Now I know I said I had some planned posts about my last NYC trip, but first I need to let you know about my latest trip to Sydney, as it was pretty eventful!
As you may recall, I was pretty bummed about not getting a Sydney trip this month, and had been madly trying to get someone to swap with me. Every time I thought I had a swap, it fell through or was invalid. Finally, I got lucky and another homesick crewmember gladly took my Manchester flight along with a Jeddah so that she too could go home. Yay!!!
I was totally looking forward to spending some time back in Oz. I didn't have anything special planned, just being there around familiar things is enough. The flight was pretty good, as always the passengers were nice and there was lots more 'please' and 'thankyou' than we often get.
There was a family travelling with four kids who were so sweet, they were so polite and had gorgeous manners. They had been through Europe and were making scrapbooks about their travels. Since kids can't visit the flgiht deck any more, I took the notebooks to the cockpit and the pilots signed them, and told me some facts that I wrote down in the books for them.
I told the kids to come to the galley whenever they wanted, as we had a camera and we'd take their picture. Two of them came up and we dressed them up in our uniforms. The girl wore my hat and jacket and we put the boy in the purser's jacekt and tie. They looked so cute! When the senior saw the photo she got us to get them back to the galley and take another photo to send to headquarters to put on our corkboard in the departures area. At the end of the flight the family came to see the cockpit after we landed and got some more photos. I love nice kids and will do anything for them to make their trip memorable.
We arrived in Sydney at around 8am, I went right to my room and unpacked then got changed and headed out.
It was kind of weird wearing summer clothes again, even though I've been living in the desert, I rarely wore anything above the knee, so it took some getting used to! As always my first stop was to get a bacon & egg roll for breakfast, then I headed into World Square to get my Priceline fix. I'd been looking for my usual L'Oreal moisturiser for ages but it seems it's been discontinued everywhere except Dubai. I didn't want to buy it in Dubai though as the version they sell here doesn't have SPF and I suspect has whitening ingredients in it.
I had just about decided to buy the new range from L'Oreal when on the bottom shelf of the display I saw my item, AND it was discounted to $9.95 from about $40 to make way for the new stock. Bonus! So I bought 2 of the day cream and 2 of the night cream. Later in the discount chemist I saw the collagen treatment for 50% off so I got that as well. Can never have too much moisturiser when you fly in a dry cabin air all the time!
I also made my usual trip to Maccas's for a bacon & egg roll hit. Oh yeah, bacon is always so good, and I am always so hungry after arriving in the early morning! Then of course to Pricleine and when I was done there I made a quick stop at Ally. I just love browsing in the clothing stores back home in Oz. A lot of the clothes in Dubai are ironically far too short for me to even consider wearing in public. I finally found a just-above-the-knee denim skirt like I'd been looking for, for a long time. It even has cute heart-shaped pockets (win!)
For the rest of the day I just enjoyed wandering around Pitt St, checking out the new Sportsgirl store and being in the sunny (but not scorching) weather. Headed back to the hotel to drop off my bags but ended up falling asleep until 6pm when I just wanted to 'close my eyes for a bit'.
Early to bed and of course up early again the next morning for the flight to Auckland which was really busy. Once in Auckland, a few of the crew decided to meet up for early dinner. Our first officer told us about a cute Mexican place that had good food so we headed there. I got a chicken burrito and maaaan was it good. Huge, too, so I only needed one. We also had frozen margaritas :) At the restaurant, there were these little birds that cheekily hopped right inside the restaurant and sat on the backs of our chairs, waiting to be fed leftovers. Hahah they were too funny!
