After spending half of my leave there in 2009 I knew that I couldn't give up this job and these benefits without seeing Latvia and Lithuania as well. Hotels in Lithuania were for some reason more expensive (probably some convention happening there) and the weather was colder, so that will have to wait until my next impulse ticket purchase.

Of course I travelled Standby, which for me is a horrible experience, and wish that I had the earning capacity to purchase the firm tickets instead. Business Standby was the best I could do with a month's notice, and the day of departure I checked the loads - they weren't looking good. I then decided to go to the official Lufthansa site and attempt to purchase full fare tickets - First and Business were blocked, but Economy tickets were still for sale - I still had a chance! After a good 2 hours of freaking out, and seeing the ground staff weigh hand luggage in addition to everyone’s checked luggage, I finally caved and volunteered to travel in Economy.

After being reassured that I was definitely reaching Riga, and after a very interesting conversation with the taxi driver, I arrived at my hotel. First time I booked myself a studio apartment, and I was very impressed... They had a dual stove top, which would have been really handy to boil up some Pelmeni for dinner, but they provided everything except some saucepans and fry pans. Nice. So when I got settled I decided to wander around the Old Town to familiarise myself.

House of Blackheads

Statue outside House of Blackheads

Riga Dome/City Hall

Museum of Occupations

Statue outside Museum of Occupations

St Peters Church

Riga Dom/Cathedral

Legend of Riga

Swedbank Building, location of the Skybar

Vansu Bridge

The next day I decided to take a free walking tour around Riga, which I really enjoyed as it was spent as little in the Old town as possible. You got to see a lot of the suburbs, the different districts and especially the gorgeous Art Nouveau the city is notorious for.

Engelis, my tour guide. Very cool, very funny guy.

Old Central Market. home to 5 of the world's 9 Zeppelin hangars Awesome Place.

Haul from the central market. Honey Roulade cake, Laima strawberry cream chocolates, wooden teaspoon, sheepskin foot inserts, sheep's wool foot inserts (the only things that would stop my toes getting frozen in my Wellies) and 4 slices of bread. I saw this and kept wondering why more bakeries don't sell in single portion slices, would stop all my lovely bread from going mouldy when I fly on trips and stop wastage.

Academy of Arts and Sciences

Night market. You can apparently go in here at 3am and buy a sack of potatoes and no one will ask questions.

Random wooden house. It had some significance, but I totally forgot what it was. I think it got burned down 2-3 times and re-built. Because Latvians, being Pagans, love to burn things down.

Wooden Church. Also was burnt down several times. Made of wood so that the Latvians could burn it down in the event of a Napoleonithic invasion so it wouldn’t be used as a fort.

A Snowman! We never get these back home, and definitely not in Dubai.

Holocaust Memorial

Freedom Monument

On my final day I wanted to backtrack a bit from Engelis’ tour and see some things in more depth, plus see what I thought was worth looking at that the tour didn’t cover and what had been recommended to be by others.

A nice use of mosaics

Pilsetas canal, near the Opera House, all iced up. The Daugava was pretty iced up as well, and you could see snow prints on the ice, but considering the temperature was hovering between 2-8 degrees in the middle of the day it looked a little risky to be walking on that ice.

Cool Street Sculptures

Small bridge over the Pilsetas canal. I found it quite cute that they were covered in all sorts of padlocks.

Opera House

Laima Clock. The meeting point for many a bus tour.

Nativity Russian Orthodox Cathedral

My attempt of a creative shot of the Freedom Monument.

Powder Tower

And for the food! Double Coffee goods –

Coffee. That’s strawberry on the bottom BTW. Very tasty, but if you need a caffeine hit this isn’t the place.

Potato cakes with Pork. If there was pork on the menu I’d eat it. I guess being a bit restricted with pork choice in Dubai has given me a craving for it over the past 4 days. The quality of it in Latvia is just amazing. The potato cakes were super-oily though, typical winter food.

Pelmeni XL. Ever since I started operating Moscow layovers I’ve been in love with Pelmeni. I made an attempt at making them a few months but failed spectacularly, particularly with the rolling of the dough, and getting it even (I’ve since discovered that they use a water glass to cut the circles, which is far too easy for a smart girl like me to think of!) and now I just buy them at Spunneys. I also bought 2 packets with me to take back to Dubai, but by the time I reached my apartment one packet had amalgamated into one big meat-dough mass and was totally unusable. The other survivied though, and I've since managed to cook it on board with the Double Beef Consomme and some sour cream from the soup garnish in First Class.

One place that doesn’t have a photo here that I have to write about is the Latgalite Flea Market, which is open every day until 3. It’s the Russian market, and notorious for having a lot of soviet-era nostalgia for sale. It’s also the known place in Riga for selling counterfeit items, (I guess the most notable I saw was an iPhone 3) so if I did take pictures I’d probably get beaten up. The items they have for sale is just unbelievable – Soviet medals, pins, paraphernalia from 1980 Moscow Olympics, Army outfits, including stripes and genuine hats, old passports, pre-WW2 documents, even gas masks! I think it would have to rank as the single most awesome shop I’ve ever been to in my life! But as it’s a flea market it was outdoors, and subject to the elements, so the ground is quite muddy, and I had on my trusty pink wellies on. The most random moment for me what when some very nice men were trying to flog me some gun parts in Russian for 5 Lats. I think if I went through with the purchase it would be a little difficult to explain to airport security what Soviet-made gun parts are doing in my luggage.

It’s not unknown to some of the most passionate readers of this here blog that I dabble in a bit of Lo-Fi photography once in a while, so whilst in this dingy-but-cool market you can understand my elation when I scored one of these...

A rusty Smena 8M. I checked all the functions and it still appears to be in working order, but I think I’ll take it with me to Houston with a soon-to-expire roll of film and just take some test shots. If it does work it’ll be the biggest score, because I paid all of 2 Lats for it, which is only $4.00 USD! On lomo.com they’re flogging these for £80 refurbished! If I get the film developed and it doesn’t work, or taping it up won’t stop the light leaks, then at least it’ll look cool on the shelf at home in Dubai. Visitors will start asking questions for sure!

Photos from New York - Thanksgiving

2011-03-15T20:27:00.000+04:00

Well considering that I've had a request I thought I would post the rest of the photos I took in New York during the Thanksgiving holidays.

If you wanted to see photos of New York landmarks, you won't really find them here - they were all taken back in 2007, so I wanted to mix it up a bit...

I am warning all of you, this post is very photo-heavy... hope your index finger is set on 'scroll' mode in preparation...

I never thought you could make Domo-kun any cuter, then this guy puts glasses on him!

Shots of the High Line Park in Lower Manhattan

Osman with his invisable photog hat on.

Mr Moneybags on the turntables

Shots from the Thanksgiving Parade...

Spectators

It's Spiderman!!!

Shot of Buzz Lightyear's arse from Broadway

Trying to enjoy ourselves

The crowds were pretty insane, but you could still walk around okay.

I think we missed the best of the floats...

Central Park in Autumn - Beautiful!

Oz getting his pose on

Times Square on Thanksgiving night. Believe it or not people were queueing up outside stores in time for Black Friday sales the next day...

And I had to pay MoMA another visit!

Frida Kahlo

Distinctly Jackson Pollock

I want one of these in my apartment...

Celebration of good design, and airport related too!

So coming up I'm off to Latvia for a few days, work gave me 4 days off on my roster and it's too short to go home, so I checked through cheap hotels and Riga it is. Temperature is looking at being an average of -1 degrees Celcius, so I'll be packing a lot of woolens. And of course I'll be blogging about it ;-)

Tunis to Dubai

2011-03-07T13:03:00.001+04:00

So I just got back from Tunis, and this flight was the first one in a very long time to invoke the warm and fuzzies. It was a bit of a shambles starting off, but I think when we landed into Dubai it left every crew member with the feeling that it's flights like these that make the job worthwhile - What being a cabin crew is really all about.

First off the flight was full of crew who had been pulled out of reserve, so everyone was exhausted and hadn’t rested properly for the flight. For some reason they’ve got too many first class crew working at the moment (or perhaps too many are scared to call in sick) so this was the first layover I’d operated in over a month, and I couldn’t be happier. I had one thing on my mind when I heard where I was going... Hammam!

Hammam is my most favoured of body treatments and something that is pretty unique to the Arab world – I’ve never heard of the treatment being offered in Perth, or any other Western city. You can get it anywhere from 5 star hotels, to small beauty salons, and at the other end of the scale you can get it in a specialised bath house in some random side street in Casablanca – I’ve been in all of them. The premise is the same though – First you steam in the bathhouse for about 10 min, then you bath in super-hot but not scalding water to get rid of the sweat. Then you get slathered in this grey-brown soap substance and left to steam for another 10 minutes. Then it’s followed by another super-hot rinse, and then you find yourself lying on this non-slip mat, and with a loofah glove, the Hammam lady (also known as the Tayeba) is scrubbing your skin until its red raw. It’s by no means relaxing, but it is incredibly satisfying to see the rolls of dead skin fall on the floor, and your skin is left baby smooth afterwards. It’s also not for the shy – during the whole treatment you’re virtually naked, and everyone else in the bathhouse is naked or with just panties on. There's none of this 'sauna-towel' business protecting your girly bits. Sometimes, especially in a specialty bathhouse, the Tayeba is naked to, big mammas with hair in places no woman should be seen with hair in. Like the chin. Or boobs.

So the flight over was uneventful – the passengers were nice and the loads were very light. The worst part about it was being told that our 48hr layover had now been turned into a 24 hr layover, approximately 45 minutes before landing into Tunis. On the one hand this was good news – Tunis was still considered an unsafe destination, but on the other hand all the stuff I wanted to do in the 2 days (gymmage, studying, hammam, dining out in Sidi Bou Said, lots of sleeeeeep!) couldn’t all be done. Add to that I was now granted an extra day of reserve than I should have. There were mixed feelings all around, and I pretty much just stayed in the hotel mooching off some internet to occupy myself. There was also the inherent problem of having to wait a whopping 6 hours for the wire transfer to go through for our allowance, which had now been cut down by half.

