Short Middle East Flights

I've been to Bahrain and Kuwait over the last 2 days. This picture sums both of them up quite well!

February 07 Roster (Updated 28/01)

My roster for February:

01FEB DUBAI - JOHANNESBURG
02FEB JOHANNESBURG - DUBAI (ARR03FEB)
08FEB DUBAI - CAIRO - DUBAI (ARR 09FEB)
10FEB DUBAI - MUMBAI (ARR 11FEB)
11FEB MUMBAI - DUBAI
12FEB DUBAI - FRANKFURT
13FEB FRANKFURT - DUBAI (ARR 14FEB)
18FEB DUBAI - SYDNEY (ARR 19FEB)
20FEB SYDNEY - CHRISTCHURCH
21FEB CHRISTCHURCH - SYDNEY
22FEB SYDNEY - DUBAI (ARR 23FEB)
27FEB DUBAI - BIRMINGHAM
28FEB BIRMINGHAM - DUBAI (ARR 01MAR)

Brisbane, My Favourite Shopping Destination

So many photos from my Brisbane trip. I worked with the best crew I've had so far. Everyone was really friendly and hard working which made the flights so much nicer. I opted to save my allowance in Singapore and change it into Australian dollars instead. This turned out to be a very good thing as I spent a fortune in the shops in Brisbane!
The hotel in Brisbane had a buffet which I managed to attend 3 times while I was there. They had a great chocolate fountain...
Which could get rather messy!

The hotel in Brisbane.
The view from my room.
The pool was just below my room. Well, 15 floors anyway.
Another vantage point from the room.
I had my favourite fast food while I was there. A hot Red Rooster chicken roll!

On our first night in Australia we decided to go out for a BBQ.
We had a really good evening drinking and eating by the river.
My flatmate Aaron and his friend James who came to stay with us. James is a singer and he's releasing an album in the UK soon. Look out for it!
My flatmate Aaron was also on the trip with me.

Me, Aaron and our Purser, Catherine, who is from South Africa.

Bangkok, Sydney And Auckland

I really enjoyed this trip as my crew was fantastic. I met one of my old friends from bmi in Bangkok. We had a great night out in some dodgy Thai bars. Next it was off to Sydney for the 1st time. It was totally different to what I was expecting. I didn't do any of the touristy things, instead I saw my brother Matthew. He's in the Navy and is based in Sydney when his ship isn't sailing. I also got to meet his girlfriend for the first time. The Auckland flight was really quick and the passengers were a lot of fun. On my return to Bangkok I had a Thai massage. It felt like the lady was breaking every bone in my back! I had a great sleep afterwards though. Now I've just got time to dry clean my uniform and it's off to Brisbane.Me with Matt's pet rat.
Sydney.

Bangkok from the expressway to the airport.
Bangkok's newly opened (3 months) Suvarnabhumi airport.
Yuwaphan (Thailand), Sally (Lebanon) and Tracy (England) waiting in the departure lounge in Sydney for our flight to Auckland. You can also see Rachel (England) in the background.
The obligatory Harbour Bridge and Opera House shot.

My brother Matt.

And I Said My Last London Flight Was Bad.....

It's the day after getting back from my last London trip and I've only just recovered. The trip started out really well. Good flight to London, great crew and I got to see my friends for the night. It's on the return flight where it all happened. The 1st meal service was fine. I even had enough chicken and fish to be able to offer every passenger a choice rather than running out of one half way down the cabin. Myself and a few of the crew had noticed a passenger behaving strangely so we kept an eye on him. After about 20 minutes he wrapped his blanket around his head like a turban and started walking up and down the cabin. It was at this point we realised he was drunk. We sat him down and the SFS had a quiet word with him. 10 minutes later he came to the rear galley and asked for a beer. Obviously we refused. The guy got really annoyed and started screaming abuse at us. The only thing we can do in this situation is calm the guy down which we tried to do. On the way back to his seat he smashed one of the seatback TVs. This is the point where we have to restrain the passenger. Myself and the other 3 male crew met in the back galley. We also had to choose 2 big male passengers to help us. We briefed on what each one of us would do and then removed any clothing that the passenger could grab (eg tie). My 1st job was to sneak the passengers out of the row behind him which I managed to do very quietly. Next we all got into position. One of the crew members has to stand in front of the passenger and talk quietly so they lean forward. It was at this point we stormed. The situation was dealt with very well and we had the passenger in handcuffs with his seatbelt on in under a minute. When we arrived at Dubai the police came onboard and removed him. It was a very long flight!I flew to London on our newest aircraft A6-EBW. The aircraft has a CRC (Crew Rest Compartment), which means there are bunks upstairs for the crew. This picture shows the stairs from the cabin leading up to the CRC.
The emergency equipment in the CRC.
The CRC aisle. The passengers are sat below this.
Tanja (Australia), Me and Eleanor (Ireland) on a bunk.
Tanja, Justin (Armenia) and Eleanor in the CRC.

