The Reality of Flying

As much as I love to keep my blog positive and only post about the fun things I get up to either in Dubai or on my layovers, the reality is that I don’t actually spend every layover out and about, exploring the city or surrounding areas.

And that’s perfectly ok! I think I would be totally burned out if I never rested and made sure to get a proper night’s sleep or spend some of my layovers just lounging in bed.

I would love to keep you all believing that this is the most glamorous job in the world, but that isn’t always the case I’m afraid! Now, of course we all know that sometimes it really is amazing – breakfast in Dubai, lunch in Milan, and dinner in New York. But on other days, the reality hits you and I don’t want to portray a false illusion here.

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Visiting Mum at Home

After Lizzie and Jarett had left me and made their way to Vietnam, I had a lovely string of days off, so I decided to go home for a few days to visit Mum. Since all of my siblings were elsewhere and Dad was flying, it was just Mum and me!

I landed into LHR and hopped onto the bus to Stansted airport, which is not too far from home. Mum had also just landed from Austria, where her and Dad had spent the past week, so I didn’t have to wait long for her.

Once we got home, we put the kettle on and sat down with some tea! Mum had told me to bring a big suitcase for my birthday present and I had absolutely no idea what it could be… so when I unwrapped this incredible knitted blanket I couldn’t believe it!

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Every patch is different and all of the colours go beautifully with my living room. It took mum around 2 years to knit it, and I never had any idea that she was making it!

We made some dinner and spent the evening watching The Apprentice and catching up.

The next morning I woke up with the sunlight peeking through the curtains, and was greeted by a lovely sunrise across the fields.

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Lizzie & Jarett in Dubai

A couple of weeks ago my sister Lizzie and her boyfriend Jarett came to visit me in Dubai. They were passing through on their way to Vietnam, where they will be living for possibly the next year! They managed to time their flights so that we had the whole day to spend together in Dubai.

I landed the evening before just after midnight, so after a couple of hours I went to pick them up at the airport.

Since they’d flown overnight from Vienna, and I’d only had a couple of hours sleep after my flight, we all hap a quick nap at home! They visited last year and we did most of the touristy stuff previously, so there was no real agenda for the day that we planned to follow.

We decided to go to City Walk, which is just a quick drive from where I live, for a walk around and some lunch.

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I believe that I’ve mentioned in some previous posts that the City Walk area has been updated recently and is now even bigger, with plenty of interesting areas to walk around in with painted murals, as well as shops, cafes, restaurants and a cinema.

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November Roster

So as you may remember from my October roster post, starting from next month (if all goes well) I’ll be working in first class! This means that I got my roster a little earlier than usual.

I’ll be starting off the month with 5 days leave, which I’ll be spending in Barcelona with my best friend Lucy. I’ve been to Barcelona lots of times, but I still love the city so I’m always happy to go back.

Other than that my roster is as follows:

  • Leave
  • EBB (Entebbe, Uganda – a new destination for me!)
  • LHR (London Heathrow, UK)
  • SFO (San Francisco, US)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)

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As you can see I have a new destination that I haven’t visited before, Entebbe! I’ll be researching what there is to do there in 24 hours, so any tips are most welcome.

Another trip to San Fran, which should be fun. Although the flight is veeeery long (I’ve just got back from a trip there as well!) it should be interesting working it in first class rather than business class.

My trip to HKG is one I’m very happy about, as it’s a 48 hour layover! When I saw that we had started 48 and 72 hour layovers there again I just had to bid for it. Now to plan what to do there with my lovely friend Kirsty!

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

October Roster

First of all my apologies for the lack of posts this month…I’ve been flying a lot but have mostly just been relaxing and taking it easy on my layovers, so I have nothing much to post on here!

Generally I like to post plenty of pictures from my trips, so I don’t think it’d be of much interest to only show you pictures of my breakfast and not much else! 😉

I’ve only got 1 more flight left this month til my leave starts, and then I’ll be heading to Mauritius the first week of October to celebrate my birthday! After my leave I have flights to:

  • MUC (Munich, Germany)
  • BKK (Bangkok, Thailand)
  • SFO (San Fransisco, USA)
  • First Class Upgrade Course (5 days back in training college!)
  • KBL (Kabul, Afghanistan – turnaround)
  • BCN (Barcelona, Spain)

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I’m surprised that I’ve actually managed to get quite a number of flying hours what with my 5 days leave at the beginning of the month and my first class upgrade towards the end of the month. I also have a string of 4 days off that I bid for to go to a wedding, but my boyfriend didn’t get the days off so we will have to wait and see if we’ll be able to attend.

I actually got a couple of flights that I asked for – Munich, to see my younger brother, and Barcelona because I love the city! In fact I bid for Barcelona before deciding to go away with my best friend Lucy at the beginning of November – 3 guesses as to where we’ve decided to go! I was originally rostered 2 but I swapped the first one for a Bangkok that somebody sent me. I’m always happy to go to Thailand!

I’m still undecided as to whether or not I want to do the San Fran flight – 16 hours is such a long time to be on the plane! We’ll see if anyone wants to swap it but it’s not looking very promising.

Very excitingly I have finally been rostered for my upgrade to first class! It’s been exactly 2 years now that I’ve been working in business class, so I’m ready for a change and hopefully I’ll enjoy it. Stay tuned!

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