So we arrived at the airport to operate the flight back, and find that the flight that we were doing was an unscheduled ferry flight. The crew we were taking over from had ZERO passengers to look after and were also being rewarded with a 24 hr layover. Not only that, the Departure area was full of Asian workers all decked out in high visibility vests. There were 200 of them and they were impossible to miss. As it turned out, the workers had managed to escape from Libya and we were operating part of their journey home.

Now there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly they are arriving from Libya, which is a dry country. We were expecting a massive request for booze - particularly “Walking Johnny”. Secondly they were escaping from Libya, and possible had friends and colleagues who didn’t make it out. They could take this very well, or they could have a sort of emotional episode on board. If any of them did anything crazy, or dangerous, to us or the aircraft, and we had no choice but to restrain them, there would be no possible way we would be successful, because the person we would be attempting to restrain would have over 200 mates to help him out, and we only had 12 crew. And there was no doubt that their team spirit was significantly stronger than ours was - The workers had known each other for a year, whereas us crew had only known each other for 2 days. They were also coming from a place where a cigarette is just an extension of the fingers, smoking is so prevalent in Libya (Tunis too) that they openly do so inside the terminal, even at the gate with the aircraft less than 100m away. We were expecting a few toilet smoke cases to occur despite not having any from Dubai to Tunis.

We boarded the aircraft, and I checked the catering – all Economy food. We had a first class cabin that was going to be filled with Economy passengers, and whilst I’ve had F/C operate as a Business Class cabin before, I’ve never had it operate as an Economy cabin. Quite often when it’s a F/C as Business situation, the flight can be really bad for us, as catering tend to load meals that don’t match the menu, and the wines are all mixed up, and more often than not the flight ends up being extremely demanding as the Business passengers start asking for first class products that we don’t usually have available. And they tend to push the call button frequently, which is something you get easily used to in Economy, but in First Class you get a shock to your system when you hear one. So we didn’t know what to expect with an Economy cabin.

When the passengers boarded there was quite a bit of musical chairs going on, but nothing too bad. They didn’t have too much hand luggage with them as well which was such a relief - I guess they didn't have much time to grab what they could before being led away. We later found out that the managers and construction team leaders (who were in yellow high visibility vests) were all in first class whilst all the rest of the workers (in orange high visibility vests) were crammed into Business and Economy. The workers kept the vests on during the whole journey. Looking into a dark Economy cabin and seeing a sea of orange is something I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

The other first class crew member was Thai, and she said that she had quite a few conversations with some of the workers – they were mainly Indonesian but with a few Thai workers in the mix. Apparently up until that flight they had not eaten nor showered in 2 days. They made it out of Libya via ground transport, and their countries were footing the bill for their escape. Apparently there were 5000 men just from the one agency who were utilising these ferry flights; we could only fit on 230 or so on our afternoon flight.

These men were some of the sweetest and kind passengers I have ever had the pleasure to serve. They didn’t go overboard with the booze; at most I poured 3 servings the whole flight. When they ate their tray they didn’t completely woof it down (which anyone would if you don’t get fed for 2 days), and from First to Economy they didn’t make a huge mess, nor leave any plastic or blankets in the aisles for us to clean up. Some of the crew were even finding whatever sandwiches or other food we had spare and handing them out to those in the cabin who really needed it. At top of decent when we collected the headsets, they all made sure to put the headset back in its zip-up case first before handing it to the crew, something which I rarely see from our First Class passengers. I barely had to clean the toilets – they were always so neat! It was just a huge relief to know that despite all they’ve gone through, they still make an effort to exhibit credible behaviour. It was amazing to see. All that frustration at having to wait so long for the per diem when knowing the layover was cut short had well and truly dissipated.

My Perfect Day - Sydney

2011-03-01T05:58:00.004+04:00

So recently I was rostered on an epic Sydney-Bangkok trip.

And when I say epic, I mean EPIC - a whopping 8 days away from Dubai, living out of a suitcase, resting in two completely different climates, no washing machine, no dryer, no reliable opening hours I know off the top of my head to dine at. I was not looking forward to the trip at all, and had done well to avoid it for over 3 years. It can also be a very testing time for the crew, as quite often on long trips such as these personalities clash and then fights break out. The memory of the 5-day Melbourne-Auckland I operated last Xmas was all to fresh in my mind, with a total bitchfest between one Economy crew member and one from First. I did very well not to buy too much stuff (we're now restricted to 23kg of checked in weight) but boy did I eat my way around Sydney! So despite not getting the chance to visit Sydney since April 2009, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself, and hereby present to you, my lovely readers, my personal black book of things to do or see in Sydney.

Pancakes on the Rocks – A local crew member recommended this place to me, and whilst I’d much rather have Poached Eggs for breakfast than pancakes, I definitely make an exception for this place. Plus the best thing going for this place (at least in Australia where it rar

So recently I was rostered on an epic Sydney-Bangkok trip. And when I say epic, I mean epic - a whopping 8 days away from Dubai, living out of a suitcase, resting in two completely different climates, no washing machine, no dryer, no reliable opening hours I know off the top of my head to dine at. I was not looking forward to the trip at all, and had done well to avoid it for over 3 years. It can also be a very testing time for the crew, as quite often on long trips such as these personalities clash and then fights break out. The memory of the 5-day Melbourne-Auckland I operated last Xmas was all to fresh in my mind, with a total bitchfest between one Economy crewmember and one from First. I did very well not to buy too much stuff (we're now restricted to 23kg of checked in weight) but boy did I eat my way around Sydney! So despite not getting the chance to visit Sydney since April 2009, I still thouroughly enjoyed myself, and hereby present to you, my lovely readers, the places I would recommend to you guys. Pancakes on the Rocks – A local crew member recommended this place to me, and whilst I’d much rather have Poached Eggs for breakfast than pancakes, I definitely make an exception for this place. Plus the best thing going for this place (at least in Australia where it rarely happens) is that it’s open 24 hours a day!!!!!! Perfect for any jetlagged cabin crew with minimum time off on layovers. I’ve had here in the past their white chocolate pancakes, and I could only finish 2 as it was so filling. And whilst their pancakes are incredibly bad for you I still feel a need to feast on them every time I end up in Sydney. However this place comes with a warning – try to avoid coming here on a Friday or Saturday night at 10pm-4am as that’s when all the drunkards of Sydney leave the clubs for something to eat. Luna Park – I’m not one for riding amusement park attractions (they make me super nauseous!) but boy do they make great photos! I was here in April last year, and armed with a Lomo camera and nothing else to do I went to Luna Park. Was very shocked to find that I didn’t have to pay any entrance fee – you only pay for the rides to take. Also good for general people watching, especially on the weekends or school holidays. Bourke St Bakery – I’ve wanted to try the goods here ever since I bought a copy of their book, and the pictures have me absolutely salivating. Whilst I’ve managed to create the unique sausage roll recipes with great success (and they’re a permanent fixture in my freezer just in case I need on-board sustenance without sifting through the aircraft catering) it’s the tarts that have left me so curious. My haul for the first day was a ginger crème brulee tart, a raspberry and chocolate mousse tart, raspberry and chocolate muffin and pork and pancetta sandwich, which was quickly consumed on my SYD-CHC-SYD shuttle. I couldn’t stop there though – I bought more supplies on the way back, though this time it was a Mixed Berry muffin, Pear and Rhubarb Tart, a Plain Croissant and my new favourite, the ginger crème brulee tart. I’m already having withdrawal symptoms. Billy Kwongs – I know it’s not a popular thing to say, but the best thing about this restaurant is the NO RESERVATION POLICY! Finally I can dine somewhere high end and not worry about having to make a booking 2 months in advance! Considering I don’t get my roster until the 20th of each month this is a welcome relief. I queued up here at 5.45 in time for the doors to open at 6pm, and I’m glad I got in there early as the tables were all filled up by 6.30pm! After that they take names and numbers down, which is good if you live in the area, or have a car, or are willing to hang around and try NOT to get drunk at a cocktail bar nearby, but for the jetlagged hostie this really isn’t possible. I ordered the Beer battered locally caught blue bottle squid flavoured with Szechwan pepper and salt as an appetiser, with the stir fried mussels in Szechwan sauce as a main (with a side of rice) and a lemongrass and ginger tea to wash it all down with, and I didn’t leave a single thing left on the plate. It was very tasty, and my only regret was that I didn’t have anyone to join me  Clipper Cafe – Bit of a trek if you’re heading here on a layover, but if you manage to get here in the morning on a weekday its quiet enough to totally chill out and enjoy. I only wish this place was closer to the hotel, but alas what to do. I ordered the baked eggs with Italian Chorizo and ciabatta, and a fresh watermelon, ginger and lemon juice to start off my day. It was a bit chilli outside so this was perfect to warm up with. The cafe also has back issues of Monocle (big tick!) and Free WIFI as well (massive tick!) Now only if I can steal the bicycles they have on the wall and carry it with me to Dubai... Vella Nero Coffee Couture – Seemingly ‘the’ place in Sydney to get your morning coffee hit (with the exception of Mecca Espresso, which is just too packed at any time of the day for me to be able to get a seat there) it should be worth mentioning that it’s the only place in Sydney that I’ve seen, and only one of two places in Australia that have on display for sale Coffee Siphon sets and accessories. They really do the most amazing cup of coffee, nice and strong without having to ask for an extra shot, no skimping on the crema either. They’ve also managed to get some super perky folks behind the La Marzocco machine, which can be hard to find at 7am... Via Abercrombie – I’m going to start off with the worst – if you’re wandering here to get a decent cup of coffee you’ve come to the wrong place. Their specialty in Sydney is their sandwiches, absolutely loaded with filling that you can only eat one half in a single sitting. Despite being hidden in some random alleyway with only an orange sign (with no name!) and a couple of white chairs, it still manages to draw an epic lunchtime crowd. The best thing is, they don’t inflate the prices, with a bacon and egg sandwich costing a mere $5.00 and a Vegie sandwich (which is loaded with hummus and roasted red pepper puree) for $8.00, which if you count one sandwich as being 2 servings ends up being $4.00 a serving. Be warned though, as from 12pm to 2pm the place is absolute chaos, so if you’re able to aim for a 11am visit then this would be ideal. Cafe Sopra – My visit here was pretty much a complete shambles. First there were the seating issues – despite advertising that their dinner service started at 6pm, and unable to take any bookings, I was a little shocked to find that at 5.50pm half the restaurant was already full. I was seated at a table, then told to move to the bar, then at the bar told to move AGAIN to accommodate 2 people (despite there being at least 14 chairs available at the bar). The staff could see I was pissed off though so they comped me a cocktail which I was surprised but pleased to see. I first ordered the FREE Campari de limone, which had Campari, muddled lime, ruby red grapefruit and a splash of orange juice. It was okay, very tart, but not worth the 15 min wait at all. For dinner I had the Lamb Ragu with Rosemary, Chilli and Gnoccitini. The main was okay, very hearty Italian fare complete with the shitty service. I think though that they were mainly suffering from staffing issues, because despite everything being slow, the staff that they did have looked relatively competent. And that place was absolutely packed, with an 8 person queue outside as well. If you want a place to drink with great atmosphere though then I would definitely recommend Cafe Sopra, it seemed that the beautiful Sydney peeps all descend here for their post-work/pre theatre drinks. Gaffa – Well I thought I should feature somewhere that doesn’t really involve food for a change, and here in Gaffa there is a kind of artist showcase and Arcade 1, which is a jewellery/bag/stationary display for purchase. The three artists featured when I visited were Nitta, Mattt and [little branch] who’s bounty I would have walked out of had I not had my annual leave coming up and a reason to save every last cent I could. They also have a coffee shop downstairs, which is a great place to go for a bit of peace, and not somewhere (I think) the CBD crowd populate in the morning for their pre-work coffee. A nice place to go if you want to go off the beaten track a bit but without leaving the CBD. Bills – So every time I’m in Australia, layover or leave, I make sure I pick up a copy of Delicious magazine, and every issue seems to have Bill Granger featured. His recipes look amazing, and some can be a little simple, but I have a lot of trouble trying out his recipes at home since what is in season back in Australia is almost never in season in Dubai and impossible to get. (Oh what I wouldn’t give for fresh figs!!!) So I decided to visit Bills, just to see what it would be like. I ordered the Ricotta Hotcakes with Fresh Bananas and Honeycomb Butter, a Sunrise Smoothie of OJ, banana, yogurt and berries, and a Cafe Latte. The Ricotta Hotcakes were just absolute heaven!!! So good it prompted me to pop over to Kinokuniya in Dubai to find the recipe in one of his books. So good that I fully intent to bring back some honeycomb from New York and make the said butter and have it on toast. It’s served with maple syrup, but you really don’t need it as there is enough subtle flavour in the butter to make the dish awesome. Bills is definitely in my must-do for future Sydney trips. Are you a virtual or actual Sydney Local? Where would you recommend for my next layover? Pancakes on the Rocks - 4 Hickson Road, The Rocks. Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Luna Park - 1 Olympic Drive, Milson's Point. Various Hours, check website for details. Bourke St Bakery - 633 Bourke St, Surry Hills. Mon-Fri 7am-6pm, Sat-Sun 8am-5pm. Billy Kwongs - 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills. Mon-Sun 6pm-late. Clipper Cafe - 16 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Mon-Fri 6am-6pm Vella Nero Coffee - 259 Clarence St, Sydney CBD. Mon-Fri 7am-4pm Via Abercrombie - 1 Abercrombie Lane, Sydney CBD. Mon-Fri 8am-3pm Cafe Sopra - 16 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay Mon-Sun 12-3pm, and 6-10pm Gaffa - 281 Clarence Steet, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 4273 Bills (Surry Hills) - 359 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW - (02) 9360 4762

