My few days off.....

Night out for Lucy leaving.....me and sharon and one of lucy's friends

me!
Shaz

My en suite bathroom
My new room!

Me at the Burj al arab......flashing a little bra!

The past few days i have had off, got my US visa sorted so i can now start bidding for US flights!

I moved into the A bedroom which Lucy was in, its a bit bigger and with ensuite and also private balcony...nice. Went out on Sunday night with Sharon to the Madanat area by the Burj al arab for Sushi and a drink at one of the bars and then we got a taxi back to Rotana hotel which is just up from our building to have a few drinks n Longs Bar.

Ive just been sorting the apartment out apart from that! i sunbathed by the pool for a while yesterday. I had my hair done on Tuesday too. Today i went to Mall of Emirates to buy christmas pressies and cards, im such an idiot, i was looking at cards for my mum and was thinking about what to write inside, like sorry i cant be there....when it hit me that im not going to be with everyone, its my first christmas away from home! anyway i started to feel my eyes welling up and a few tears roll down my face! luckily no one saw!

Sharon left on Wednesday soim now all alone in the apartment! its nice in some ways but quite lonely in another! Im hoping i get nice flatmates, i had a girl come to look t the place this morning and she seemed lovely, so i may sign the form to let her move in....will have a think about it....trying to drag it out a little so me and gav have the place to ourselves at christmas.

Tonight im packing for Birmingham......wahoooo!!! going to relax a bit, have a hot bath and a glass of wine! My friend Bec is coming over n an hour or so and we are going somewhere for a bite to eat and to catch up as i havent seen her since my last week of service!

Anyway, i will see you all tomorrow or Saturday!

Bye xxx

Dusseldorf

A little merry on Gluwien
Me, Alex and Alex

One of the Gluwien bar stalls

Me and the Captin

I got back from Dusseldorf just after midnight this morning, it was a good trip, easy flight there and back with nice passengers.

We got there about 1pm and had a couple of hours to sleep before some of us met up in reception to get a tram into the centre. There were lots of Christmas markets and as we were a little cold we made our first stop to be at the Gluwien stalls (mulled wine). It was verrrrryyy nice and had rum in it too, so it had quite a bit of a kick to it! We wondered round with our gluwien looking at the different stalls, i didnt buy anything this time though. Then we stopped to get a sausage thing....cant remember the german name for it but its basicallya hot dog....a big sausage though! By the time we had scoffed those down we were runninglow on gluwien so me and a couple of other got ours topped up! we ended up staying at the same bar for the rest of the evening enjoying the gluwien and christmas atmosphere.

We went back to the hotel about 9 and got a bite to eat at the hotel before heading up to bed.....i slept very well!!

The next morning our pick up was at 1250pm, the flight was again very good but i was very tired and couldnt wait to get home to bed!

I now have a few days off as i have a US visa interview on 11th, so im just going to do a few things round the apartment and a bit of christmas shopping along with catching a few rays.

My flatmate Lucy moved out on 6th, so ive been claring out some old stuff in the kitchen and i also put up my Christmas tree!! Its only 5 foot but its quite cute and ive deorated it nice with the little ginger bread from Vienna on it too...(no havent ate them yet!)

My other flatmate Sharon is leaving on 12th so i think we will spend a bit of time together the next couple of days. Oh and i think i will be able to move into the ensuite room from tomorrow!! yey!

So my next flight??....................Birmingham! yeah! on the 14th, arriving at 1900, im sure mum has already informed you all, so i hope to see you either on the Friday night for dinner or the Saturday for lunch!!

See you soon! xx

My apartment....

I thought i would post a couple of pics of my apartment.....well atleast my living room, ive completley changed it from when i first moved in.....it was pretty deserted and not too inviting!!

Vienna Trip

I got back from my Vienna layover just after midnight this morning, i absolutley loved it there! Its so beautiful! The flight there was really good, the passengers were really nice and werent demanding. It was just under full on the way there, about 6 hours there, we got there at about 1230 in the afternoon, vienna was 3 hours behind of Dubai time. When we got there we got to the hotel which was the Marriott, lovely hotel with really nice christmas decorations. We were given an allowance of 71 euros. Me and the sfs (senior flight steward) arranged to meet in about 2 hours time giving us time to have a little sleep. We went out about 5pm, it was dark by this time and very cold! about 6 degrees, was not bad at first but then my hands started to feel like they were going to drop off! i didnt have any gloves! We walked around the main part of the city, the hotel was really central. We looked round the christmas markets which are quite famous there, the things on sale were lovely, lots of hand crafts, christmas decorations, lots of ginger breads to hand on the tree and alot of ginger bread houses! yum! but they looked too good to eat and destroy! i brought a few of the ginger breads to hang on the tree and got a couple for some people back home. While we walked round we had some mulled wine which was gorg, it was quite strong though so if i had more than a couple i would have left there hammered! warmed me up though! After walking round we were quite hungry and my hands were developing frost bite so we went to a restaurant for some dinner. I had a traditional schnitzal, very nice, and we sat there chatting away, the sfs was really nice, Sam from Middlesborough.

After dinner we went back to the hotel where we sat in the loby/cafe drinking a hot chocolate before going back to our rooms and to bed. I went fairly early, about 9pm, but i had such a good sleep, the beds were just superb! you just sunk into them.

