There's that famous saying that what you do on New Year's Day will predict how the next year will go. Well, if mine is anything to go by, I'll be sleeping in and getting ready for work in 2013! Not sure how I feel about that...
I had standby just before New Year's- tried to be good and sleep beforehand but it just wasn't happening for me. I got to the standby lounge and semi-unpacked to make myself comfortable for the duration. With about an hour to go, I finally allowed myself to think that I might just be getting New Year's 2012 off since I had to work at Christmas. Mistake! No sooner than I had the thought, I heard "Staff number XXXXXX, you are pulled for Flight XX to (US destination)". Groan!!
U.S. flights are hard work at the best of times; on top of this add hardly any sleep and no good food that morning (had been waiting on the delivery guy to arrive to the standby lounge, so no breakfast!) As the flight went on though, I could manage to think of the positives- we had a good range of crew, the passengers were okay and the destination had some interesting things to see. I'd get through it.
That trip brought me back to Dubai on January 2nd. Since it had displaced me from the following trip (boo hoo- Kuala Lumpur, haven't been for ages!) I ended up with three extra days of reserve. Luckily, I didn't get called but could use those days to recover from jet lag.
Yesterday was a bit of a waste; I slept in, took down the Christmas decorations and spent half the day trying to book some last minute staff tickets for my sister. Of course New York this time of year on standby is out of the question so had to convince her to try somewhere else instead. Then stayed up all night as my body clock was stuffed up and watched movies. Popcorn at 3am, yeah that 'healthier diet' resolution can start next week... ;)
And now, after sitting in a bit of a funk today, to try and get out of my bad mood I have decided to clear out my closet of all the stuff I never use or "will get round to" wearing some day. Unfortunately, I tend toward a personality that likes to have 'stuff', and lots of it. I'm kind of ADD in that I go from one hobby to another with regularity, love it to death then quickly move on to something else. Thus, I have 'stuff' from scrapbook paraphernalia to baking equipment to my fish tanks, proper paper books, comic collection, , beauty products, video games etc etc... which is fine if you live in your own place, not so fine when you share. (At least I have the big bedroom!)
Which brings me to my problem. I'm quite good at making piles of stuff to 'mend' 'throw' or 'give away', but when it comes to getting rid of them, well.... "what if I neeeeeed it?". Last few times I've done this I've ended up regretting getting rid of something as I'd actually wanted it not long after. I don't know if I only thought of it because I had seen the item lately, or if I would have actually wanted it anyway.
So. I need you guys to tell me of any tip, trick or system that you use to get clutter down. I really need to spend less time online as well, but one problem at a time!!! Leave a comment and let me know how YOU do it!!
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Ho-Hum...
Slight glitch in my plans to schedule some posts- all the ones I wrote on my days off were saved on my laptop, not in Blogger. My laptop has just crashed and is currently in for repairs- Argh! This always happens right out of warranty. That'll teach me to forget my fortnightly backup! Waiting for the verdict from the repair man to get back to me with news on whether my data can be recovered. I'm hopeful it's just a communication problem between the hard drive and the O/S... fingers crossed!
In other news I've been spending my time sleeping, swimming and had a couple of trips to London and also to Hong Kong. I have some cool pics from Hong Kong which hopefully are still on my memory card so I can do a post about that. All my older photos are safe- I did back them up to my portable hard drive so it's really just anything from that past 2 months or so that's uncertain. Luckily my old laptop is in working order after I repaired the screen, so I have something to use until I know if my new one can be saved. If not, I'm considering an iPad3 if they don't cost too marny limbs when it's released. The only 'iThing' I own is my 3rd Gen iPod Nano which was purchased way back in 2008.
At the moment I have a day off then some reserve due to a cancelled flight, then a turnaround and a flight to Beijing. Haven't been there for awhile so happy to go back for a bit of shopping and some food =)
In other news I've been spending my time sleeping, swimming and had a couple of trips to London and also to Hong Kong. I have some cool pics from Hong Kong which hopefully are still on my memory card so I can do a post about that. All my older photos are safe- I did back them up to my portable hard drive so it's really just anything from that past 2 months or so that's uncertain. Luckily my old laptop is in working order after I repaired the screen, so I have something to use until I know if my new one can be saved. If not, I'm considering an iPad3 if they don't cost too marny limbs when it's released. The only 'iThing' I own is my 3rd Gen iPod Nano which was purchased way back in 2008.