ely happens) is that it’s open 24 hours a day!!!!!! Perfect for any jetlagged cabin crew with minimum time off on layovers. I’ve had here in the past their Macadamia Madness pancakes, and I could only finish 2 as it was so filling. And whilst their pancakes are incredibly bad for you I still feel a need to feast on them every time I end up in Sydney. However this place comes with a warning – try to avoid visiting here on a Friday or Saturday night at 2am-4am as that’s when all the drunkards of Sydney leave the clubs for something to eat.

Luna Park – I’m not one for riding amusement park attractions (they make me super nauseous!) but boy do they make great photos! I was here in April last year, and armed with a Lomo camera and nothing else to do I went to Luna Park. Was very shocked to find that I didn’t have to pay any entrance fee – you only pay for the rides to take. Also good for general people watching, especially on the weekends or school holidays.

Bourke St Bakery – I’ve wanted to try the goods here ever since I bought a copy of their book, and the pictures have me absolutely salivating. Whilst I’ve managed to create the unique sausage roll recipes with great success (and they’re a permanent fixture in my freezer just in case I need on-board sustenance without sifting through the aircraft catering) it’s the tarts that have left me so curious.My haul for the first day was a ginger crème brulee tart, a raspberry and chocolate mousse tart, raspberry and chocolate muffin and pork and pancetta sandwich, which was quickly consumed on my SYD-CHC-SYD shuttle. I couldn’t stop there though – I bought more supplies on the way back, though this time it was a Mixed Berry muffin, Pear and Rhubarb Tart, a Plain Croissant and my new favourite, the Ginger Crème Brulee tart. I’m already having withdrawal symptoms. Downside is that I had to take a bus just to get there.

Billy Kwongs – I know it’s not a popular thing to say, but the best thing about this restaurant is the NO RESERVATION POLICY! Finally I can dine somewhere high end and not worry about having to make a booking 2 months in advance! Considering I don’t get my roster until the 20th of each month this is a welcome relief. I queued up here at 5.45 in time for the doors to open at 6pm, and I’m glad I got in there early as the tables were all filled up by 6.30pm! After that they take names and numbers down, which is good if you live in the area, or have a car, or are willing to hang around and try NOT to get drunk at a cocktail bar nearby, but for the jetlagged hostie this really isn’t possible. I ordered the Beer-battered Blue Bottle Squid flavoured with Szechwan pepper and salt as an appetiser, with the stir fried mussels in Szechwan sauce as a main (with a side of rice) and a lemongrass and ginger tea to wash it all down with, and I didn’t leave a single thing left on the plate. It was very tasty, and my only regret was that I didn’t have anyone to join me :-(

Clipper Cafe – Bit of a trek if you’re heading here on a layover, but if you manage to get here in the morning on a weekday its quiet enough to totally chill out and enjoy. I only wish this place was closer to the hotel, but alas what to do. I ordered the baked eggs with Italian Chorizo and ciabatta, and a fresh watermelon, ginger and lemon juice to start off my day. It was a bit chilli outside so this was perfect to warm up with.

The cafe also has back issues of Monocle (big tick!) and Free WIFI as well (massive tick!) Now only if I can steal the bicycles they have on the wall and carry it with me to Dubai...

Vella Nero Coffee Couture – Seemingly ‘the’ place in Sydney to get your morning coffee hit (with the exception of Mecca Espresso, which is just too packed at any time of the day for me to be able to get a seat there) it should be worth mentioning that it’s the only place in Sydney that I’ve seen, and only one of two places in Australia that have on display for sale Hario Coffee Siphon sets and accessories. They really do the most amazing cup of coffee, nice and strong without having to ask for an extra shot, no skimping on the crema either. They’ve also managed to get some super perky folks behind the La Marzocco machine, which can be hard to find at 7am...

Via Abercrombie – I’m going to start off with the worst – if you’re wandering here to get a decent cup of coffee you’ve come to the wrong place. Their specialty in Sydney is their sandwiches, absolutely loaded with filling that you can only eat one half in a single sitting. Despite being hidden in some random alleyway with only an orange sign (with no name!) and a couple of white chairs, it still manages to draw an epic lunchtime crowd. The best thing is, they don’t inflate the prices, with a bacon and egg sandwich costing a mere $5.00 and a Vegie sandwich (which is loaded with hummus and roasted red pepper puree) for $8.00, which if you count one sandwich as being 2 servings ends up being $4.00 a serving. Be warned though, as from 12pm to 2pm the place is absolute chaos, so if you’re able to aim for a 11am visit then this would be ideal.

Cafe Sopra/Fratelli Fresh – My visit here was pretty much a complete shambles. First there were the seating issues – despite advertising that their dinner service started at 6pm, and unable to take any bookings, I was a little shocked to find that at 5.50pm half the restaurant was already full. I was seated at a table, then told to move to the bar, then at the bar told to move AGAIN to accommodate 2 people (despite there being at least 14 chairs available at the bar). The staff could see I was pissed off though so they comped me a cocktail which I was surprised but pleased to see. I first ordered the FREE Campari de limone, which had Campari, muddled lime, ruby red grapefruit and a splash of orange juice. It was tasty, very tart, but not worth the 15 min wait at all. For dinner I had the Lamb Ragu with Rosemary, Chilli and Gnoccitini. The main was very tasty, very hearty Italian. I think though that they were mainly suffering from staffing issues, because despite everything being slow, the staff that they did have looked relatively competent. And that place was absolutely packed, with an ever-increasing queue outside as well. If you want a place to drink with great atmosphere though then I would definitely recommend Cafe Sopra, it seemed that the beautiful Sydney peeps all descend here for their post-work/pre theatre drinks.

