January......2008!

Well my rosta this month was pretty good, no turnarounds, i have a Kuala Lumpur on 1st Jan, Johannasburg on 5th, gatwick 10th (which i have now swapped for a Birmingham!!) a manchester on 14th (which i swapped for a Venice!!! on 13th! to my excitment!) then i have about 5 days in dubai and on 20th i have a melbourne/Auckland/melbourne layover getting back on 25th and then i have days off for the rest of the month.......and mum is coming yey!!!
I have already booked us in for afternoon tea at the Burj and mum is so excited! we are going to do a desert safari too!
Im so excited about my birmingham too, im staying at mums this time and im looking after chloe in the afternoon, cant wait!
So im very happy with this months rosta!!

Christmas time!!

So 21st came and i was due to do a Bahrain turnaround that afternoon getting back at 8pm, just in time for me to have a bath and relax before gav arrived after midnight......i get a call while im getting ready to say my flight has been changed to a Beruit!! grrr, its a little longer and ggot me back just after 1am, so im stressing a little thinking i wont be here when gav arrives! Luckily we both land 5 minutes apart and i get back to the apartment before him!
The next morning we spend the day chilling out in the apartment catching up with each other as i had another turnaround that evening to Kuwait. So gav caught up with his mates watching the football that evening and i was back by about 2am the next morning. That day we went to the mall of Emirates and did a bit of shopping, i got some gorgeous silver shoes from French Connection with some of my christmas money! We had some lunch in apres which overlooks the ski dubai and later we went to watch some football, ended up in fibbermageez (an irish bar down the road) and came back home to play a drunken game of buzz! Next day we went to Deira city centre mall and festival city and also picked up our food shopping and turkey!! we didnt get back till after 730 and were planning to go out but were tired and instead just watched some dvds and had a takeaway.
Next morning......Christmas day!!!! I opened my bedroom curtains to see sheik zayed road....as busy as usual??!! im thinking thats not right! its christmas dayyyy!! we realise we forgot a couple of things for the turkey and head to spinnys in mercato mall near me...after opening our pressies of course! theres quite a few people doing there shopping??? what is going on.....christmas day!!! its just not the same in Dubai!!
I enjoyed it because Gav was here but i really missed being with the family and being in the UK! especially after talking with my dad, rob bex and chloe on webcam!! i had a few tears on the phone to my mum too!
Anyway we spend the day watching some dvds, cooking the turkey, drinking mulled wine and playing a few christmas songs much to gavs dissapproval! After our turkey which was very nice! we went accross the road to my friends apartment (Bec) to have a couple of drinks with her before heading out to Irish Village for a couple of drinks.
Boxing day we went to the madanat area for a walk round, and then we tried to get in last minute for afternoon tea at the burj but they were booked up till mid jan! so we went to Le meridien and sat on the beach having a couple of drinks before coming back home to chill out. That night we went out to watch the football and then gav took me to a really nice bar called buda bar, very unusual and very nice. We ended up at the le meridiens bar risti.
The next day we did plan on going to the beach but ended up not doing much, just enjoying being together. We had a lovely meal at the Shang ri la hotel up the road, in their chinese restaurant. I get 50% off there so it was great! we shared a whole duck for our main course and ive never had better, it was sooo nice!
The next day we had lunch out and spent the day in the apartment as i had a lovely Dhaka layover (Bangladesh!) It was awfull! i just wanted to be at home with gav. I never want to do the flight again, the only good thing was that i picked up some bargain dvds at the hotel dvd shop! Lost season 3, excellent copy for 2 pounds!! Heros season 1 and a couple of movies. The time i was there was spent sleeping and having a bit of room service. On the bus on the way to the hotel, we were stopping at traffic lights and there were women and children knocking on the windows beging for money, it was horrible.
Anyway the next day i was back in Dubai about 3pm and Gav was leaving for the airport about 10pm, so we had take out and spent some time together before we had to say goodbye (Again!!)

Colombo - Sri Lanka layover

Sorry i havent updated this for a while!
So my colombo layover on ....think it was 18th December was ok. The hotel we stay at is near the airport so not near the tourist area, i could have gone there but since it was just a 22 hour layover there wasnt much time, so if i get a 2 day layover there i will be able to explore more!
When we arrived it was about lunch time and there was alot of guards with guns at the airport...scarey!
I was so tired as i had been flying through the night and only had a few hours sleep before the flight but me and a couple of other girls forced ourselves to go out and see something! We went on a shopping tour organised by the hotel, its so cheap there and you can pick up some lovely things. I got myself some unusual coasters and placemats (figured i can use them when me and gav get a house together) and these coconut candles (half coconuts filled with candle wax). I picked up some cheap dvds too, one tree hill season 4.....so happy about that one!!
After shopping we went back to the hotel and i oredered room service, soup and a roll! and i crashed out b4 our early flight the next morning. As we just went shopping i didnt get any pics :(

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