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.

The Americans And Amman

It's nearly 4pm here in Dubai and I have just returned from the US Consulate. I was there from 7am this morning waiting to hand in my passport and application form for a US Visa so I can operate the New York JFK flights for Emirates. We had to meet in a portacabin in the car park. We spent an hour there before being escorted into the building where we were checked for traces of explosives and put through several metal detectors and body searches. I tried to go to the toilet when we were waiting to be screened and the security guard blew his whistle at me! The good news is when I finally made it to the counter the nice American lady told me my visa was OK and would be ready for collection tomorrow. Now I've just got to look forward to shopping in New York!

On the 10th I had a flight to Amman in Jordan. The pilots let me sit in the flightdeck for landing so I managed to get a great picture as we were coming in to land. Speaking of Americans, Air Force Three arrived just after us. I think Condalezza Rice was onboard.
The runway in Amman just before we landed.
Amman Airport. Not very exciting.
Air Force Three.

Singapore And Melbourne

I've just returned from a fantastic 1st trip to Singapore and Melbourne! On the flight from Dubai to Singapore we had major turbulence for the first hour. This involved the crew sitting on the floor of the galley trying to hold all the food trolleys steady. A fun experience to get me started! Singapore was very humid but everywhere is air conditioned just like Dubai. The hotel was nice and in the centre of the city. I went out with the Purser and 2 other crew members for a chinese the night we arrived.

As the flight to Melbourne was during the evening it was very quiet. This gave us a chance to sit in the back row and watch some TV. The flight arrived 2 hours late so I only managed to get 5 hours sleep before I met up with my Uncle and went out for lunch to the Casino in the city.

I managed to see the new James Bond movie when we were back in Singapore. It's quite good but lacks the action and gadgets that are in all the other movies. My friend Pierre from training college was also in Singapore so we went out for lunch. I arrived back in Dubai at 6am this morning and have just woken up after a very long sleep. Now it's time to do my washing!
The hotel we stay in at Melbourne. They do the best cooked breakfast ever!
A view of Melbourne.
Looking towards the hotel.
The hotel in Singapore. I got a really good city view room.

Singapore City.

December 06 Roster (Updated 14/12)

My roster for December:

03DEC DUBAI - SINGAPORE
04DEC SINGAPORE - MELBOURNE (ARR 05DEC)
05DEC MELBOURNE - SINGAPORE (ARR 06DEC)
07DEC SINGAPORE - DUBAI
10DEC DUBAI - AMMAN (JORDAN) - DUBAI
12DEC US VISA APPOINTMENT @ AMERICAN CONSULATE, DUBAI
14DEC DUBAI - TEHRAN (IRAN) - DUBAI (Iran on my Birthday!)
16DEC DUBAI - PERTH
17DEC PERTH - DUBAI (ARR 18DEC)
21DEC DUBAI - DAR ES SALAAM (TANZANIA)
22DEC DAR ES SALAAM (TANZANIA) - DUBAI
25DEC DUBAI - MANCHESTER (Flying home on Christmas Day!)
26DEC MANCHESTER - DUBAI (ARR 27DEC)
28DEC DUBAI - LONDON HEATHROW
29DEC LONDON HEATHROW - DUBAI (ARR 30DEC)

Graduation & Supy Flights

I graduated from Training College on Thursday (23/11/06)! Since then I have been on both of my Supy (Training) flights to Cairo, Egypt and Sana'a, Yemen Republic. My camera battery is flat at the moment and I'm waiting for the charger to arrive from the UK. Hopefully it will get here in time for my upcoming Singapore, Melbourne trip. Over the weekend in rained in Dubai! It was a big shock for everyone as it hardly ever does that here. Gimme 5! We did it!
Waiting for the lift.
The bus taking us to the other building for the graduation ceremony.On the bus.
A6-EMD: This is the Boeing 777-200 that I had my first flight to Cairo on.
My friend Justine was also on the 777 flight and we took this picture in the galley after we'd finished the meal service.
A6-EAE: This is the Airbus A330-200 that I did my Sana'a flight on. I was supposed to go to Karachi, Pakistan on it but was changed the day before (and when I say changed the day before I actually mean my alarm didn't go off so I slept in and missed the flight!).

November 06 Roster

My roster for November:

28NOV DUBAI - CAIRO (EGYPT) - DUBAI
30NOV DUBAI - SANA'A (YEMEN) - DUBAI

Nearly There (2 Days Until I Graduate)!

Hi everyone, Sorry it's been so long. I have been so busy with training over the last week. So much homework to do! I graduate in 2 days and then I've got my first flight. I'm going to Cairo in Egypt. At our graduation we have to sing a song in front of 500 people. We went round to Carina's apartment to practise at the weekend. The apartment block she lives in is not finished yet. They're still decorating the upper floors. We had a break from singing and climbed onto the roof. It's 60 floors high so the view was amazing. Check out the pictures below.

The group just after we had something to eat.
Song practise. As you can see I'm pretending to be an airplane.
In the real version we'll all be holding champagne glasses for this bit.
It went badly wrong. It was all the girls' fault!
We had a break and went wheelbarrow racing next to the unfinished swimming pool!

Vicky, Zierang, Carina and Honey on the roof.
By the unfinished pool.
The view of the Sheikh Zayed Road (the main road and also where I live) from the roof of Millenium Tower. Click on the picture for a better view.

We were all exhausted by this point as we'd all been going up and down ladders and stairs all night!

My Bedroom

It was (kind of) clean and tidy today so I thought now was as good a time as any to get it on here.

I started my first day of 'Service' training today. There is so much information to take in. We have to learn all about airport codes, drinks in the bar, how to speak to customers from different countries etc. I also received my name badges today. They've got my name written in Arabic. It looks really good!

At the weekend we went to Vicky's apartment for a swim and some dinner. We were also feeling a bit arty too. Check out the 'Human Art' pictures.

The first few are of my bedroom. Can you see the picture of my family next to the bed? I forced them to go for a professional photo just before I left the UK!

My name badge. How good does my name look in Arabic (You read it backwards)?

The gang (joined by Vicky's friend Mark in red) hanging out at Vicky's. She made a salad and we ordered in some chicken.

At the pool on Vicky's building's roof. It's a really nice pool but the view's not as good as mine!

Shesha - Most of the time it's a pipe with a bottle at the end containing the flavour. We went to a really good place where they put the pipe inside a real piece of fruit and you smoke directly from it.
Me trying my first Shesha while Mark looks on. It was quite nice but I don't think I'll be keeping it up!After Shesha.
Human Art 1 - We call this the Grass Windmill.

Human Art 2 - One of my favourite pictures of the night. We named this one 'The Lift Star' (We were in a lift at the time).