Gaffa – Well I thought I should feature somewhere that doesn’t really involve food for a change, and here in Gaffa there is a kind of artist showcase and Arcade 1, which is a jewellery/bag/stationary display for purchase. The three artists featured when I visited were Nitta, Mattt and [little branch] who’s bounty I would have walked out of had I not had my annual leave coming up and a reason to save every last cent I could. They also have a coffee shop downstairs, which is a great place to go for a bit of peace, and not somewhere (I think) the CBD crowd populate in the morning for their pre-work coffee. A nice place to go if you want to go off the beaten track a bit but without leaving the CBD.

Bills – So every time I’m in Australia, layover or leave, I make sure I pick up a copy of Delicious magazine, and every issue seems to have Bill Granger featured. His recipes look amazing, and some can be a little simple, but I have a lot of trouble trying out his recipes at home since what is in season back in Australia is almost never in season in Dubai and impossible to get. (Oh what I wouldn’t give for fresh figs!!!) So I decided to visit Bills, just to see what it would be like. I ordered the Ricotta Hotcakes with Fresh Bananas and Honeycomb Butter, a Sunrise Smoothie of OJ, banana, yogurt and berries, and a Cafe Latte. The Ricotta Hotcakes were just absolute heaven!!! So good it prompted me to pop over to Kinokuniya in Dubai to find the recipe in one of his books. So good that I fully intent to bring back some honeycomb from Perth and make the said butter and have it on toast. It’s served with maple syrup, but you really don’t need it as there is enough subtle flavour in the butter to make the dish awesome. Bills is definitely in my must-do for future Sydney trips.

Are you a virtual or actual Sydney Local? Where would you recommend for my next layover?

[Images from here, here and here]

View My Perfect Day - Sydney in a larger map

Pancakes on the Rocks - 4 Hickson Road, The Rocks. Open 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Luna Park - 1 Olympic Drive, Milson's Point. Opening Hours vary, check website for details.

Bourke St Bakery - 633 Bourke St, Surry Hills. Open Mon-Fri 7.00am-6.00pm, Sat-Sun 8.00am-5.00pm.

Billy Kwongs - 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills. Open everyday 6.00pm-late.

Clipper Cafe - 16 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Open Mon-Fri 6.00am-6.00pm

Vella Nero Coffee - 259 Clarence St, Sydney CBD. Open Mon-Fri 7.00am-4.00pm

Via Abercrombie - 1 Abercrombie Lane, Sydney CBD. Open Mon-Fri 8.00am-3.00pm

Cafe Sopra - 16 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay Open everyday 12.00-3.00pm, and 6.00pm-10.00pm

Gaffa - 281 Clarence Steet, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 4273 Open Mon-Fri 10.00am-6.00pm and Sat 11.00am-5.00pm

Bills (Surry Hills) - 359 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW - (02) 9360 4762 Open everyday 7.00am to 10.00pm. Lunch until 4.00pm Dinner from 6.00pm.

My all time favorite hotel - ACE Hotel New York

2011-02-22T19:53:00.000+04:00

I know this is going to sound a bit much coming from a Flight Attendant, but sometimes you get sick of staying in the same hotel room. I mean, my airline does change it up every now and again - we don't stick to one chain, but after 5 years of being in this job you crave for a hotel with a bit of personality. So I was incredibly shocked when I stayed in this hotel in Johannesburg...

It doesn't take a lot for me to be impressed with hotel rooms, but just the little details that went into this hotel was so incredibly refreshing. Even just something simple such as the wallpaper made you feel so welcome and instantly relaxes you when you walked in the door. But at the same time it gives you the impression that "We're not your ordinary 4-star Hotel!" and that if you had a problem or a special request then the staff actually had the capacity to think outside the box to solve it rather than give you the stock standard service manual/training response that the inexperienced resort to when faced with a challenge. I wish I could give out the name of this hotel, but alas, for security reasons I cannot, regardless I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

I reckon in my airline the top chains we stay at would be Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn and Sheraton. Depending on the destinations we may totally luck out and get ourselves lodged in a Kempinski, a Le Royal Meridian or an Intercontinental, in which case you just feel like royalty and find yourself spending waaaay too much time in the nice fluffy towels and the 800-thread count sheets that they use on proper guests. For some reason, at the hotels we frequent the most the towels can often feel like cardboard against your skin and the pillows are just not fluffy, or maybe even they're not firm enough, and getting a comfortable pillow is the key to effective rest, which is after all the REAL reason we get put up in cushy hotels. If there is anything these hotels have in common is that they can be very sterile, and more often than not they're lacking in personality.

Which brings me onto the focus of today's post. Here I present to you guys what is, without a doubt, the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed in. You can tell the minute you walk through the door that every detail about it has been meticulously picked out and decided upon. I first heard about it from my best mate Oz, and knew that if I was going to book a trip to New York again then I'd have to book a stay here. Totally inappropriate for my airline, which is totally what I was after, I present to you all the ACE Hotel, 20 West 29th Street, Manhattan, New York.

The lobby. Absolutely dead at 6am when I went to get my coffee and breakfast, but at around 2-3pm it has a very loungey vibe to it and 10pm it is basically standing room. And being here by myself for the latter part of my holiday it was a nice change to head to the elevator and have a random conversation with random New Yorkers about random stuff. I don't really consider myself a social person but you turn into one the minute you walk through the doors. And despite all this, when I got to my room it really was nice and quiet - you couldn't hear any noise from downstairs at all. I have no doubt in my mind that this hotel was the biggest crowd puller within a 5 block radius as well.

Pretty much my standard breakfast. The French toast Pastry is just divine -nice and caramelised on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perfect accompaniment to the coffee. I'm still searching for a recipe :-)

They have a sandwich shop in the hotel as well - No. 7 subs. I came here for lunch once and tried the Brussels Sprouts sub with a blood orange soda, which was a nice change but nothing amazing. I came here for breakfast as well and tried the Bacon Yogurt and Grapefruit sub - Wow! Without a doubt THE BEST thing I ate during that trip! My only disappointment was that I booked my trip over the Thanksgiving period and found the sub shop closed, so I couldn't eat a sub from there every day for Breakfast and Lunch. Did my best for breakfast though...

So on actual Thanksgiving morning, when everywhere was closed, I decided to give the in-house restaurant, The Breslin, a visit. I had the daily special, which was some sort of pulled pork hash with potatoes cooked in duck fat. Very artery-clogging and very very tasty, as this picture effectively demonstrates -

Finished the whole bowl before I even thought of photographing it! I later found out that The Breslin has just earned it's first Michelin star, which didn't surprise me in the slightest. Though not that I would know - this was my first 'Michelin Star' experience... Food was so amazing though, I just wished that I had more room in my stomach to order an additional dish!

So what about the actual room? Well I got the cheapest option available, which was the bunk bed room. Had my mate Oz stay for a few days so he just stayed in the top bunk. Was very happy and actually somewhat inspired by it. Every time I went there I didn't want to sleep - I was working on the blog, or working on an iTunes Playlist, or editing some photos, or sending out some emails. I felt kind of productive in there, which is strange.

The laundry bag that you see on the right was something that I deemed a"must have" as a memento of my stay. Unlike the bathrobe though there wasn't any visible price. Oz was saying "Just take it!" but they had my credit card on file anyway, so I decided against it. Then when I checked out I saw they had the laundry bag for sale! Super stoked :-D

How cool is the minibar? Was half expecting some roadie to wheel it out and back in the room every time it needed re-stocking.

Ace Hotel also remain the only hotel I've been to that actually provide a full set of chopsticks for their guests to enjoy pot noodles with. Nice to eat while watching the Food Channel ;-)

Every room had some sort of mural. Mine was a little small but still very cool to look at none the less. The walls were lines with vintage phone book pages.

And unlike my previous holiday in New York, I was loving the fact that I had a bathroom I didn't have to share with 8 other hotel guests! Ahhhh, the simple things!

Flight Attendant Lingo (Part 2)

2011-02-15T12:30:00.000+04:00

And so we go onto the second half of our Flight Attendant Lingo! (Or second third, depending on how many submissions I get...)

Slam Clicker - A flight attendant on a layover who, after getting their hotel room card and per diem go immediately to their room and slam the door shut, click the locks, never to be seen again until check out. It's not really a common term here in the Middle East airlines, but would be one that accurately describes at least 60% of the cabin crew, and I'd say 20% of the pilots. If the slam-clicker is a purser or cabin senior, then you understand why, because usually they have voyage reports and crew appraisals to write up, but if they're a newbie and in a destination such as Rome, or New York, or London, then it's usually baffling as to why they're in the job in the first place.

Loco - Short for Low Cost Airline. Or as one of my workmates said after a stint at EasyJet, you'd really have to be nuts to work there. :-S

Bryson - So this term emerged as a nod to the British TV series 'Mile High' and so named after the pilot John Bryson, who's a bit of a playboy pilot. He's also incredibly handsome, and so in the non-TV world a 'Bryson' is used to describe a young playboy pilot, or even just simply used to refer to a young handsome pilot. Believe it or not these are far more rare than the general public think.

Ball Bearing Stewardess - Male Flight Attendant. Probably bantered around more by the flight deck rather than any cabin staff.

Self Loading Freight - also SLF for short, used in any transport industry as a way to describe the paying passenger. Very prevalent on the pprune.org forums.

IFB or the BOB - Which stand for In Flight Boyfriend and Best/Babe on Board respectively. If you ever saw the 'reality' TV show Fly Girls the IFB was explained in excruciating detail in the first episode, so painful it was I could watch no more than 12 minutes of the footage. I dare you to find it on youtube.

