Moving out 2...

Hearing: Welcome to my Life by Simple Plan and the air con buzzing in the background.

Ive just finished standby (the best yet, from 4am to 12noon - i slept right through it) and i thought id post about the interesting devlopment since my last post. And no im not talking about the line above, i just added that cuz i like the idea behind it.

I went to pick up my keys from head office, still nervous about which building id get and who id be moving in with. I met the lady in charge and she offered me different options but i took the first one she offered. To move in the newest building (also the nicest) and with 2 other Australian girls. Better than a poke in the eye!! Hahaha, so my nerves a little clamer and keys jingling, my friend and i went to have a sticky beak at my new home.

After the embarrassment of not knowing how to open the front door i stepped in to find a curious face looking at me. It was one of my flatmates who had been expecting me as i called ahead so as not to cause too much of a surprise. E was very nice and friendly and chatted to us as we moved around checking out the aparment. I was so happy and excited i was jumping all over the place and kept hugging my friend O. My room was spacious and the living room was massive and afforded a good view over a main street and the water in the distance.

O and i then said goodbye to E and went down to see one of O's friends. As luck would have it, her friend said she would give her room to O if she wanted it cuz she wanted to move in with her bf. Naturally both O and i were delighted as it meant that later there was still a chance for us to be able to move in together.

It was great, i was looking forward to moving out of the hotel and finally being able to make someplace my own. I must have unknowingly took a mouthful of Felix Felicis (Harry Potter fans will know what im on about).

But.....and theres always a but isnt there??

After returning from my Cairo flight yesterday morning, my mobile woke me up. It was one of the flatmates of O's friend, she said that she was friends with my soon-to-be- flatmates and was wondring if i could swap with her. My first thought was i cant think now i'll call you back when im awake (im not the best when woken up, but it was my fault for not putting my phone on silent, but im always worried that if i do i'll miss an important call - and im talking about your mums in the hospital type calls or something). Anyways, im getting side tracked. After i hung up i went back to sleep but my thoughts couldnt be silenced, what the girl said filtered through my mind and i began to be disturbed by it. I was like hang on thats not fair. How can they put me in a situation like that. If they all want to be together and i refuse to part with my room...well i could feel the death stares already, and if i agreed i wouldnt be happy about it. It really wasnt nice of them, i mean i can understand wanting to be together but they had'nt even given me a chance yet!

To put it mildly i wasnt very happy after that and i couldnt go back to sleep either - i needed a distraction so i ended up reading for the rest of the day. I spoke to O and she pointed out that if i did accept then we could move in together which would be a bonus but O needed to be given a room in that building before her friend could give her the room...

What a drama, or am i just being a drama queen? Hmmm....

VP

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Moving out.....

Aaarrghh!!! I'm on standby today and my phone rang, I got such a heart attack! Turns out it wasn't crewing but a lady from crew services telling me that I have an apartment and I can move in as soon as I've picked up my key. My goodness....!!

See up till now I've been living in a hotel, not a totally good thing, not a bad thing either but I'll come to that later. And now I'm finally moving out. I'm excited and nervous, I'm happy to finally be able to have a place that's mine, not just temporary, a place where I can finally unpack and settle in. I'm nervous for several reasons, the main one is that I don't know who I'll be moving in with, it could be good but it could also be very bad. Unfortunately while the company said we could choose our flatmates, it hasn't been able to stick to that because there are no new buildings available as yet and therefore it is slotting people in where others have left the company.

So looking at the pros and cons of my situation I'm still a little anxious though happy to move out regardless of who I move in with. Living in a hotel, wait no, I should say living in my hotel hasn't been so great, other hotels other crew have been staying at are much more accommodating to crew. Ok so here are my arguments:

A) Meals. There is no place to cook your own meals so you usually order roomservice (which can be expensive as they don't offer crew discounts), eat out, or eat something that can be easily made in your room, which isn't much.

