Daniel-San was not lost in translation

Survived my first Narita trip. Studied a bit the day before, on some japanese phrases, and asked the national crew as i went for the japanese phrases, and managed to do the whle flight speaking only japanese to the passengers. not bad for someone who doesnt speak japanese. mind you... bit of a tongue twister saying gotojo arrigato gozaimas to every single passenger who boarded.

was a nice surprise to have scott on the flight... he managed to swap onto it the day prior.

had an earthquake while we were there... was strange... laying in bed..and the bed started shaking and the walls were creaking.... only lasted a few seconds but long enough to notice.

Our room had a mirror in it that was like the one out of The Ring.




Narita town is where all the air crew stay, so you can imagine what the bars were like.. full of flight attendants and flight deck, all getting drunk and being sleazy.

went and saw the temple at narita, which is the 2nd oldest in japan. then went out drinking again...there really isnt much else to do in narita... tyoko is 70 mins away by train and apparently you need to change trains, and buy extra tickets etc.. so wasnt worth the trip.

strange thing about the trip was how hard it was to seep at night here...and how tired during the day we were. so i was absolutely hanging on the flight on the way home. which was 12 hours long. we were lucky enough to get 3 hours crew rest, and all i remember is laying down and closing my eyes and the next second being woken up and told its time to go back. but did manage to eat 2.5 meals during the flight.

as knackered as we all were, we decided to amuse ourselves and stay alert by playing dress ups with the demo kits


and seeing how many flight attendants can fit in an aircraft toilet.


even got to join the club!!! (sorry no pics of that!!)


scotts birthday today.... havent had a chance to get him anything as we were together s much i cant go shopping without him.... but he is going away again soon so hopefully i will have some time to go look.

whats coming up for me?? a 3 night trip to the Caribbean.. nothing but booze and sun baking to do. LOVE IT!!

What a goose I am

the day started like any other.. me running around trying to get ready, in time to leave to get to the airport. I had checked my roster the night before and caculated my check in time.
Got to train station, with 5 mins to spare for the train to gatwick, however, the ticket seller had sold me a ticket on one operator, and the train was another, so i had to wait 15 mins for the next train which my ticket was valid for. This meant that i would be arriving at the airport about 5 mins before my check in time.. eeek.. any delays would be disasterous. My anxious nerves jumped up and down like a kid on a pogo stick.

i arrived at check in.... only to find that instead of a 7.45am check in, i was supposed to get here at 10.40am. How had i got it so wrong?

anyway, i stood around waiting for 25 mins whilst they made a decision if they were going to roll me onto an earlier flight, so instad of a 1 night orlando they might have put me on a 2 night st lucia, which was returning via manchester.... not ideal but hey.. who cares where i go, its all the same really. but someone else was desperate to get onto that flight so i gave the position to him.

so now i sit at the airport... potentially still going to orlando, but have to standby in case they put me on something else. could end up anywhere... with only 1 nights change of clothes, for warmer climates. luckily all gatwick flights go to warmer climes.

wonder what else today is going to bring??

a new chapter

well after a days hunting and traipsing from agent to agent we found a new flat. 1 block from the seafront and ocean views from the balcony!! moving day will be a bit of a hassel since both scott and i are rostered to be away on the day.. bloody carmen!

Living Happily Ever After

I often wondered what happened once the white knight carried off the princess into the fairytale fantasy ever after. And now i know.

12 months on, Scott and are are just as much in love as ever. true, we have our moments, like any couple.. where we could just kill each other, but then i look at him and know im where im supposed to be.

so whats happened in my life so far that has kept me away from blogging.

i was on standby, and got given a Hong Kong / Sydney run. whilst it was a 9 day trip from home, and would have me away for my birthday, but since Scott wasnt going to be home, i thought it was a great opportunity.

ended up being in HK for the actual big day. woke up in the morning and opened the parcel scott had given me to open on the day. There was a big birthday card, which actually sang happy birthday daniel to me, and a small box which contained a birthday cake and a stuff toy doberman. i should have been down...being on my own for my birthday but i was actually fine. My crew mates tok me out for the day, and we went into Bubba Gumps, a restaurant/bar at the top of victoria peak for a drink and they had ended up telling the staff it was my birthday and next thing you know theres an ice cream sunday with a candle and the staff and crew singing happy birthday, at my horror and embarrassment. but it was very sweet.

that night the crew took me out to the nightclub district. at any given time there are 4 crews in HK at the same time. and id say there was a good mix of 3 crew at the bar we first went to. they waited for a lull in the music before launching into another rendition of happy birthday at the top of their lungs, before lying me with a B52 and 3 tequila shots. 2 of which were taken as a body lick sip suck.. where i had to luck the salt of a chicks tits and then take the lemon out of her mouth. needless to say i was a bit tipsy after all that.

then we all started laying pass the cherry.. which you really do have to be a bit drunk t play. it involves someone putting a glace cherry in their mouth and then you pass it from one persons mouth to another, t another, to another... when i think now of all the germs and spit all ver that cherry i cant believe i did it.. however it did seem like a fun idea at the time. after a good pub crawl, numerous beers, and a bit of a boogie later, i finally got in a cab back to the hotel at 4.30am. slept like a log.
n landing in sydney, i tried to get a few hours sleep.. but to no avail. was totally weird arriving into sydney, but being cabin crew, and its not actually coming home but rather my stopover. every thing looked familiar yet surreal.
had lunch with a friend of mine mick, and then a quick afternoon tea with don and andy, before surprising mum once she had got home from work. Had decided not to tell mum i was coming so i could surprise her. spent the evening with her, and had my brother and nieces over.

slept back at the hotel.. like a log, since by the time i had got to bed i had been awake over 24 hours.. which seems to be becoming a regular occurance these days.

the way home was strange.. walking thru sydney airport as crew.. afer all those years as a passenger, wishing i could be crew... and now i finally did it. was surreal... like a dream come true.

when back into hong kong, some of the crew and i went to disneyland, where i regressed into a big kid and ran around hugging all the characters. was kinda fun to let go for just one day. i loved the buzz lightyear ride.

was strange to realise i was on my way back home.
when i actually started to think..im on my way home, i realised i had really started to feel like the UK was now my home, and now that i had the chance to visit sydney, it was just a stopover for me, rather than my home. it really helped me get over my homesickness and while ill always be an australian at heart and always call australia home.... im now living 100% in the uk and liking it.

my flight after that was supposed to be to miami, but i got to gatwick only to realise i had left my ID at home...so had to go all the way back home on the 40 min train, pick it up and g all the way back again... by the time i got to heathrow i had missed my flight and was now going to chicago. imagine for a moment.. miami.. warm sunshine and tropical heat.... so now picture whats in my suitcase..... now im told im off to chicago.... where we are told onboard, that its -1 and snowing. hmm.. luckily they give us a decent allowance there and i shopped up a storm buying warm clothes. basically the wind there was so cold, in 2 mins your ears and nose are frozen so badly they hurt.

was supposed to go to shanghai after that but the flight got cancelled so i have been sitting at home for a week on available days.. which means they might need me and will tell me the day before.. however... not needing me.. means i have had a week off plus 3 days leave coming up at the end of it all. enjoying the break.

so happily eer after seems like a worthwhile thing....and just keeps on being the best thing ive ever done.