Bottle to Throttle - Curfew hours. This is a great term that I first heard on The Crew Lounge podcast. It varies between airlines, but it's the time between the last drink you're allowed to have up till the start of your duty or the Standard Departure Time. In my case we have a Bottle to Throttle time of 12 hours, however with certain cities we fly to being subject to very restrictive liquor licensing laws, you may have a window of 1 hour to drink an alcoholic bevvy before you head into Bottle to Throttle time.

Images from here, here, here and here.

Anniversary

2011-02-08T22:23:00.001+04:00

Believe it or not, today marks the official 5 year anniversary of Tampax Towers, my lovely writing home!

To be honest with you all, I never for a minute expected it to last this long. I thought it would be just a hobby that would die off with a lack of posts, destined for blog purgatory like many other attempts in the past by many of my colleges and fellow hosties.

So just a few statistics for you all –

Top 3 commented posts – My Mother, Italy Extravaganza, Quick Update - Leave, Ramadan, Hours, bleh!
Top commenters (minus the Anonymous tag) – Traytable, Sodwee, RinusRunning, AviationCrazy and Girl On Raw
Total comments – 999 - just short of the thousand mark!
Total hits, since I started adsense years ago – 275448
Technorati Authority – 104. Which ranks as 71708 most visited site listed in their system. Not too shabby!
Total Emails (Since November 2009) – 201 (Keep them coming guys and gals!)
Total Blogger meet ups - 4!
Number of crew who actually have come up to me at work and said "Are you the blogger? I was reading your site before I joined!" or words to that effect - 9, the most recent being just 8 days ago whilst I was in training college for my safety recurrent. A big hello to Sam, if you're reading this :-)

In 5 years of being a flight attendant...

I’ve gone through 3 bottles of red nail polish, 8 bottles of clear polish, 7 bottles/compacts/sticks of Foundation, 14 tubes of Mascara. I cannot tell you how much red lipstick I’ve consumed... It must amount to something similar to a truckload...
Survived 6 flatmates
Only had 4 flights where the delays were over 3 hours. Pretty amazing that is!
Operated one flight that actually made it onto CNN (but that's all you're getting out of me for the moment!)
Gone through 4 sets of uniform and am currently on my second set of luggage.
Had on board some cool famous people, including Angelina Jolie, Natalie Imbruglia, Salman Khan, Fraser Gehrig, Alan Fletcher Myriam Fares and Mostafa Shaban.
Worked at 6 Business Promotion Events and met even more famous people, including Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods, Henrick Stenson, Ernie Els, Michael Campbell, Greg Norman, Richard Quest, Franz Beckenbauer, Jane Turner and Gina Riley. Also saw Alan Fletcher AGAIN during another promo event, I swear I think he's stalking me... probably because I stopped watching Neighbours 5 years ago...

And some highlights of my Dubai Journey -

The best part about flying! The layovers I spend in countless cities all over the world - including, but not limited to, New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, anywhere in Italy, Hamburg, Vienna, Moscow (despite my crazy flights), Bangkok (for a little reminder of my heritage), anywhere in Japan, Auckland and Singapore.
My nephew being born - isn’t he cute?
Learning German, and getting enough flights to the region so I can practise. Wish I could say the same about my Japanese
Making an effort to spend my annual leave in places where I hadn't been previously, such as Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Tallinn, Finland and Stockholm.
Spending leave last year in Oslo for Eurovision – By far the highlight of my 5 years, and meeting some fellow Aussies who are as passionate about the contest as I am, whilst also getting interviewed by ABC Norway, Nic and BBC Australia about what it's like to be a Aussie Euro-phile living in the Middle East. The downside to attending the Oslo contest is that now I'm totally hooked on it, I can't give up on this years contest in Dusseldorf!

So what can we expect over the next 5 years? Not a whole lot different I imagine. I have no desire to leave the job, I enjoy it too much! I would like to see myself concentrate on the blog a bit more, especially regarding a redesign, but alas my HTML knowledge has gone seriously downhill since studying it at university.

But to cap off an amazing 5 year journey, I just wanted to say one big massive THANK YOU to everyone who has ever linked to, read, commented, sent emails to, recommended and sought this blog for advice or juicy gossip. Without your constant support I would definitely have not been able to keep it operable for as long as I have. I can reassure you all that my years of banging knees with the meal and bar cart are still fun and enjoyable and I'm not going anywhere...

Here's hoping to the next few years of shenanigans!

Images courtesy of FashionPeach, N. Bruce

Reason 376 why I love living in Dubai

2011-01-24T12:47:00.000+04:00

Reason 376 why I love living in Dubai...

Any other part of the world, Graffiti is used as a form of vandalism, with some insolent 16 year old tagging any building they can find with their name/nickname/profanity. Whilst this artist is in no way the same league as Banksy, I still like the fact that they used the spray cans to spread good will amongst the residents of my local hangout, Al Nahda. Definately made me crack a smile after a long run at the local park.

I know its a good 20-30 days late, but Happy New Year :-D

Ask Melissa - Aviophobia

2011-01-17T18:11:00.001+04:00

Just wanted to share with you all an email I received in my inbox lately. I'll just publish their initials to protect the innocent.

RM wrote -

I just came across your blog site, and became quite interested with it. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life and the career of a Flight Attendant is one that really interests me. I have just one question - I currently suffer from a fear of flying, and I know this is going to seem like such a stupid question, but do you think there is still a chance for me to become a Flight Attendant? Do you ever get scared flying, what with all the news stories of planes going down and engines failing in flight? I would love to know what you think.

Hi RM,

Firstly, why do you want to become a flight attendant? Is it to travel? To see different places? To meet new people every day? To earn money? Every cabin crew I meet has completely different reasons for joining this profession, which is great - it just shows the diversity of the people who get into this profession in the first place.

We come across passengers all the time who have a fear of flying. Most often than not it's not so much the flying they fear - it's being confined in a small space for many hours that they really dread. In these cases we just generally reassure them, check on them regularly and more often than not they arrive at the destination whilst managing to avoid being consumed by their claustrophobia.

This isn't always the case however. I do recall a flight I did from JFK to Dubai, where there was a person so consumed by a fear of flying her piercing scream could be heard in the back galley. From the Terminal. Her parents had told her prior that they were going on a bus trip, and yes, she believed them. They dragged her on the plane, and the screaming didn't stop, until she was back in the Terminal 30 minutes later with her parents and 4 siblings and the baggage handlers were looking for their suitcases to offload.

I'll tell you (and all my readers) something I've rarely told anyone. I have conquered a fear of my own through this job. I used to suffer from a fear of vomit, or Emetophobia as it's formally known, ever since I was about 8. I'm not talking about the dislike of it, because everyone dislikes it, but a full-blown fear. I remember as a teen my mother contracted some sort of virus which caused her to be very sick, vomiting 10-15 times a day until she finally acted on my advise to see a doctor. When I heard her retch, I'd be holed up in my room for a good 2 hours, firstly breaking out in sweats, then trembling/shaking, curling up into a ball with hands over the ears and tears streaming down just hoping for the entire ordeal to be over. Even to this day I still tremble when I come across it outside of work, and this fear is the main reason I often go 2 months without an alcoholic drink and why it took me 1 year and 5 months to visit a nightclub recently.

So why become a flight attendant when there's bound to be motion sickness galore?!?

Funnily enough though, when I step on board the aircraft the fear is just not an issue, and I've got no problem cleaning up the mess when someone gets airsick. You develop techniques to deal with the problem, such as breathing through the mouth, then covering the stain with ground coffee to mask the smell (I find if you see it, you can deal with it, but the second you smell it, you're and all the other pax are done for.) It's also great that there is a plentiful supply of airsickness bags, and everyone knows what they're used for, which you don't have in nightclubs, or public transport, or restaurants.

Having said this, and let me make it clear... I do NOT recommend this career for anyone suffering from untreated Aviophobia.

Aside from the very real chance that you may suffer an 'episode' on board like the girl did on the JFK/DXB flight, let us say you did get professional treatment, and travelled by air on a few holidays, and feel confident enough that you've conquered the fear, and you became a flight attendant.

What if something went wrong? It could be a minor delay, a bout of turbulence, a medical emergency. But we've been trained to deal with far worse, and whilst decompression, engine failures and toilet fires are very rare, they would not train us to deal with these situations if they did not happen, and it could very well happen to you, on your first supernumerary flight, or after your 500th operational.

In emergency situations, passengers will be looking to you for guidance, leadership and instruction. You must show that you are confident in that role, that you have the utmost faith in your pilots and your aircraft, and that you know exactly what you are doing and why you need to do it. You cannot show fear. If you doubt your ability to do this, then this job is not for you.

To answer the last part of your question, I don't get scared at all when flying. I feel very comfortable watching Air Crash Investigation in my hotel room whilst getting ready to work the sector back. The only thing that scares me is that there might be a flight one day where a person has collapsed and I wasn't quick enough to get the oxygen or defibrillator to them. But thankfully that has never happened.

Flight Attendant Lingo (Part 1)

2011-01-08T23:44:00.000+04:00

Hey guys, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years - my holidays were spent in Paris and San Francisco respectively. Great cities but since it was the holidays many of the places I wanted to visit were closed :-( Fortunately the crew were great on both flights and for New Years especially I had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year in the crew room just chatting and having a very low-key party. And the best part was I didn't have to worry about how hard it was going to be to find a taxi back to the hotel and back to bed!

So occasionally in this job you come across some slang terms that are used which are just comedy gold, and over the next couple of posts I'll feature some of the best on this here website. If you have any others to suggest feel free to leave a comment and it may end up in my next post!

