Surfs up!

Today a group of us headed to Jumeriah Beach to go paddle boarding. I was so excited as I have always wanted to try it. When we got there we were told that the water was a little roungh and that we should try surfing instead. 

When you look at the ocean it looks calm but as soon as you head out in it, its a completely different story! The water here is soooo salty that it was stinging my whole body. Not only that but it took us about an hour to catch a wave because we kept getting dunked and dragged back to the beach. 

Even though I failed to stand up I still had so much fun! The place where we hired the boards from was full of Australians, so that was kind of nice. Felt like I was back at home. 

Definitely keen to head back there on my next day off and try to stand up this time. 

Manila

The trip to Manila was a mix of good and bad. 

I don't really know where to start with this post so I guess I will begin with the bad as its always better to sign off on a positive note. 

The crew on this trip for some reason didn't seem to gel. I think it was a combination of different cultures, strong personalities, and experience. The service on both legs seemed to be all over the place, and to top it off there seemed to be a lot of bitching going on behind peoples backs. 

 Emirates have a policy where they don't allow employees to speak in any other language except English whilst working onboard. Its put in place in order to avoid crew conflict and it just makes it easier for everyone to communicate effectively with each other. However the more flying I do the more I notice that people tend to ignore this rule, which in turn makes it harder to not only interact, but also to work with fellow colleagues.  

So with this being the case it was pretty clear that no one was really keen to go and explore the city together. I on the other hand had big plans and decided that I wasn't going to miss out, so I went on my own. 

We stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel, which is perfectly situated in the center of town, right next to Robinson's Shopping Mall. When we arrived at midnight there was a lovely fruit bowl waiting for us in our room and a selection of english TV channels (they had E! !!!) so I was set for the night. 

In the morning I planned on going to one of the markets, so I looked in the hotel information book and it suggested an indoor market place (Greenhills Shopping Plaza) that was air conditioned and offered everything that I was after. So I set off to go and spend all my allowance. When I got there I was shocked at how huge it was! They sold everything from iphone covers, to clothes, as well as DVD's. I managed to spend a couple of hours there before I realised that I should probably head home and grab something to eat before our flight back. 

So when I got back to the hotel I decided to quickly pop into the shopping center and check out what they had on offer. Unfortunately because I had spent most of my money at the markets the only thing I could afford at that stage was lunch. So it was off to Maccas (don't judge).

Although the crew weren't the best, I actually really enjoyed my trip to Manila. I got everything I wanted to get out of it shopping wise, and it was nice to be back in Asia (believe it or not I am actually a little bit over Europe)

Next up Tunisia!

P.S I have recently become aware of how shocking my photography skills have become since finishing my degree, so I promise to up the anti on that front from now on :)

My week of turnarounds

Ok so it feels like forever since I last posted on here. I have had a week full of turnarounds, well three but that seems a lot!

At first I was meant to go to Chennai, Cochin, and Karachi, however before my Karachi flight I noticed they had taken me off it and given me a day off so I was thrilled!

My next flight was then meant to be Milan and I was so excited! I had packed all my bags, and got myself all ready for the morning when I decided I should double check the timings, and thank god I did because I saw they had again taken me off the flight and instead given me a turn around to Islamabad (to say I was shitty was a understatement). 

I was pleasantly surprised with all the turnarounds this week. With past experience I was expecting the worse but everyone on board was polite and said please and thank you so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. 

One good thing that came out of this week was that I seemed to have a lot of days in Dubai when all my friends were here. 

We got to do so much I don't really know where to start. 

My friend Monique and I have been planning on moving out together so this week we set about to find an empty apartment in her building. We managed to find one, through the help of security, and we were so excited because we had heard it had been free since March so we thought it should be ready for us to move into almost immediately. I was so excited! All week I was dreaming of decorating this place, getting a pet (we agreed on getting a kitten), and just moving to a nicer building with a better view (as I currently look onto an abattoir...)

However after submitting the forms into accommodation they told us it was going to be a year and a half wait list to find a two bedroom apartment and that was the case for ever single building Emirates own in Dubai. I was shattered and soooo angry! I think this was the first time in a couple of weeks that I began to feel homesick again. Accommodation have always been known to be completely useless, and now after dealing with them I completely understand how they get that reputation. Their procedures don't even make sense. 

Anyway on the upside of this week I met up with a few friend and we went to the Mall of Emirates for dinner and to see the Hunger Games. Great film! 

I also got to see into Ski Dubai from a viewing window at the mall so that was pretty amazing! 

I managed to get my nails done, laze by the pool on multiple occasions, go to an aerobics class and not die, as well as go on a shopping spree and finally we headed out to my favourite bar in the whole of Dubai, Barasti, for a friends birthday. 