At the moment I have a day off then some reserve due to a cancelled flight, then a turnaround and a flight to Beijing. Haven't been there for awhile so happy to go back for a bit of shopping and some food =)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Dressing Table
I don't really have a "dressing table" as such- actually a desk & drawers in my room, but a few months back I bought a set of shelves for extra storage. Here's some of the things I have sitting on top to make it pretty :)
On the left I have (out of shot) an oil burner from the Body Shop & some of their fragrance oils. My favourite two are Strawberry & Satsuma, both hard to find in Oz. Next is my In Essence candle in 'Zanzibar', a very exotic African-inspired fragrance. I'd left this behind at home and regretted it, so brought it back with me when I went home on leave. These are normally about $40 but I got this one for $20 on clearance at Priceline.
Behind the candle are two ceramc birds I picked up in Turkey. One of my favourite colours is blue and I'd noticed a little theme starting to occur of both blue and birds, so I've been consciously adding to it since I noticed the little collection begin on its own. The framed picture is by Matou En Peluche, a Sydney based illustator who is also on Twitter. I love the whimsical designs & I've also got two of her Deco Girls which I'll post about later.
It's a little hard to see but under the picture is a small square porcelain box; this was bought in Shanghai & holds some small jewellery items. The Matryoshka doll is from my trip to Prague. My O.P.I. polishes already featured in another post; the box they are sitting on is a gorgeous game board purchased in Turkey which also deserves a post of its own. I had to haggle hard to get the price down but in the end I won, very happy with this purchase!
Far right are some fragrances; a French perfume from Fragonard, Benefit 'Your Place or Mine Gina', Elle by YSL EDP, Miss Dior Cherie, a mini Lanvin and a Korean hand cream. I'm planning to post reviews about the Fragonard perfumes and the hand cream at a later date.
Finally at front is my cheap but super cute tree-print necklace. I love this to death & call it my "Lord of the Rings" necklace as it makes me think of the tree carving on the entrance to Moria. Hope you enjoyed some of the cute things that make me smile.
Have you bought anything lately, just because it was cute? Leave a comment & tell me what you got! :)
 |
| I like to display cute things in my room. |
On the left I have (out of shot) an oil burner from the Body Shop & some of their fragrance oils. My favourite two are Strawberry & Satsuma, both hard to find in Oz. Next is my In Essence candle in 'Zanzibar', a very exotic African-inspired fragrance. I'd left this behind at home and regretted it, so brought it back with me when I went home on leave. These are normally about $40 but I got this one for $20 on clearance at Priceline.
Behind the candle are two ceramc birds I picked up in Turkey. One of my favourite colours is blue and I'd noticed a little theme starting to occur of both blue and birds, so I've been consciously adding to it since I noticed the little collection begin on its own. The framed picture is by Matou En Peluche, a Sydney based illustator who is also on Twitter. I love the whimsical designs & I've also got two of her Deco Girls which I'll post about later.
It's a little hard to see but under the picture is a small square porcelain box; this was bought in Shanghai & holds some small jewellery items. The Matryoshka doll is from my trip to Prague. My O.P.I. polishes already featured in another post; the box they are sitting on is a gorgeous game board purchased in Turkey which also deserves a post of its own. I had to haggle hard to get the price down but in the end I won, very happy with this purchase!
Far right are some fragrances; a French perfume from Fragonard, Benefit 'Your Place or Mine Gina', Elle by YSL EDP, Miss Dior Cherie, a mini Lanvin and a Korean hand cream. I'm planning to post reviews about the Fragonard perfumes and the hand cream at a later date.
Finally at front is my cheap but super cute tree-print necklace. I love this to death & call it my "Lord of the Rings" necklace as it makes me think of the tree carving on the entrance to Moria. Hope you enjoyed some of the cute things that make me smile.