"Finish Him/Her" - Ever played Mortal Kombat? Street Fighter? I did, mostly from having a little brother (or my best mate Kris) equipped with a NES then a SNES at home, and needing someone to beat. In this game there was a point where the healthy character would be one punch away from a fatality, and the weak one was dizzy, swaying, mostly bloodied, and was basically lucky to be still standing. The same look could be said about a passenger, usually a little kid, who after experiencing extreme turbulence is motion sick, and has the same dizzy, swaying motion about him/her before they 'explode'. This is the universal indicator for FA's everywhere to either 1. Clear the area or to 2. Shove the person in the nearest toilet and pray that the lid of the bowl is up. Since hearing about this term from TrayTable, I have since saved myself from the vomit shower on 2 occasions simply by recognising the Finish Him/Her look.

"Aisle Salmon" - A genius term I read of the news.com.au site. Someone who either during boarding or disembarkation tries to walk against the flow of the other passengers after forgetting or leaving something behind. There's one on every flight, and whilst I hardly see them anymore now that I work first class, sometimes if I help out Economy with their boarding we FA's try to pick out who the Aisle Salmon are.

"Kevin" - A generic term for the little boy who is super annoying to the cabin crew and/or other passengers. Could be through being sick everywhere, through pushing the call button more than is humanly acceptable, asking for food items which are difficult to prepare onboard ie. cheeseburgers and french fries, or going to the toilet and peeing everywhere except in the bowl. Name is taken from the Macauley Culkin character Kevin McCallister in Home Alone.

"Galley FM" - Flight attendants gossiping about airline or other matters, or what rumours a fellow hostie has heard on board. Because if there's one thing we love to do, it's gossip.

"Baggage Tetris" - Where you have a relatively full cabin, and there are a lot of large bags in the overhead lockers, and some on the floor, and you have to move them all over the place to make all of them fit, usually within a tight time frame for fear of delaying the aircraft.

"Rubber Jungle" - A pilot term, for when the oxygen masks have all been deployed in the cabin, for whatever reason.

Images courtesy of gamesyte, collider.

Quick Update - 5 Turns!/Catchup with Ben/Jogging/Leave in NYC

2010-12-14T18:58:00.000+04:00

Hey guys, just a quick update on how things are going over this end of the world...

At the moment I've just completed a massive week of turnarounds - two Hyderabads, Mumbai, Dammam and Damascus, with only a day of to split them. I'd been very fortunate until now to avoid the dreaded 5-turn streak but sadly December was my month to cop it. I was actually kind of relieved to not have to pack the suitcase for a week, before the turns I had a Bangkok-Sydney-Christchurch (which was a whopping 8 days away from base!) then after giving my washer/dryer a workout I had 7 days leave, followed by a snowy Paris. Fun times all around...

Speaking of fun times, guess who I caught up with in Paris?

I had a lovely catch up with Ben, and finally got to meet the famous motherofSodwee :-D Lots of eating to be had, including this yummy beef tatare from a Bistrot-whos-name-escapes-me, followed by hot chocolate from Cafe Angelina which totally rocked my socks off, followed by a Charlotte Framboise and for the finale - some squidgy chocolate cake baked by motherofSodwee herself! Talk about First Class hospitality! Never had anyone bake me a cake before!!! I was, and still am, very much impressed. So were the crew who operated back to Dubai and shared in the hospitality with me :-D
Also from what I hear, Ben's been plugging his jumbo ice spheres for €0.50c a pop, so those Parisians who want to get a piece of the action better act quick smart!

At the moment I've really gotten into jogging, which I never thought I would ever do. Before when I did some cardio at the gym it was 30 min of walking on the highest incline at the gym, followed by 15 minutes on either the elliptical or the bike. Now I'm actually starting to explore the Al Nahda area a bit, though occasionally I still have some random guy drive up to me, then follow at about 5kph, but when they realise I've got my headphones in and realistically it could be an hour before I quit they give up after about 5 min. I'm not wearing anything super revealing - elbows and knees are covered, and the same thing has happened before when I was living round Sheikh Zayed road, so I guess its just one of those things I have to deal with. And people wonder why the country is suffering from an obesity crisis?

So as I mentioned before I was on leave at the end of last month, and I decided to spend a week in New York. To be honest, despite the numerous layovers I spend there, 28 hours is never enough time to soak up the place, and I made sure I had an awesome hotel this time, with my own bathroom, unlike the Hotel Alexander I was in the last time I was on holiday here.

How can you not have a nice stay when you have this message to greet you as you put on your outfit for the day?

I was also fortunate enough to have my best mate in Dubai crash in the top bunk, and since we were there for Thanksgiving Day it was great to not be a total loner hitting the bars on the Lower East Side for Thanksgiving Eve. Wish he could stay longer, but alas he only arrived on days off and had to miss out on Black Friday sales.

Oz getting his pose on in Central Park...

Aside from that, nothing much has happened, except I'm trying to fight a minor cold. No fever, no body pain, but runny nose and itchy throat. To much exercise maybe ;-) Next layover is a 48 hour Mauritius, which I have just learnt is now city-based, so looks like I will have to become well acquainted with the pool whilst the rest of the country is enjoying the beach and 28 degree weather. Oh well :-(

The Mystery of the Per Diem

2010-11-06T14:07:00.001+04:00

Per Diem – adv. \(ˌ)pər-ˈdē-əm, -ˈdī-\

Latin – by the day/for the day
The monetary allowance an airline gives to pilots and flight attendants in order to reimburse them for meal costs incurred.

Quite often I get emails from potentially new recruits asking me what I would earn on average as a flight attendant. The reality is, the average is difficult to work out, so I normally reply with the salary + flying pay amount. “No, I need to know what you would earn every month, INCLUDING MEAL ALLOWANCES.” Well I’m sorry hon, I can’t answer the question.

When I first started in this job I was looking forward to collecting coins from different countries, even getting some of my batch mates to give me a couple of low value coins from their home countries whilst we were all in college. Now I can’t stand coins, especially when it’s from a country that doesn’t have the Hindu-Arabic numbers stamped onto the coins (US money included!)

When I first started flying layovers I would exchange whatever Per Diem I had left as soon as I arrived into Dubai. Then after realising I was losing out on money this way I no longer thought it was worth the hassle, so kept everything in a little coin purse. Then the coin purse changed into a large LAGS-type bag, then I ditched the bag for the original allowance envelopes (one for each country) and then about 2 years ago I decided to get myself organised. I bought about 50 small envelopes, labelled them clearly with the country and ISO code and bought a brand new box to house them all in.Very rarely would I attempt to save my allowance for something long term, I believe if this is what the airline gives me for food, then I will spend what I want on the food I eat, and whatever’s left is just a bonus.

The amount we’re given is dependent on a number of factors – Firstly it depends on the hotel we stay at and the main dining restaurant’s average price for a main meal. So we would earn more at a landmark 5 star hotel in the city than we would at a 3 star hotel located near the airport. Secondly this rate would vary depending on the amount of discount we get in that main dining restaurant – a higher percentage discount results in a smaller Per Diem. Thirdly, the meal allowances we get are broken up into different rates for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, with Breakfast earning the least and Dinner the most amount of money. As the layovers are calculated from chocks on to chocks off, a city that we operate to more than once a day would have the crew from both of those flights earning different amounts of Per Diem despite the crew having the same rank, flight hours or what not.

Lets take for example my recent flight to Perth. I land into PER at 5.30pm and depart the next day at 10.30pm. I would be earning 2 Dinners, 1 Breakfast and 1 Lunch (I also earn a ‘night stop’ allowance, but have never understood the need for this, so we’ll exclude it from now on) If breakfast was 10 AUD, Lunch was 20 AUD and Dinner 30 AUD then my allowance for the trip would be about 90 AUD. My batch mate Melanie is operating on the other Perth flight, and it arrived that morning at 3.00am, and left the next day at 8.00am. She would then earn 2 Breakfasts, 1 Lunch and 1 Dinner, and despite the fact that we’re both first class crew, and both have a 29hr layover, she’d be earning only 70 AUD.Confused yet? Well not only are we not only able to assign a guaranteed Per Diem rate on any one city, the rates are reviewed (to the best of my knowledge) once every six months!

And the difference in the money you earn can be significant – Whilst I was a Business Class crew member I came to a point where I would operate 4 Moscow flights in 2 months, all of which arrived at the same time and left at the same time. One Moscow flight was Feb 2008, whilst the other three were in Jan 2008. All three of the Moscow’s I operated in January were very lucrative, as in addition to being quite good for Duty Free commission, the allowance was 128 USD! Saving the allowance on that trip wasn’t hard either, as I would have over 80 USD left over from each layover. Then I operated the Moscow trip in February and went to collect my allowance, and after the 6 monthly review it had plummeted to 93 USD! I could not believe it, but sadly it’s just a way of life here. If economically the exchange rate booms again then the allowance can increase, but for the time being I’m just happy bidding and swapping onto flights that make me happy to be there, not places where I can earn the most allowance.

The inevitable collection of the Per Diem does have it's downsides. If you're not organised then it can be very easy to get the coins all mixed up with each other. The ones I get confused with the most are the coins from Japan, China and Korea. It doesn't help that more than one country call their currency the same thing, like the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong calling their currency the Dollar, and India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles calling their currency the Rupee. Even Morocco use the Dirham, which is what we use here in the UAE. There is another downside however, though since I am an Australian citizen living in Dubai I don't have to worry about this, though my US colleagues certainly have to. The amount of Per Diem you collect is considered taxable income, so this is something you would have to declare when you fill out a tax report. And knowing how organised I am now with still very little knowledge of how much money I have here in Per Diem money, I just thank my lucky stars I don't have to worry about the tax department as well.