B) Laundry. Both personal and Uniform. There is no place to do your own laundry, you do it by hand or pay for it to be done. The Uniform laundry issue is this; the company has arranged for the laundry company in charge of our uniforms to pick it up at the different hotels and accommodations, only our hotel wont let them come in to do that, and no amount of negotiating has gotten them to budge or come to some sort of compromise. This means we need to go in ourselves to put it in. This brings me to my other point.

C) Isolation. The hotel is located at a distance from the city and while it provides a free shuttle service there and back it only runs 4 times a day and sometimes not on time either. So if you come back from a flight and need to run errands like putting in your laundry you either wait for the shuttle or pay for a taxi...most of the time you end up paying.

There are pros though...*grin* the fact that you can get roomservice, a nice hot meal delivered to your door with no washing up to do later. Never having to make your bed (I love that!!!), fresh and soft towels daily, the gym is fantastic, there is an indoor pool and believe it or not a bowling alley. And those little bottles of bubble bath, shampoo, body lotion etc are nice too...

So who will I be moving in with, what will they be like, and will I like the place are all questions I'll find the answer to soon enough. Meanwhile, I have a few flights lined up over the next couple of days so I don't know when I'll actually move....

VP

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Ramadan

As usual Tray has impeccable timing, I was intending to write a little about Ramadan here, with this job and being away from family. So I hope this answers any questions and gives an account of Ramadan here.

Just a quick note on Ramadan for those who don't know. It is the holy month in the Muslim calendar in which Muslims fast, that is, they don't eat or drink or smoke anything from sunrise to sunset. At the end of Ramadan there are 3 days of celebration or Eid.

I'll start with work. Just before Ramadan started everyone received a general memo about Ramadan telling a little about what it was and social expectations (like not eating or drinking in public during daylight hours regardless of whether you were Muslim or not) and changes to onboard services. An additional announcement was added for guests arriving here so they were aware of the practice, an additional type of meal was provided and wines or any other alcohol were not to be displayed on carts but still could be served. As for the FA's themselves, some wanted to swap layovers for turnarounds others simply did not fast during long trips (and there is a provision for travelers for this under Islamic rules where you can eat when traveling and the day(s) can be made up at a later time) and others did. Me personally, I have fasted on long trips when I felt I could and on some others when I was particularly tired or such I have not.

Being a Muslim country, Ramadan and fasting is practiced everywhere. Hardly and food outlets are open during the day, nobody eats or drinks in public and shopping hours are even more altered. It is normal here for business hours to operate between 8.30am to 1pm and then from 4 or 5pm to 10pm. On Fridays this also varies. During Ramadan the evening hours are extended to cater for the shoppers who choose to stay home during the day to prepare food, or rest and conserve their strength. All the major shopping malls are decorated with both an Islamic and local culture touch. The restaurants and hotels also participate by catering for Iftar (the breaking of the fast at the end of the day), they offer an open buffet for a set price per person or provide Iftar tents which can be booked for a family and is catered or is shared with others.

As for being away from family, for me this is the most difficult. Similar to Christmas and the idea of spending it with family, Ramadan is also like that. Iftar is taken with family and close friends and for me this is the first time I have spent it with just friends alone. And as grateful as I am for that at least it is not the same. Thankfully during my short trip home I twice broke my fast with my family, Ramadan wouldn't be the same otherwise. I also have to say that being in a hotel doesn't help. I'm used to talking to my mum about what we should have this night, helping her prepare the dinner, or cook for everyone myself, setting the table, watching the sun go down...even Suhour (which is the early morning meal before sunrise) was different, waking up to the smell of fried eggs, or toast or something similar...mmmm :) Ahhh seems like I might still be hung up on home...heehee. Of course not all of Ramadan has been spent here, some of it has been spent on an aircraft, some in Munich and Frankfurt....now that is a new Ramadan tradition I can get used to!!!!

But for now id best be off and ready something to eat as the sun has begun its descent. I'm on my own tonight which I don't mind since the past two nights I've been out with friends, plus I have a good book I'm eager to get stuck into reading...so Bon appetite!!!

A very hungry and thirsty,
Vanishing Point.

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On being home...