So all in all it has been an extremely busy week and tomorrow I am off to Manila!!

P.S You can probably already tell from the picture but, I FOUND FOUR AND TWENTY PIES IN DUBAI!!! 

Venice

Ok so lots of photos for this Venice post, but as you can see it was so beautiful its kind of hard to select which photos to include and which ones to leave out. 

Venice is one of my favourite cities in the world, there is nothing quite like it anywhere else.

I love just walking through all the alleyways and coming across multiple restaurants, canals and shops. 

It felt like we didn't have a lot of time there (even though we were wandering around the city for about 8 hours). We tried to eat and drink in as many places as possible as well as seeing all there is to see in Venice.

Because we were traveling with an Italian we were able to make our way around a little more easier and we found people were more willing to help the local then the foreigners (we even managed to score free shots at one restaurant!!)

It was quite funny really because when we were at the Rialto Bridge we ran into one of the passengers on board (she was Australian, traveling alone, about our age, and was joining a tour the next day) so we invited her out for dinner with us and we had a blast. 

After dinner it was quite obvious that we were all pretty exhausted so we managed to catch the boat back to the bus stop and make our way home. 

I can't wait to go back to Venice! Will definitely be bidding for it in the future!

This week is full of turnarounds to India and Pakistan so I am really not looking forward to it... 

Hopefully it will fly by, because next layover is Milan!!

Kuala Lumpur

So the night before my flight to Colombo I double checked my roster and there seemed to be a change. I was unsure what the code was so after asking around I discovered I was deadheading to Kuala Lumpur. I was so excited! This meant I got to sit in Business Class for 7 hours and be on the receiving end of service for a change. At first I thought it was just myself deadheading, however when I got to EGHQ I noticed that the whole crew were deadheading over with me, which made it more fun. 

Once at the other end the F/O suggested we all go out for a bite to eat and grab a couple of drinks. KL did not fail to impress, it was filled with fresh food, prostitutes and multiple drinks. It started to bucket down with rain just as the bar we were at was shutting, so after waiting a while we realised that it would just be easier and cheaper to run home in the rain and then continue the party (with the few people we could find/call) in one of the rooms.

I think it was fair to say that a good time was had by all. 

Because we deadheaded over it meant that instead of having 24 hrs there we had just 20 hrs. So before we knew it was time to hop back on the plane and head home. 

Once all the passengers boarded the plane we all started securing the cabin. It was at this stage that I noticed one of the customers wasn't responding to my requests and was moving rather slowly and just appeared out of it in general. I quickly called the SFS over to see if he could assist me and it was then we realised that the customer was in fact having a type of fit. We instantly called the Purser who called the flight deck and we taxied back into the parking bay which allowed medical personelle to come on board and help us further. All up it was quite a stressful moment as this is the first medical situation I have been placed in since starting the job. All in all we were lucky we were still on ground. And with only a 1/2 hr delay we managed to get home in no time. 

Tomorrow I head off to one of my favourite cities, Venice!!

Dusseldorf

Let me start off by saying that from a very young age I have always LOVED Dusseldorf. 

At 15 I was lucky enough to go on a school exchange to a town just out of Dusseldorf for 6 weeks. It was on this trip that I experienced many firsts. It was the first place where I got drunk, illegally drank in a bar, was away from my parents for more then a few nights, lived with another family who didn't speak the same language as me (well almost), and where I gained my first taste of independence. 

So when I heard I was going back there on one of my flights I was beyond excited.

Over the years I have managed to keep in contact with my exchange partner, Sandra, as well as my friends exchange partner, Ann. So with such short notice (I only got told about my roster last week) we were lucky enough to arrange to all catch up for a bite to eat and a couple of drinks. 

Although I had been to Dusseldorf a few times before, I had never managed to find the main city center. So before meeting up with the girls I decided to walk around in search of a few shops close to the main train station. Once again I found it impossible to find the main shopping strip (however I did manage to come across a homewares shop and I was able to score the sweet daschund cushion for my bed). It wasn't until later when I met up with the girls that they told me the main part of town is a train ride away, and that was where I had been going wrong all these years! 

So after a quick train ride to the Old Town we emerged to a group of shops, restaurants and bars all along the river Rhein. It was so beautiful at night with all the cobbled stone roads and the foreshore all lit up, it really felt like Europe. 

We had such a lovely dinner and it was so good to catch up with everything that had been happening in our lives. I am so excited to get more trips there in the future!

Thats one good thing that I realised about this job, and that is that you get to catch up with friends that are spread out all over the world and for that reason I love what I am doing!!!

The flight home was great as we had a half load and the passengers on board were so friendly and polite.

Next up Columbo!