I woke up the next morning about 8am, went down to breakfast which was nice, a big buffet, too many nice things to choose from.

After breakfast i went out into the centre again on my own to take some pictures of Vienna in the day, i only took one the night before because my hands were so cold i could hardly press the button! i was a right little tourist taking pictures on my tod! i stopped off at the park opposite the hotel on the way back and got someone to take a picture of me!

We got picked up at 1pm afternoon to go to the airport, i love walking through the airport on a layover, everyone just turns to look at us, im tottering along in my uniform, red lipstick and hat in place loving it! haha we dont get that in Dubai as we have a seperate place near the airport for briefing and then the little bus takes us to the plane.

The flight back was great, half full! the passengers were pretty much all asleep after the meal service so we were just sat in the galley nattering away and eating the food from business class. Then we served ice cream about an hour or so before landing, it was hagen daz! ummm, so we were all scoffing on it!

I would definetly go back to Vienna, its so beautiful, the buildings have lovely architecture and it just has a really nice feel to it, besides, the flight was sooo easy!

My next flight is on Friday to Dusseldorf so i will update again when i get back.

Love and kisses Lis xxx

December rosta and Cairo turnaround

Hey all....

So i was due to have a Karachi turnaround yesterday at 10am (Friday) and i woke up had a shower etc, my pick up was at 720, they pick us up 2 and half hours before the flight and we have to be in the briefing room 1 and half hours before at the latest. So i called evita after my shower to check if there was any delays etc. (Evita is a automated phone system where you can hear your rosta, hear any delays, call sick, any changes you have etc.) Anyway it said i was being notified of a duty change, it was another flight...a cairo (known for being a bit of a nightmare flight!!) but it was departing at 0850! earlier than my original, so i was rushing around and cursing and had to jump in a taxi as i missed the pick up cuz i didnt know i was supposed to be on it! i got there in time luckily but everyone told me they are actuallysupposed to call me to tell me, especially if its earlier than my original flight! so now im unsure if im even going to check evita right before a flight now! i dont want that stress agan!
Anyway it turned out to be ok, i think its proberly because my expectations of the flight were really low, so it wasnt as bad as i thought! they were very demanding and i had the odd rude passenger but i just carry on and dont let it get to me! My sfs (senior flight steward) said he was doing an appraisal on me, in my 6 months probation i have t have about 4 done on me, he didnt have to do one but said he wanted to as he was really impressed with me, he said i was doing really well for my 3rd opperational flight and i had no problems...yey! so that goes back to my manager and also onto the crew portal (an internet system whichwe all have a log in for and where we can swap fights, see our rosta, put in for leave, bid for flights etc) where i can see what he put and comment if i like.
So i have 2 days off now and i got my rosta for Dcember while i was in Malta, its not bad, im in the process of swapping some flights though.

I have a Vienna layover on Monday, then a Dusseldorf on 7th, then they gave me another dusseldorf on 14th but i have swapped it with a Birmingham (its just waiting to be approved by scheduling), then i have a few days off after that to have my US visa interview, then on 18th i have a Columbo and at the moment i have a jakarta on the 22nd which gets back at 5am on 25th...xmas day!! but im trying to swap it for 2 turnarounds so that im in dubai more, as Gav is here from 22nd, its been accepted by someone but im just waiting for crew scheduling to approve! fingers crossed! then i have a dacca layover on 29th but amazingly someone agreed to swap with me for days off instead! again it needs to be approved though. So if all goes well with my swaps im quite happy with my rosta!
Gav will come on 22nd and leave early hours on 31st, so its going to be really nice having christmas dinner togther and just doing the usual christmas stuff (but in dubai!!) I just need to get a tree now! yey!

Malta Layover....

Hey everyone!

I got back from my 2 day Malta layover early hours this morning, really tired now!! It was a really good trip, good flight on the way over there, it was via larnaca (Cyprus), so 3 and half hours there and 2 half hours from there to Malta. I felt alot more confident and because it wasnt a quick turnaround i could actually have time to chat with the passengers more! When we got there it was about 2pm, so we checked in, got our allowance which was about 75 british pounds...55 maltese lira. Then a few of us went to stroll around the shops near the hotel and have coffee and cake! I brought mum a fridge magnet and a little souviner for the apartment. We went back to the hotel after to get ready to go out that evening, we were staying at the Intercontinental...very nice.

We met some of the others that night for dinner, went to a nice italian restaurant and by 10pm i felt like a zombie and im still not sure how i was keeping my eyes open! so we all went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next day a few of us got a bus to Valetta (the city) and we walked around there, had some lunch, shopped a bit, i found miss selfridge!! (the uk store) so i got a couple of bargains! We went to the Palace, we had a private tour around it because we were having our pictures taken with the army gurads and one of them was really nice and offered to take us round and not charge us to get in!
Then we needed a coffee boost so stopped off to watch the maltese world go by while munching on a cake! again!
After Valetta we got back on the bus and went to salima on the way back. We just went to a few shops for a look round, there was a marks and spencers so i got a couple of bottles of wine and some yummy shortbread.

That evening we went out for a meal at a nice restaurant on the bay before going to a bar and onto a club. We were back about 1am and then were picked up for the bus at 1250pm to go to the airport. I picked up some more wine at duty free off we went.

The flight from larnaca to Dubai was full so we were very busy on the way back, but i still enjoyed it, but was very tired!