Have you bought anything lately, just because it was cute? Leave a comment & tell me what you got! :)
Monday, August 1, 2011
Mixing It Up
A week or two back. my friend Robyn came through Dubai on her way back to Australia for holidays with her family. Now Robyn actually is qualified as a raw chef and makes lots of yummy things that are also super-healthy for you. Me, well I'm a bit of a sweet tooth and have found it very hard in the past to stick to a healthy diet as I just love my sweets too much!
Lately though, I've been managing to get to the gym quite often (at least once every three if not every 2nd day or even oftener) and I wanted to have the right food to go with working out more.
Robyn & I went for lunch while she was here in Dubai, and afterwards we traweled the mall as all good Middle East-dwellers do ;) The fruit & veg section of Carrefour was duly visited (and raided!!!- I bought lemons, oranges, and some fresh mint) and then I decided that I was finally going to stop putting off getting a blender!!!
I settled on the Kenwood 3-in-1 Wizzard, as I wanted something that not only would blend but I also could chop with. It wasn't the fanciest model but at 129dhs instead of about 179, it was a good price.
Really glad I got it, have used it a few times already now, and it's very easy to use and the attachments it comes with are just what I wanted.
So, here's a recipe I thought I'd share with you, for a yummy cold juice.
1 orange
2 or 3 slices of pineapple
1 or 2 kiwi fruit
ice cubes
lemon or lime to taste
(I don't have a juicer yet but I used the old fashioned hand juicer. The Kenwood comes with a big measuring/smoothie cup so as I mixed things in the chopper part I'd put the blended fruit in the cup to mix more later...)
So:
1. Juice the orange and put juice in the cup
2. Trim the skin off the kiwi and blend it, add to cup
3. Blend the pineapple and add to the cup
4. Add a squeeze or two of lemon or lime juice if desired
5. Add a small amount of water to thin out the mixture
6. Use the hand mixer to blend the ingredients together in the cup
You could pour the juice over ice, but I was naughty and used the hand blender part to crush two small ice cubes into the mix (I shouldn't really as the manual says it won't do ice but it seemed okay, but I'll limit this as much as possible.)
This was so refereshing in the summer heat!! Next time I might try adding some strawberries or mint too if I have them on hand.
Lately though, I've been managing to get to the gym quite often (at least once every three if not every 2nd day or even oftener) and I wanted to have the right food to go with working out more.
Robyn & I went for lunch while she was here in Dubai, and afterwards we traweled the mall as all good Middle East-dwellers do ;) The fruit & veg section of Carrefour was duly visited (and raided!!!- I bought lemons, oranges, and some fresh mint) and then I decided that I was finally going to stop putting off getting a blender!!!
I settled on the Kenwood 3-in-1 Wizzard, as I wanted something that not only would blend but I also could chop with. It wasn't the fanciest model but at 129dhs instead of about 179, it was a good price.
Really glad I got it, have used it a few times already now, and it's very easy to use and the attachments it comes with are just what I wanted.
So, here's a recipe I thought I'd share with you, for a yummy cold juice.
1 orange
2 or 3 slices of pineapple
1 or 2 kiwi fruit
ice cubes
lemon or lime to taste
(I don't have a juicer yet but I used the old fashioned hand juicer. The Kenwood comes with a big measuring/smoothie cup so as I mixed things in the chopper part I'd put the blended fruit in the cup to mix more later...)
So:
1. Juice the orange and put juice in the cup
2. Trim the skin off the kiwi and blend it, add to cup
3. Blend the pineapple and add to the cup
4. Add a squeeze or two of lemon or lime juice if desired
5. Add a small amount of water to thin out the mixture
6. Use the hand mixer to blend the ingredients together in the cup
You could pour the juice over ice, but I was naughty and used the hand blender part to crush two small ice cubes into the mix (I shouldn't really as the manual says it won't do ice but it seemed okay, but I'll limit this as much as possible.)
This was so refereshing in the summer heat!! Next time I might try adding some strawberries or mint too if I have them on hand.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Tee Vee
After convincing myself for ages that I didn't *NEED* a tv, at least not for a few more months, the searing temperatures in Dubai finally made me cave & I figured summer & right before Ramadan is as good a time as any to get a tv. So, I went out and got myself a nice shiny 32-inch flat screen tv. The good thing is, I can connect my laptop to view photos and videos, and watch all my DVDs that I have in a list waiting to be seen.
