And so begins another working month.

Feels like I haven't done a thing for ages, workwise that is, although I did manage to get a trip during my 'vacation leave', a nice one actually, since it was a five-day Tashkent. That will totally save my paycheck.
Then today it's back to work, on a 5-day Amman (with an overnight shuttle to Addis Ababa tomorrow evening).

I decided it would be a waste to go to Iceland during my leave this time, and anyway my parents and brother were in London for most of the time I had off!
Them, my mum's brother, his wife and their 2 daughters and son. So a bit of a family reunion over here! It was great seeing them all though, and I realised it's been absolute ages since I've seen some of my relatives, who are now scattered all over Europe!

In fairness nothing much is happening these days, got a busy month ahead of me, finally! Amman, Beirut, Teheran (twice), Tashkent and then finally Damascus. Then my housemates and I are planning a weekender to Manchester. One of my housemates wants to introduce us to the magic of that city which, according to him, is absolutely fantastic. Should be fun anyway, as us lot in this house usually manage to have a good time wherever we are.

It's nearly summer though, which the weather here is desperately trying to get through, on some days the sun does manage to shine through, but then somedays it fails miserably to do so, and instead we get hail!
Should get better soon though, in any case the places I'll be visiting are pretty much guarranteed temperatures in the upper twenties and a fair amount of sunshine!

Happy summer y'all!

Standby

They are a funny thing, them standbys. You can have one the day before a trip, and normally pray to the almighty not to be called out, as you really want to do that trip which you were scheduled to fly with two of your coursemates from training and were guaranteed a fantastic time... then the phone rings: "Hi Pall, it's BMED ops here, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to call you out for a Tashkent..."
Damn.
Then there are the standbys one can get after a trip, and pray to the almighty that you do actually get called out, cause if not you'd be only getting 3 trips for the whole month and end up with a pretty lousy paycheck at the end of it.

It's the latter for me today.
Came back from Tehran on Sunday, feeling surprisingly awake and shall I say, a tad fresh (even though it was technically a flight from hell, with the caterers in Tehran having stolen 28 meals, us having an overbooked flight, and not mentioning the Performance Manager on-board to make it a little bit harder, anyhow).
Then yesterday, Monday, I was on standby and didn't get called out. Same today.
The main problem is that starting Friday, I'm on a whole 10 days' leave... only to finish the month with a 4-day trip. This means a lousy paycheck for the month of April. I actually called ops this morning to let them know I'd be happy to do some work during my vacation as I'm not planning to do anything or go anywhere. Just hope my wish comes true.

In other news: nothing.

Oh, and I think it's great that Charles and Camilla finally got married. A bit of a Cinderella story really. Totally good on them, after over 3 decades and a disapproving evil mother.

It's Tehran today!

Yey, I've spent most of the day reading my manual, refreshing my mind on things like what to do in hijacks and the like. Right now I'm onto signs and symptoms of Hyperglycaemia.

Our new housemate just moved in. Another Trolley Dolly, Lloyd, who works for bmi (aka. british midland). So now the house is complete, ready for this summer's numerous BBQs and whatnots!

Got a couple of hours till my friend Ronaldo comes to get me to go to work. He's one of my coursemates, in fact we also had our interview on the same day back in August! He'll also be on my flight to Tehran, which will make it fun.
In dying need of a chocolate fix. This week's obsession (as opposed to last week's Häagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream) is Toffee Crisp bars. I know, how weird, but that's just what I need now. Yum, a cheewy Toffee Crisp!
Nothing to worry about though, as I'm sure I'll be allergic to them by next week ;)

Have a good weekend everyone!

Had a lovely time in Russia. 9 days of doing absolutely nothing at all.
Well, except for eating of course!

On my way back to London, I stopped over in fabulous Zürich for half a day.
I adore that city, in fact Switzerland as a country can hardly be rivalled in terms of fabulousness and efficiency by any place on this earth.
I'll so be making numerous visits to both Geneva and Zürich once I get my concessions, which by the way, is soon, or on April 18th!

As I have a whole 10 days off later in the month I'm contemplating jumping up to Iceland for a few days, a weekend or so.

Just come back from Tashkent this morning, a long flight, but a nice trip with an absolutely brilliant crew, and a hilarious purser, probably the best one I've worked with so far. It's just great how an easy-going crew can make a long 10hr flight pass by in an instant.
Next one is a 3-day Tehran, which will be my annual check-flight. This is where my knowledge on everything to the minute details of the Club World service to the differences in slides on the doors of an Airbus a321 will be tested! As you can maybe imagine, I'm already dreading it. The good thing is I'm not alone, as two of my course-mates will be on that flight with me. In fact I know everyone on the crew except for the purser (... which kinda scares me, although a vast majority of them are really nice). She might actually turn out to be a total nutcase like some are.
In reality though, if you think about it, you've gotta be a bit mad to do this job, where "going to work" means spending your day bursting through the skies in a metal tube, serving drinks and food to dozens if people then pop down for some gossiping in the back galley (yeah, as if that ever happens...).

I was going to paint my room during my days off, but now I just can't be asked. It'll just have to stay orange (yes, I know, totally hideous) for a bit longer.

Oh, and it looks like we're getting a new housemate to fill up my old room across the hallway... don't know who it's goin to be yet, but I guess that will become clear in the next few days. At least we have an opportunity to interview anyone who comes around looking at the romm. Don't want any old weirdo coming to live with us! (Coz we ain't no weirdos here... humm).