Sunday, October 19, 2008

Time flies

Is hard to believe that a year has passed already.

I have been at Virgin for a year come Wednesday.

Have just emerged from SEP, my annual exams. I dont think i have ever been so stressed out in my life. To tp it all off, i got the flu right before it, so trying to study while being muddle headed is not easy, and was making me panic even more. was i aboout to lose the job i had earned for all my life, and finally achieved??

Well, of course not. Passed with flying colours.
I think being my first one, with no idea what to expect, you listen to everyone else on board saying how vile it is and how hard it is. well there was nothing hard about it. If you study,and understand what you do, then its pretty easy.

The couple of mistakes i made in the exams, were purely down to reading errors...oh, except for which way to handle turns on the crew rest door to lock it.. what a stupid question, i mean really..you can see it lock so if you turn the wrong way you know instantly and turn it the other way.. sigh.

so i promise to study throughout the year and keep on top of my manuals and read a section each month... hahaha.. everyone says this every year..

locations were actually the hardest... where things are located on board each aircraft type.... god, its almost like its in a dogbox, attached to the bulkhead adjacent to the centre hatrack forward of the aft door... GRRRR

anyway... to celebrate my first year i put together a package which pretty much sums up my year. hope it balances out my top ten pissed off things. haha


Friday, October 03, 2008

top 10 things that piss me off in the job

if you really wanna piss off your flight attendant.. heres some good clues. these are the things that really really get my goat when im working




1. people who open overhead lockers inflight and then sit back down without closing them!!! do they think they are not allowed to close them? if you hear a loud slam on one of my flights you will know its me closing one of them!

2. passengers who have no concept of what underneath the seat in front of them means. even after several boarding announcements, a safety video and hearing crew tell others to push something further under their seat, you will still find some daft moron with a handbag sitting on their lap as we secure the cabin.

3. walking down the aisle with a coffee pot...saying Coffee? Would you like some coffee? cup of coffee? only about 50 times already, to have someone then put their cup on your tray and as you pour coffee into their cup, they ask you..."is that tea?

4. having already done 2 rounds of tea and coffee...having said either coffee or tea about 100 times as you slowly walk down the aisle with a tea or coffee pot, to then be collecting in the trays and have some loser ask....'aren't you going to serve tea/coffee?' AHHH!

5.idiots who think they are superheros, who, whilst the seatbelt signs are on, and the plane is jostling and lurching around so much, that even the cabin crew are sitting down, think they can just wander up to the toilets, that have been locked off, to stand around in the aisles...even tho announcements have been made to fasten seat belts and toilets are out of use..... do they have death wishes??

6.passengers, who even after seeing/hearing the seatbelt sign go on.. and having a cabin announcement being made that the seat belt sign is now on and you have to fasten your seatbelt...with crew moving through the cabin to check seat belts are fastened...will just sit there, having made no attempt to fasten theres, in fact act either hostilely or surprised youre even asking them to fasten theirs.

7. (again seatbelts...can you tell they are the bane of our existences) that even after several announcements regarding if you are using blankets, to fasten the seat belt over it,to save us having t wake you, still get the shits if you wake them because they have covered their belts with a blanket. honestly folks...do you think we enjoy having to stop what we are doing..which could include finally having 5 minutes to ourselves to eat something...just to check if you have your seatbelts on. whilst im on the rant... what is with parents, esp mothers... who refuse to wake their child to fasten a seatbelt, and will actually argue and yell at you... do they have no care to their childs safety at all?? its not our fault the law states we have to care for your child more than you do.

8. this one will REALLY piss off any cabin crew. A passenger will ring their call bell, typically they will be in the row furthest away from the galley. they will ask you for a mixed drink. you will walk all the way back to the galley, to make the drink and then walk all the way back to their seat. (im betting any cabin crew will guess whats coming next..) only to then have the person sitting next to them say "can i have one too" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

9. passengers who press the call bell by mistake, and either dont bother to turn it off..or keep pressing the button oblivious to the dinging going on over their head and the little light going on and off!! forcing us to have to rush all over the plane rather than set up and serve the drinks/food. and these are typically the people who complain that the service is slow in coming. whats just as bad is parents who let their kids continually do this, with an only mild "sorry" and a "shanay, stop that" only to let them continue.

10. kids that scream and yell and chuck a temper tantrum, when its time to sit down and put on the seat belt for take off. if this isnt bad enough, parents that just let their kids run all over them, and let them get away with behaving like that. i know kids are kids.. and sometimes just dont want to do things.. but you can tell the kids that are just so used to getting their way...back in my day (oh god did i actually just say that?) heaven help me if i didnt do as my parents told me! so we end up delaying.. just to try to placate some tantrum throwing child..when the parent could just yell at or discipline their children (non physically of course)


sigh... just had to get that off my chest.. ... so that i can continue to smile and be pleasant.. even though we have run out of bloody mary mix...after having been awake for 20 hours, having been on my feet for 9, without a break longer than 5 mins, and having been yelled at by ungrateful pigs for things beyond my control... sigh. i do love my job, really.....promise.. lol
one day ill have to right a top ten best things just to balance this out.