The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

Meeting old friends in New York

I’m back from one of my favourite cities – New York!

As soon as I saw it pop up on my November roster I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to meet up with my friends Stephen and Colin. While I was interrailing with Lucy in the summer of 2012, we met them in Berlin and stayed in touch. I had a trip to NYC in July (or was it August? I can’t remember!) but they were off travelling so we couldn’t meet.

IMG_6772

We landed into JFK around 8am and once we finally got to the hotel (we happened to be there on the day of the NYC Marathon so traffic was pretty bad!) I was ready for a nap!

Stephen, Colin and I had arranged to meet at 5, so I had a few hours to kill. And what better to do in New York than shop!

IMG_6773 View Post

Shanghai Nights

My second flight working in business class took me all the way to Shanghai, China. After leaving Dubai in the middle of the night, we arrived in Shanghai absolutely exhausted! A couple of hours nap in the comfiest bed in the world (on par with the crew hotel in LHR!) soon sorted me out, and I met 3 other crew downstairs in the lobby for a drink.

It was one of the girls’ birthdays so we decided to head out to the Bund for some dinner and drinks. On recommendation from the concierge we chose a place called “Bar Rouge”. When we got there we stopped to admire the gorgeous view across the Huangpu River, including an awesome flower wall!

DSCN8575 DSCN8576 View Post

Rio Part II

After a short flight from Buenos Aires we arrived back in to the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. As we got to the hotel after midnight, we made arrangements to get up early the next morning for a full day of sightseeing.

The bus driver that picked us up from the airport arranges tours so the Portuguese speaker negotiated with him and we were up bright and early. Our first stop was one of Rio’s most famous icons – Christ the Redeemer, also known as “Cristo Redentor” in Portuguese. It stands at 30 metres tall (not including the 8 metre base), and the arms stretch out to 28 metres.

IMG_6345

The Christ is located at the top of the Corcovado mountain overlooking the city, so as you can imagine the views are stunning. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite as good as on our first day, and although it was hot, it was pretty foggy.

DSCN8332 View Post

Business Class here I come!

This past week I’ve had a bit of time off from flying and been back in training college, studying for my business upgrade!

The 5 day course covered everything we’ll need to know transitioning from economy to business class (although I have a sneaky suspicion that once I’m onboard it’ll all be very different!).

Before the course started we were given some homework to prepare ourselves, and the first morning was spent doing an assessment to test our knowledge. Luckily everyone passed and we were all able to continue! View Post

Eating my way around Australia

I got back yesterday from a lovely week with my family in Australia. My cousin Sarah studies at university in Melbourne, and my Aunty and Uncle and Grandparents live in Canberra.

The original plan was for Sarah to come and visit in Dubai, but somehow that ended up not happening and I decided to make the most of my staff travel benefits (as I like to do every month!) and fly to Australia!

The flight was looking pretty good, with around 40 spare seats, so I booked my ticket and packed my bags. However as I double checked the loads the night before, suddenly there were only 3 seats available to Melbourne! Luckily the guys at staff travel did their best and I managed to get on, even it was the dreaded middle seat! But who’s complaining when you’re paying practically nothing 😉

13 hours later I finally arrived in Melbourne airport, and Sarah came to pick me up. As it was only around 6am we headed back to hers for the most important thing – sleep!

After some much needed sleep it was onto what somehow turned into a theme for the rest of the week – breakfast! Or more like brunch, although not in the Dubai sense of the word (going out on a Friday from 12-4 and eating and drinking as much as possible!).

IMG_6048 View Post