The passengers on EK001 from Dubai - London Heathrow.
The view of Iran from 39,000ft.
Anmol (India) pretending to read her manual to Soo (South Korea)

Alex, Nat and Chris playing Singstar.

London Heathrow, The Home Of bmi!

I have just returned from a fantastic trip back to London Heathrow. I was based at Heathrow with my last airline, bmi, for 2 years. I managed to see all my best friends and had a really good time with them. The flight home to Dubai was the worst flight I have been on so far as some of the passengers were very rude and demanding although we had fun as it was a great crew and my friend Charles from training was also onboard. I'm off back to London again on the 1st and will hopefully have just as much fun that time too.
Standing next to A6-EMI, the Boeing 777-200 aircraft we did the flight on.
Me and Charles.

The Economy Class crew. L-R Charles, Me, Mohamed, Anne (Our SFS), Reginald and Sudhakar. SFS stands for Senior Flight Steward/ess and they are in-charge of a cabin (Economy or Business).

G-DBCH One of the bmi aircraft I used to fly on.
Martin and Dee (David). We had a few drinks and then went out for a Thai meal.

After seeing Martin and Dee I met up with some of my other friends and they came back to my hotel room to stay the night. I wanted to do something British so we had Tea and Scones! L-R Alex, Chris, Nat and Kate.

The next day we went out to Mark Donalds (the posh name we now use for McDonalds) for breakfast.

Manchester For Christmas

I managed to swap onto a Manchester flight on Christmas day! The plane had 427 seats and only 65 passengers. :-) I managed to watch 2 movies sitting in Business Class during my break! It was really nice to see my family again after 3 months. My cat Molly was happy to see me too.

My Family. L-R Jaegen (My Brother), Lindsey (My Mum), Paul (My Stepdad-To-Be), Paris (My Sister) and me.

Daniel (South Africa), Me and Julie (England) eating our Christmas Cake.

January 07 Roster (Updated 04/01)

My roster for January:

01JAN DUBAI - LONDON HEATHROW
02JAN LONDON HEATHROW - DUBAI (ARR 03DEC)
06JAN DUBAI - BANGKOK
07JAN BANGKOK - SYDNEY (ARR 08JAN)
09JAN SYDNEY - AUCKLAND - SYDNEY
11JAN SYDNEY - BANGKOK (ARR 12JAN)
13JAN BANGKOK - DUBAI
18JAN DUBAI - SINGAPORE
19JAN SINGAPORE - BRISBANE (ARR 20JAN)
22JAN BRISBANE - AUCKLAND - BRISBANE
24JAN BRISBANE - SINGAPORE (ARR 25JAN)
26JAN SINGAPORE - DUBAI
29JAN DUBAI - BAHRAIN - DUBAI
30JAN DUBAI - KUWAIT - DUBAI

Tanzania

The hotel in Dar Es Salaam is luxury amongst poverty. Inside the hotel you would think you are somewhere like New York or London but when you look outside you can see the big steel fence around the hotel you know you're in Africa. The airport in Dar looks like a petrol station on the side of the road. It is an open building with no air conditioning. As crew we get to walk straight through the airport and on to the air conditioned aircraft. I don't know how the passengers survive. The journey from the airport to the hotel is quite scary. Everyone was coming up to the bus to have a look at us when we were stopped at traffic lights.
The Kempinski Hotel, Dar Es Salaam.
My Bedroom.
The Bathroom. The bath is so big!

Dar Es Salaam. The hotel is near the river, to the left of the picture.
Dar Es Salaam International Airport as seen on Google Earth.
My Landing Card.

The Economy Class crew. L-R Charlie, Abbie and Moses

Perth

Just got back from my trip to Perth. We had 26 hours on the ground and I only slept for 4 of them! On the night we arrived all the crew went to a restuarant called 'The Witches Cauldron' in Subiaco (an area of Perth) for a meal. We had a really good night and the food was great too. We gave all our change to the waitress as a tip and when we reached the train station at midnight we found out that the ticket machines didn't take notes! Lucky we met some very nice locals who gave us some change. The next day it was up early to take a train to Fremantle and then a ferry across to the island of Rottnest. It was really good seeing all the family again. My little brother wouldn't let go of me! We had a nice lunch and went down to the beach for an hour before I had to catch the ferry for the return crossing. I arrived back at the hotel and got changed into my uniform ready to take the bus back to the airport. Lucky the flight was not full so I managed to get a 2 hour sleep in the back row. It's such a hard life being cabin crew!
My Dad, Stepmum and my little brother Liam.
Perth City.
Rottnest Island (I took this picture on an earlier trip when I flew over to the island).
The Rottnest Ferry.
My US Visa. Now I have to go on a list for 2 months and wait to be cleared by US Immigration before I can fly to New York.