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

The Dubai Diaries at home: Miracle Garden

I’m currently on tourist duty in Dubai as my boyfriend’s family are over for a couple of weeks. Although his parents have visited before, we decided to head out to visit the Dubai Miracle Garden.

It was my second time visiting this desert flower garden, which is made up of over 109 million flowers, and spread over 72,000 square metres. I visited with my sister Lizzie, her boyfriend Jarett, and my friend Kirsty’s husband Dan, who was visiting Dubai at the time. You can read about that trip here!

This time we headed out to the Miracle Gardens just after lunchtime, and despite the weather not being great (it’s been grey and cloudy, with temperatures barely reaching the 20’s for the past few weeks!) and it being a weekday, the tourists were out in full force!

Since the gardens are only open from October – April due to the high temperatures in summer, now is the perfect time to visit. The whole layout has actually been changed completely since the last time I visited, and I have to be honest, I preferred it last year! The whole area just seemed too spread out, and not as many interesting sculptures this time.
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February Roster

Our rosters came quite a few days early this month, which was a pleasantly unexpected surprise!

After having been very lucky and getting quite a few flights that I asked for this month, I should have been on reserve, or “bottom bid” for February. However I was lucky enough to receive a fairly normal roster, with (almost) no nasty surprises! I asked for 5 days off at the end of the month, to try and keep up with my 2017 resolutions of travelling more, and I actually got them, which I’m quite surprised about.

I’ll also be flying off to:

  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland
  • DOH – Doha, Qatar (turnaround)
  • DUB – Dublin, Ireland
  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland
  • COK -Cochin, India (turnaround)
  • IAH – Houston, USA

As you can see, two trips to Zurich, which always pop up on my roster. No complaints there as it’s a shortish flight, usually not too busy, and a great allowance.

It’s been a couple of years since I went to Dublin so I’m looking forward to that one, any tips or recommendations are much appreciated!

Houston is now back on the 777, and that’ll be my first long-haul flight since working in first class.

Only two turnarounds, a quick Doha (around 40-45 minutes each way!) and a Cochin, not a particularly desired flight as it leaves around 2am and gets back around 12pm the next day. Horrible timings and a long flight, but let’s hope for the best!

As for my 5 days off at the end of the month, a little getaway is in the works with my friend Kirsty, fingers crossed everything works out…stay tuned to see where we end up!

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

Christmas Lights in London

First of all I must apologise for not updating my blog for a couple of weeks – I’ve been flying non-stop and in-between Christmas preparations and present buying I also had a dying MacBook, which has now been replaced with a shiny new one!

Last week I needed to pick up a few of my last Christmas presents, so I swapped my original Milan flight for a Heathrow. A fairly easy flight on the way over, as it departed Dubai at 3am so all of our passengers in first class slept most of the way. I had a quick nap once we landed then jumped on the tube into central London.

As you can imagine in the lead-up to Christmas it was very busy (even on a weekday!) but I still managed to get all of my last minute present-buying done. The Christmas lights along Oxford street were all lit up and looking rather pretty, so I thought I’d share a few pictures.

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December Roster

It’s that time of the month again…my last roster of 2016! This year has just sped by, and I’ve almost completed my first month of working in first class.

Next month I’ve got plenty of European flights, perfect for visiting the Christmas markets and getting in the festive spirit. I’m just waiting for December 1st so I can put my Christmas tree up!

In December I’ll be flying off to these destinations:

  • GVA (Geneva, Switzerland – my first time!)
  • KBL (Kabul, Afghanistan)
  • AMM (Amman, Jordan)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • MXP (Milan, Italy)
  • DOH (Doha, Qatar)
  • GVA (Geneva, Switzerland)
  • Leave (Home for Christmas!)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)

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I was surprised to see 3 turnarounds (Kabul, Amman & Doha) in next month’s roster, as that’s more than I usually get. They are short flights, although in Kabul we stay on ground for almost 4 hours so it’s a long day. Thankfully we now get paid for ground time during turnaround flights!

As you can see I’ll be a regular in Switzerland – I put it as a low bid and got 2 GVA and 2 ZRH, although not much else that I bid for!

The best part of my roster is 5 days leave over Christmas – it’s been 3 years since I had Christmas off!

I’m slowly getting used to working in first class, and enjoying the change. Hopefully it won’t be long before I fully know my way around the galley!

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

Eating our way through Barcelona…Part II

We started off our Sunday morning with breakfast at a cafe we’d spotted the day before right by the water, called Brunch & Cake. A perfectly suited name for our leisurely morning!

The weather was on our side once again, and although the temperature was a bit chillier the sun was out and it was a lovely crisp Autumn morning.

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All of the choices on offer at the cafe sounded really interesting, and the presentation of the dishes was just as pretty. Somehow they’d even managed to make the poached egg pink!

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