So what is my method? Well I have two wallets - The layover wallet and the Dubai wallet. The layover wallet is a cheapo one and inside I keep all my smart travel cards from overseas (such as a London Oyster card) plus my proof of age (which they never ask for in Dubai). I have one credit card in there for emergencies, so in case it does get stolen I cancel the stolen card and still have my Dubai credit card to use while the other one is replaced. It also helps me to keep track of what I spend overseas, separate to what I spend in Dubai, and if any debt needs to be reigned in I know where to start. The wallet is stocked with whatever currency I need for my next layover, so I end up changing it out maybe 5 times a month. And right before I go on my annual leave to somewhere cool or relaxing, I empty out all my Per Diem wallets of notes and change it all in Dubai, so I now have some spending money for my trip, and this usually yields enough cash to pay for the hotel room.

So there you have it, the mystery of the Per Diem. If there are any international flight attendants out there who earn Per Diem I would love to hear what you do with them :-)

What's on my Dresser table - Body Beauty Products

2010-10-24T00:03:00.000+04:00

So now we move onto part two of "What's on my Dresser Table" and this is where you'll find my body products -

Aesop Geranium Leaf Shower Gel and Body Balm - This combo smells AMAZING! It was the first of the Aesop products I bought before I got totally hooked. I use the Body Balm as a hand cream and whenever I put it on I always get plenty of compliments from the other crew.

Baby Oil - So those that know me will know that I don’t really wear short skirts or shorts in Dubai, or Perth, or anywhere really. To combat dry skin on my legs, which I’ve had since my teenage years and have been unable to get rid of, I slather baby oil on them. I’ve only been doing this for the past month, but the problem was fixed in about a week and my legs are looking somewhat sexy again. Now if I can just avoid the armrest bruises I get from walking down the aisle at work...

Banta Gel Sunscreen - So if I’ve got a day at Aquaventure, or exposing my legs or arms, or need to top up my tan in Mauritius, I wear this very trusty Australian product. I hate the greasiness other sunscreens provide, and this soaks into the skin and lasts for ages. Wish they sold it in Dubai..

La Prairie Body Emulsion - Another product that’s in the OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE THE PRICE category. I use it exclusively if I have a night out clubbing or a hot date. This bottle I bought at Duty Free when I went to New York in 2007, so I’ve had it for 3 years and not run out. Smells amazing and I just feel good about myself when I wear it.

True Blue Spa Moisturising mittens - I take this with me when I have a layover at a destination where there’s not a lot to do, or where we’re not allowed to leave the hotel for safety reasons. Just fill with water, pop onto your moisturised hands and feet, and chill out for 20 min watching TV. When the mits are cold again your hands and feet are super soft and feel amazing. I bought it from Bath & Body Works in the US but the last time I went there they didn't have it so I'm really hopnig they haven't discontinued these.

Lucas Paw Paw Ointment - A lot of crew use this for their lips, but believe it or not it actually leaves mine feeling sore and irritated. (Hence why I was spruiking the Blistex in my previous post.) However if I have a mosquito bite, or a skin rash, it’s great for removing the itchiness. Also if you have a cut but no bandaid it’s great for temporarily waterproofing the blemish.

MUJI travel bottles - I thought I should mention these, even though they’re not a skin product per se – I simply cannot function without them. I buy them like crazy whenever I hit up MUJI, even though at the time I might not know what I’m filling them with. Perfect for getting the most products through in this day of heavy LAGS restrictions.

What's on my Dresser Table - Facial Beauty Products

2010-10-16T14:41:00.000+04:00

After many requests from readers, I thought it was about time to put up here what beauty products I use. I apologise in advance for those male readers who may find the following post boring, but in our industry the men have to take care of their skin just like the women do, so you never know - you may learn a few things on here that may pique your interest.
All the products here I genuinely use, no one is paying me to endorse them (I wish!) and I’m not going to recommend a product here that I think you guys might like that I don’t use. This is what works for me, and may not work for you, so if you can I suggest you try to get samples from a department store before parting with your hard earned cash. I’m also going to split this post into face and body, just because I think it’s far too big to combine into one post.

As you can see, I own a lot of Aesop products. They’re a Melbourne company, and have branches in the US, Europe, South East Asia and Australia, but frustratingly they don’t have a place to purchase in Dubai. If I can, I buy it all in Singapore as it’s the best price, plus they’re the most generous with samples and have the best product knowledge out of all the branches.

Fabulous Face Cleanser - Very versatile, I use this with pleasure every day. Low foaming, and it doesn’t totally strip your skin, it doesn’t leave it with that tight feeling after use which I hate.
Bitter Orange Astringent Toner - I didn’t buy this – my mate Oz was using it for about a week and didn’t find it worked for him so gave me the rest of the bottle. I'm generally satisfied with this product, but nothing to overly rave about...

I use the B Triple C Facial Moisturising Gel when I’m out during the day in Dubai in the summer, or at night before going to bed. It’s good for combination skin, and it doesn’t feel heavy at all. It’s very fast-absorbing and has a honey consistency. I wouldn’t use this under make up though.
Primrose Facial Hydrating Cream - I use this as a general moisturiser, this is what I put on before my make up when I have work. I also use this occasionally as a daily moisturiser during the Dubai winter.

Clinique Gentle Exfoliator - Have been using this once a week since my Abinitio training, and I’m very happy with it. Simple and effective and does what it says on the tube.

La Prairie Cellular Revitalising Eye Gel - I have to admit I went through a bit of a La Prairie stage, but this is one of the few products that remained in my face care routine after my switch to Aesop. It's cooling, and gives a nice base for applying your eye make up under.

Creme de la Mer - I know this is super expensive, and I always wait until I’m in Duty Free before I buy one. After toning I check to see which areas are especially dry and flaky and use a small amount of this to target those areas. It’s also great if you have broken skin, from sunburn peel or acne, and you need it to heal quickly. I use this in addition to the Primrose moisturiser as a base for my work make up. Because I stretch it out and only use it for this a 30ml pot will last me 2.5 years.

I love both of these – they’re great to use mid flight over makeup, and to generally wake myself up during a Red Eye flight. I love the results of the MD Formulations Moisture Defence Anti Oxidant Spray but love the smell of the Aesop Immediate Moisture Facial Hydrosol.

Blistex Intensive Moisturiser - Probably the cheapest thing on the list, this works so well. Use it liberally during the day outside of work, and use whatever lip balm I can find if I’m about to put on my work lipstick as a base.

A week and a half of being a Dubai tour guide

2010-10-09T13:30:00.000+04:00

So the past week and a half for me has been very hectic – first I had one of my best friends from Perth visit for two nights, and we managed to pack in a ton of stuff within the short stay that he had. Less than 24 hours after Paul left, my Dad arrived, and whilst it wasn’t a complete disaster like last time it still had its fair share of mishaps, including but not limited to...

Mistaking the flight number he was arriving on, and not being at the airport to pick him up when he arrived. Worst thing was I was the one who booked his ticket :-( It took the generosity of a local lady to lend him her phone so he could call me, only to hear the whole “OMG Dad I’m so sorry I’m so f**king stupid I’ll be there right away OMG! OMG!” spiel.

After insisting on sleeping on the couch cushions (last time I made him sleep in my bed, then he broke his nose and stained my 1000-thread count bed sheets with blood, so he felt kinda bad) he somehow managed to kick the coffee table in the middle of the night whilst asleep, so when I woke up I found blood stained tissues all over my living room. He didn’t want to wake me to ask where the bandaids and dettol were!

I was originally rostered a Zurich and a Munich during his stay, and loads for both sectors were packed so I couldn’t take him with me. I had no trouble getting rid of the Zurich, swapping onto a Doha and Mumbai instead. The Munich flight was a pain to get rid of, I even offered up 300dh for someone to give me their turns instead. The best I could do was a Muscat and Beirut, but the girl said that she would only do the swap if I gave her my JFK at the end of the month. So what should happen? I approved the swap for the JFK, but then she swapped her Beirut with someone else, thus invalidating my request. I’m still very much seething about that one, so angry I was my hands were shaking. After a craze of texts and upping the money to 500dh some angel eventually took the Munich for their turns.

The Doha I swapped onto was all going according to plan – passengers had boarded, we closed the doors on time. Then the dispatcher did something whilst in a fatigue haze that I won’t mention here, but will surely mean he’s looking for another job. As a result we had to switch aircrafts and I had to cancel Friday Brunch with my Dad, scrambling to finalise a booking for dinner without any access to restaurant numbers from the aircraft. 5 hr duty blew out to about 8 hours, and for a 45 min flight on both sectors this was not amusing.

Arriving back home after the most enjoyable Mumbai I’ve ever done to find out that Etisalat had somehow come into my apartment and changed my landline phone number without my approval. Who the hell does that?

On the flight back from Dubai we had Bollywood star Salman Khan seated in first class, who was pretty nice but he caused himself some problems by being the first to board the aircraft. Apparently the airbridge at the airport there can only reach the aircraft door in first class, so everyone had to board from there. Aside from being slow enough from boarding through one door only, it didn't help that every passenger was there to stop, stare, sat down next to him to chat and ask for autographs from Mr Khan. I suggested to him that maybe he should raise the privacy screens to avoid too much attention, and he was all "It's okay, I don't mind." Then someone from Economy stormed up to the front and with his mobile phone papped him, so he raised the screen and was buried in a blanket up until our decent into Dubai. He was very nice, and was happy to pose for photos with the first class crew. He asked me what time I left Dubai that day, and after I told him we had a 3.50am departure he said I had the most amazing energy he'd ever seen. I nearly swooned!

The worst part of it all was trying to get my Dad back to Perth again. Twice we went to the airport, and despite the fact I was the most senior crew member listed for both Perth flights, he was denied boarding. Eventually we had to resort to purchasing a full fare Business Class ticket just to get him home.

