I survived my reserve month! As you may know I was scheduled reserve in January (and the beginning of February), which means you are pretty much on standby every day until you check your roster at 6pm. Then you’ll know if the next day is going to be a day off, a flight, or a standby duty. I was pretty much only rostered standby duties and put on a flight from there.
My first day of reserve I had airport standby, and before I even arrived I could see a turnaround to Bombay on my roster! Other than that quick overnight turnaround I was only rostered layovers, so I got pretty lucky really!
I ended up in:
- Madrid
- Melbourne – Auckland
- Beijing
- Boston
I guess now I’m writing it down that doesn’t seem like many flights, but the trip to Melbourne and Auckland is a 6 day trip so that took up a nice chunk of my roster.
Before that I’d had a few days off, and somehow I managed to get a rather nasty bout of food poisoning! I’m not sure what it was from but I had to call sick for 3 days, and I try not to call sick if I can avoid it. However this time I definitely needed some time to recover!
My trip to Beijing was pretty uneventful, although it was a 30 hour layover it was absolutely freezing (-1 degree!) and I had been on airport standby when I was put on it. It’s very hard to pack for airport standby as you could end up anywhere! Especially this time of year where it’s winter in most places, you need to pack for any type of weather and any length of trip. Luckily I’d packed a coat and I’ve been to see the Great Wall before so it’s not like I was missing out.
Boston was a nice surprise, as I’d never been there before. If you didn’t catch it, my last post was all about my snowy layover there!
After all that my reserve month was over! I got pretty lucky with my flights to be honest, and some good flying hours which means my salary won’t be suffering either, haha!
I then had a trip to Houston, where we visited a great Mexican restaurant, and did some shopping at the giant mall there. (As if we can’t get enough shopping in Dubai!)
After my trip to Houston, my best friend Lucy came to visit me in Dubai! This was the first time she’d been to Dubai, so we made sure to visit all of the usual attractions, and then spent a couple of days relaxing in a lovely hotel in Fujairah. Now I’ve got a couple more days off to relax at home before it’s back to work for me!
P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂
Nice post. I like the way you start and then conclude your thoughts. Thanks for this information. I want to know the price lists of flight to Dubai.
Such a great blog! Thank you for that 🙂
Could you tell me the secret how you get the motivation to do some exercise? I can’t motivate myself enough, especially if I feel tired 🙁 Also, do you prepare your own food or do you eat the food on a plane?
Thank you 🙂
Author
Thank you so much! Honestly I find it hard to get motivation, I really have to push myself! I just try to bring my gym gear on every layover and I have an app called Nike Fitness Club which has free workouts, I usually do a 30 or 45 min one with a little warmup before. Even if it’s not a huge long workout it does make me feel better and then I can justify eating a big breakfast at all the hotels we stay at haha! I don’t usually bring food on the plane, only if I have leftovers from the night before. So yeah I do eat plane food but I’ll try and keep it healthy if I can, luckily in business class I find it easier than in economy! (salads from the trays, more meal choices with veggies, etc) Safe flying! 🙂
Its always a good feeling reading your post 🙂 excitement and even a little sense of your experience. Keep writing and keep flying 🙂 (safely though).
Regards from Tonga !!
Author
Thanks so much, glad you enjoy my posts 🙂