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

Adventures in Australia

As you may have noticed it’s been rather quiet over here on the blog…I’ve been off work for a few weeks and have been making the most of my staff travel benefits and time off and have been visiting several different countries this month!

I started off with a trip to Australia to see my grandparents, who I don’t get to visit very often. They live in Canberra, next door to my aunty and Uuncle, so I decided since I had a bit more free time I would pay them a visit. I flew with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong to break up the flights a bit, and with only a small amount of drama (forgetting that I needed to apply for a visa to Australia!!!) I made it first to Sydney, then on to Canberra.

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October Roster

Sorry for the silence over here on the blog – I’ve been on leave for the past couple of weeks and am actually not going back to work till October, so I’ve been very much enjoying just having a bit of time off and relaxing!

If you follow me on Instagram you might have spotted that I flew down to Australia to spend some time with my grandparents and aunty and uncle in Canberra, and my cousin in Melbourne. I then flew on to Hong Kong to meet my friend Kirsty, and from there we jetted off for a week in Borneo! A new country for the both of us, and we made sure to squeeze in as much as we possibly could, despite having her 4-month old baby Theo in tow! 🙂

Now I’m back in Dubai with just enough time to unpack, do some washing, and repack my suitcase, as I’m still not done travelling and will shortly be heading off to Portugal! I’m taking Joe with me, and we’re meeting my parents and one of my brothers and his girlfriend for a week of cycling along the coast. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the last of the summer weather as I wouldn’t mind coming back with a bit of a tan!

Enough rambling for now and onto my roster for October. I’ll be flying to:

  • BEY – Beirut, Lebanon (turnaround)
  • MEL – AKL – Melbourne, Australia & Auckland, New Zealand
  • JNB – Johannesburg, South Africa
  • JED – Jeddah, KSA (turnaround)
  • MUC – Munich, Germany
  • ACC – ABJ – Accra, Ghana & Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Starting the month off with a not-so-lovely nighttime turnaround to Beirut, I’m still hoping some miracle will happen and someone will give me their days off for this, but let’s be real here…that’s never going to happen, haha!

Then I’m off to Australia and New Zealand for a 6-day multi sector trip, and I’ve already made sure my cousin Sarah is free in Melbourne. I’ve been to Auckland a few times now, so if anyone has any other fun ideas or suggestions of what to do there, do let me know!

In between my MEL-AKL and JNB I have 5 days off, so if flights are ok I will hopefully be flying to Manchester to stay with my best friend Lucy for a long weekend! We were meant to go away together in September but it didn’t work out, so this should be a long overdue catch-up!

Next up is a trip to Jo’burg, which I’ve only done once (and is actually the flight I met my boyfriend Joe on!) so I’ll be happy to head back for a delicious steak and some wine!

Of course there had to be a turnaround to Saudi Arabia in there, but let’s hope its nice and uneventful.

After that I’m off to Munich, and I’ll be visiting my brother Matt and his girlfriend Miriam and their new dog, which I’m very excited about! Matt likes so cook so I’m already hoping he’s going to be whipping up something nice for my visit! 😉

Lastly a new destination for me – Accra! Africa is my least-visited continent, so I thought it was about time I bid for some new African destinations, and for this trip we fly to Accra and stay there for 24 hours, then on to Abidjan and back (I believe it’s only around a 1 hour flight) and then stay another 24 hours in Ghana. So any tips or must-do’s are much appreciated!

Somewhere between Canberra and Melbourne – thanks Qantas for the ride!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

September Roster

It’s time for another roster post and this one will be kept very short and sweet, as believe it or not I only have one flight next month!

I’ll be ending August with a trip to Phuket, and following that a turnaround to MAA – Chennai, India. And after that, I’ll be off work for 3 weeks!

View from the cockpit somewhere on the way to Fort Lauderdale!

I have 2 weeks of unpaid leave, followed by a week of normal leave. Emirates has been offering unpaid leave every month since January and despite applying every time, it’s only now that I’ve finally got it. Plans are still being made as to where I’ll go but the options are endless….and all suggestions are welcome! Of course I’ll be keeping you updated on here and via Instagram, so stay tuned.

The last week of September I’m heading on a family holiday with my boyfriend, parents, and one of my brothers and his girlfriend to Portugal. We’ll be spending time along the coast and I can’t wait!

Lots of love and thanks as always for reading and for all of your lovely comments!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

A day out in Cambridge, England

A couple of weeks ago I had a nice little string of 5 days off, and it just so happened that the first day was my mum’s birthday! With a bit of sneaky planning with my siblings I managed to get on the first flight out to London, and Jarett (my sister Lizzie’s boyfriend), managed to come and pick me up from the airport, all while Mum had no idea I was coming home. My brother Matt and his girlfriend Miriam had just been to visit and my other brother Harry had also just arrived, so we almost had the whole family at home!

I was lucky as the weather was the start of the hottest week of the year so far, absolutely beautiful blue skies and sunshine every day.

Actual clouds…a rare occurrence in Dubai!

As I walked through the door mum still had no idea I was coming….and she was just a bit surprised, to say the least! 😀 First things first of course, I whipped up a birthday cake which we sat down and enjoyed with a cup of tea. When in Rome…!

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July Roster

Once again it’s time for another roster post. I finally finished my reserve month and if you were following along on Instagram you might have seen which flights I got – Milan, London Heathrow, Jeddah, Hong Kong, Casablanca, and finally a Chennai turnaround.

There’s not been too much to blog about as I didn’t do much worthy of pictures, so I don’t have too much to tell! In Milan I headed back to the same restaurant that I went to the week before, and in London I popped into town to do a bit of shopping and pick up some groceries.

Pasta with courgette & courgette flowers in Milan, Italy

London was fairly uneventful until the way back, where we had some problems with the aircraft just as we were about to take off, so had to taxi back to stand, hang around onboard for a while, and finally ended up sending all our passengers on another flight and deadheading back to Dubai! In case you’re not familiar with the term, deadheading just means when you travel as a passenger instead of working the flight!

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