As if things couldn’t get any worse – I operated a Hyderabad flight on Wednesday and on decent into Dubai I had trouble equalising my ears. It was strange because I hadn’t had a cold for at least 2-3 months, so I didn’t know why they’d be acting the way they did. At about 5000 feet they eventually pressurised, but afterwards I was VERY dizzy and had the most excruciating pain in my right ear. Went to the doctor who said I had Barotrauma and a bit of bleeding in the middle ear, and said I couldn’t fly for at least 3 days, but to expect the problem to clear in a few weeks. A FEW WEEKS!!! Nooooooo!

So crappiness aside, I did have a great time with both Dad and Paul, and one of the things I did with both of them was take them to the world famous Burj Al Arab. I hadn't been there before, despite living in Dubai for almost 5 years, so I was extremely excited to see what it was like and whether it lived up to the hype. The afternoon tea is the cheapest way you can gain access to this iconic building, and it's definately piqued my interest as to what the rooms are like. Will have to wait until next summer though to afford it.

The beautiful atrium, said to be the world's tallest (but isn't everything in this city?)

Only the best afternoon tea will do for my Dad.

Paul and I at the Sahn Eddar lounge.

Sandwiches and Scones. The passionfruit jam is absolutely amazing, it may even inspire me to make my own sometime!

The cappucino comes with a choice of Vahlrona chocolate or Gold dust on top, so I decided to go with the gold just to see what it was like. The cappucino didn't taste any different (Though dad was quick to quip that it tasted a lot like money...) and I kinda wished I had the chocolate dusting instead.

Now if only I can find a way to stay there on the cheap...

Guest post for Girl on Raw

2010-09-29T11:08:00.003+04:00

Hey guys! Just a quick plug...

So I know I've been a bit sneaky with the posting front, and if any of you read Girl on Raw's blog you will know that I've actually been a guest blogger as part of her Travel and Wellness week! Ever wondered what us flighties pack to stay healthy, motivated and to avoid all that yummy aircraft food? I'll show you what I pack both in my checked and carry on baggage. Some things may surprise you...

Also make sure you check out her other posts, some of the food shots are just stunning!

Moskva - Never a dull day at work

2010-09-22T11:23:00.000+04:00

So at the moment I'm in Moscow.

Shot of the Bolshoi Theatre, which is still under construction. My layover was pretty uneventful, just spent it in the city at Cafe Mu Mu then splurging on frozen Pelmeni, which I seem to be very addicted to at the moment.

Usually the flight is quite eventful, so it flies by in no time, but the bus ride is horrendous - this time it was almost two hours, which was good for Moscow - I've been in the bus once during the snow season and it took us three hours to reach Domodedovo airport from the hotel. You may hear people bitch about peak hour traffic where you are, but believe me, it doesn't stand a chance to the traffic in this place.

I have to admit the flight wasn't as crazy as I've operated in the past, but there was something that happened that I found both shocking and hilarious. We has this family of four board through the First class door, and the father hangs around on the bridge while the rest of his family move towards their seats. They had Economy tickets so they had quite a trek ahead of them. When there wasn't anyone else around the father pulls aside the Purser and says to him...

"My family, they in Economy"

"Yes"

"I want them, Business"

"Oh, OK"

"I give you 500 US Dollar"

"Sir, the price to upgrade one person is $XXXX USD"

"No! I give YOU 500, I don't give airline!"

"Ah, Sir, it's $XXXX USD to ..."

"No! 500! YOU!"

So with his jaw still on the ground the Purser had to explain that he wasn't going to accept the $500 USD bribe, and to upgrade his whole family it was actually going to be three times the quoted $XXXX USD price.

As you can see, there never seems to be a dull day at work.

My Perfect Day in Perth

2010-09-17T17:58:00.002+04:00

So following on from my "My Perfect Day in London" post, I thought that with a week in Perth I'd feature some cool spots to recommend to you guys. On a typical layover my day is pretty packed with catch ups from family and friends, and stocking up on groceries from Woolworths, so fitting all these in for me would be very difficult, but should you be fortunate to find yourself in Perth and clueless as to what to do, then I hope that there is at least a few places here you can enjoy as much as I do. First up on the chopping block is Zekka -

So I first got into this place from my mate Osman, and I only had a latte, but found it to be quite pleasant. I decided to come back here as I'd had enough of my usual breakfast hangout and it's constant rudeness. May as well patronise another establishment that actually wanted to serve me.

To be honest, after a mini breakfast at home all I really wanted was something to carb-load on, and Zekka's thick cut sourdough with softened butter hit the spot right on!

Yummo!

So a short walk and you end up in Cloisters Arcade, home of Lowdown...

Lowdown is the place with the most promise but cursed with probably the worst location in Perth CBD. To get there you must pass 2 substandard cafes before you even see the place, and the actual cafe itself is so small, the seating area will hold about 6 dine in and 4 awaiting take away. It totally wins me over due to the staff - hippy-esque, bearded, long haired types that... wait for it...actually know what good service is! Aside from the latte that I purchased (very reasonable prices BTW) they automatically served me a glass of water, and when that was finished, without me even thinking about it, they'd already replenished the glass! I'd only been in there for 15 minutes and they were keen for a chat, find out what I was doing, whether or not I liked the Mighty Boosh... A nice refreshing addition to Perth's coffee scene, one that really needs to change it's location ASAP.

One place that I manage to visit every single time I'm in Perth (without fail) is Pigeonhole - I just love this place! They have three located in the city, and every single layover I have is spent in at least one of these stores.

They try to cater to the student market, so you won't find any designer items here for over $200 AUD, what you have is a store full of unique products, including jewellery, clothes, stationary and home wares you probably don't need but end up buying anyway. Every time I visit there always seems to be something new. Even scored myself a cute Jackalope who now keeps my TV company when I'm away on layovers.

I usually try to cram in a short trip to Freo as well so will visit the following places when I'm there

I actually found the B&M Pop Up Store after stumbling on their blog, it's a felt store but so much more. Kinda like the more adult Pigeonhole. They specialise in premium German felt and the items they have for sale are so nice. I'm even thinking of buying a sheet or two of felt and making my own coasters... They also stock items from Cardboard Safari, and a short plane ride later I am now housing Fred in my living room, and he seems happy :-)

Just down the road you'll find Remedy -

Another great place for window shopping, and amazing if you need to buy gifts. They have a lot of Aesop products here which I go absolutely crazy over. At the moment I'm stocking up on these porcelain fridge magnets by Little Jane St that I haven't seen anywhere else.

San Churros seemed to pop up out of no where, but there's the only place that I know of in Perth that do a chilli hot chocolate made from melted chocolate instead of powder. Consistency is very hit and miss, sometimes I get a nice, smooth drink, other times it's very thick and needs a lot of stirring to keep it drinkable. Everything here though is tasty and it's great to have when it's a little too late at night for a strong coffee.

And for one last coffee place... Mini Espresso

I know that there are other places I'd recommend over Mini's, but this is great in it's convenience, in it's quality, and the guys behind the machine are super sweet. Best thing of all is that you can SMS them your order and in 5 min they'll have it ready for you. Fantastic!

[Images from here, here, and here]

View My Perfect Day - Perth in a larger map

Zekka - 74-76 King Street, Perth. Open Tue-Sat 10.00am-5.00pm, Fri 10.00am-7.00pm, Sun 12.00pm-4.00pm. Closed Mondays.

Lowdown - 16a Cloisters Arcade, 865 Hay St, Perth. Open Mon-Fri 7.00am to 5.00pm

Pigeonhole Bon Marche - Shop 16, Bon Marche Arcade, 80 Barrack Street, Perth
Pigeonhole London Court - Shop 44, London Court, 647-649 Hay Street, Perth
Pigeonhole Shafto Lane - Shop 7a, Shafto Lane, 401 Murray Street, Perth
Open Mon - Thurs: 10.30am - 5.30pm, Fri - 10.30pm - 8.00pm, Sat - 10.30am - 5.30pm

B&M - 49 High Street, Fremantle http://www.bandmstore.com.au/

Remedy - 95 High Street Fremantle. Open Mon - Sun 9.00am - 5.00pm

Chocolateria San Churros - 91 Market Street Fremantle. Open Mon - Thu 9:30am

- 10.00pm, Fri - Sat 9.00am-11.00pm. Sun 9.00am-10.00pm

Mini Espresso - London Court, Hay Street, Perth. SMS +61 400 016 464

Quick Update - Leave, Ramadan, Hours, bleh!

2010-08-31T20:37:00.000+04:00

Hey guys, just thought I'd give you all a quick update on how things are going within these "Tampax Towers."

Just this morning I came back from Johannesburg, and now I'm on annual leave! I'll be spending it in Perth, nowhere different or exciting, but I have only seen my family once since my last leave so I think it's about time I make an appearance. Plus I have stupid errands to run like dental check ups, and bank stuff, and there's only so much I can do from here in Dubai.

At the moment here in the sandpit it's Ramadan, so no eating, drinking, smoking (not that I do) and basically no impure activity during daylight hours. Every day off I have in Dubai, I hang around at home waiting until around 6pm, then head to mOre in time for Iftar. Every time I'm there with my laptop I usually make good progress with the blog and churn out a few posts, which is why the month of August has a couple more posts than the regular post-per-month rate. Hopefully this trend will continue :-)

The last couple of months have been insanely busy for me, and I've been consistently working 90-100 hours a month. It's so different now compared to when I first started flying - calling scheduling to give me flights to alleviate my boredom! Next month I'm barely doing 50 hrs, I have 10 days off and I cannot be more relieved! I'll hardly be resting though, I have both my Dad and one of my best friends from Perth paying me a visit.

I'm also messing with the idea of doing Videocasts (a.k.a. Vodcasts) in the near future, kind of along the same lines as the "My Perfect Day" post a week ago. At the moment it feels like a massive mountain to climb, especially since I've never really operated a video camera before, so for the time being I'm messing with my LX3 and seeing how things work, and hopefully over time this will come into fruition.

Anyway, I'd better start packing! See you guys later :-D