It was sooo good to be home. I had to pay outright for the tickets but it was worth it - even if i only stayed for 2 days, my friends told me i was crazy and perhaps i am but i really needed to see those special to me. I headed out on a direct flight in the morning and arrived early the next morning. I only had a oneway ticket though and i had to buy a return when i got into Sydney, risky i know but i had done my homework before leaving and i knew there was a special on tickets back so it was a calculated risk... ;) The flight was totally full but i tried to sleep as well as i could to pass the time. I did however meet a most interesting gentleman on that flight but i'll have to write about that another time. The way back took longer as it wasnt direct but the flight was empty, so after barely sleeping in Sydney (as if i was going to waste my time sleeping when home!!!) i stretched out on a row of empty seats and slept...

Unfortunately there was one person i especially wanted to see but couldnt during my time there but it was still worth it to be home. My mum and brother didnt know id be coming and boy were they surprised! I wish i could have captured the moment. Mum was so surprised, i called her before arriving stating some lame excuse that i was sending her flowers and not to leave the house so i was sure she'd be home when i arrived...when i knocked on the door she was in a towel and all soapy and wet having just stepped into the shower!!! LOL naturally i got covered too...it was such a surprise for her. It felt great, more than great, it was brilliant. The funniest thing was my brother, mum and i made up some excuse to make him come home from work and when he got there i peeked my head out from the hallway to watch him come in, he looked at me for a second or two and then he was like "what are you doing here???!!!" in a good way though, his face went bright red as he gave me a bear hug and wouldnt let go.

It was fantastic being home, just what the doc ordered...just enjoying the typical things i took for granted like knowing how to get around, cooking with my mum in an actual kitchen, feeling the warmth of my cats fur against my hand, hearing all those familiar sounds id grown up with, getting hugs and kisses from my mum and brother whenever i wanted and just spending time chatting away with them. Its the most wonderful feeling. Being Ramadan and as i was fasting i couldnt have that morning cup of coffee with my mum but there was Iftar which i looked forward to simply because i have never spent Ramadan away from my family and if it wasnt for these 2 days it would be the first time i spent it alone. Mmmmm home cooked food, nothing fancy but still nice. Its amazing what you can take for granted isnt it?

My best friend the Cookie Monster took the morning off work to come see me at home. It was great seeing him again. He was the only one who knew i was coming and wanted to take a full day off but when i explained the time constraints he understood my wanting to spend as much time with my family as possible. So as was our usual habit we just lounged around chatting and catching up on everything, it was another thing i had been missing.

So in all it was great, but in the past 12 days i havent been here more than 3 days together!! Hahaha....what a life...:) After arriving back from my little trip home i headed out to Munich the very next morning for 4 days, then returning from that trip the next morning i had a Frankfurt flight (3 days) and only returned yesterday morning. I have a few days off now to relax and hopefully catch up on some blogging and emails.

Till then take care all.

VP

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Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know whats happening...

My posts are taking time because my internet connection is slow and as such it takes a lot of time to upload the accompanying photos. At the moment i have 2 drafts waiting from my 2 trips to Bangkok and one from Frankfurt. They will be backdated to show the proper time i wrote them so will later appear before this post.

I have been back to London (YAY) and and Frankfurt (i only arrived this morning). Both days were lovely but i wont write about them, theres something else im working on right now that is completely occupying my thoughts.

I am trying to get home to Sydney. I have been given, by some strange twist of luck (or curse...but i'll explain in a little bit) a few days off together this month and i can use them to go home, it'll be a short stay for sure but im dying to go. The problem is not so much that travelling on staff discount only becomes available to me on that first day and as such i cant get the tickets (beforehand, i can only ge them on the day), the problem is that i cant find a flight (or combination of flights) that can get me to Sydney and back in time. I have spent hours on the net, at so many different airlines sites, checking to see if i can make something work...and i ususually end up yelling profanity at my screen. So if i have the chance to go home but not the means, are the days off a twist of luck or a curse to tease and torture you?

Either way, im still searching, i hope i can make something work. Wish me luck.

VP

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