The tv I got is a Sony Bravia, I had wanted a Samsung but it didn't have a VGA port for my computer (which doesn't have HDMI) and it didn't have a headphone port either. I prefer to have the option in case I want to watch movies in the middle of the night, I won't feel bad about making any noise!!
Next time I go home on leave I'll probably bring back my Nintendo 64, or if I can find one for a reasonable price online, a Super Nintendo. I love me some retro games!!!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
I'm Coming Home...
After a very laid-back layover in Beijing, I put on my uniform and got ready to head back to Dubai. It was a very easy trip, and I spent most of my time running around doing duty free and taking cups of water to sleepy passengers. It was quite good as I made a tidy commission; I've been putting my duty-free earnings into an envelope as savings so it's a little something extra.
Soon we landed, much earlier than I had expected, and on the urging of some other crew I ran to check the flights home and whether there were any seats. Before, the system had shown zero seats on the Sunday flight, so I had booked to go on the Monday, but lo and behold there were now LOTS of seats free- I guessed maybe they had changed the plane to a bigger one. Whatever the reason, I sure wasn't complaining!
I raced home, threw my uniforms in the wash and began madly packing my suitcase, hoping that I wouldn't forget anything important in the rush. I managed to get my bag packed so quickly that I even had a little bit of time to check my Facebook & email before I left, important for a slight internet geek like me :)
Then it was off to the airport in the hope that the figures on the travel website were correct and there were, in fact, seats available. I only needed one!!! I took my bag to the standby counter and to my luck the guy checking people in told me that I didn't need to wait for the flight to close, he could just give me a boarding pass right away. He asked me if I would like "3 or 4 seats".... errr, what??? Turns out there were so many seats free, he marked the ones next to me as last to be allocated so hopefully I'd have some space to lie down and sleep. I really needed to, as I had 2 hours of sleep before my flight back from Beijing, and none since then. So really, I hadn't slept much since the first night in Beijing.
I went through to departures, where I stopped in the store to buy some water, some snacks and a magazine or two to read on the flight. I also somehow miraculously managed to visit the restroom and get myself something for breakfast, all in the 20 minutes I had before boarding started. I'm not sure why everyone else seems to find it hard to find the toilet,or buy water but see, it can be done, travellers!!!! Haha.
Got on the plane and settled in, deciding which movies I'd want to watch on the way while waiting for lunch to come around. Luckily for me, the flight was quite light so the seats next to me remained unused. In fact it was so empty that everyone else who wanted to move to a row on their own got to, without having to sit next to me. Yay for a row to myself!! :)
Typically, I didn't sleep much on the flight. I dozed off until one of the crew woke me for lunch, then I watched a movie (From Prada to Nada which is apparently a remake of Sense & Sensibility) and after that I just. Couldn't. Sleep. Argh!! I spent the time reading the in-flight magazine, my book and wandering around the plane, occasionally chatting to the crew. I must add, they were really great, coming around regularly with water & juice, and one of them even left me a bottle of water & toothbrush on my seat after I had mentioned not going to sleep the night before. Yay you guys!!!
Soon it was time for the "dinner" meal, and I figured I'd try fit in another movie before we landed. I decided on 'Tangled', having heard good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed!
I thought it was a great movie, the graphics were brilliant and the little chameleon sidekick is quite possibly the cutest ever in a Disney film.
I think the lantern scene is my favourite, it's just so pretty!
Soon it was time to land & after spending about an hour in customs & quarantine, I was home free into freezing cold Perth!!! I think I underestimated just how cold it is & really wish I'd brought my fluffy pyjamas. Thank goodness for electric blankets & kitties that want to sleep on your feet! ^_^
Soon we landed, much earlier than I had expected, and on the urging of some other crew I ran to check the flights home and whether there were any seats. Before, the system had shown zero seats on the Sunday flight, so I had booked to go on the Monday, but lo and behold there were now LOTS of seats free- I guessed maybe they had changed the plane to a bigger one. Whatever the reason, I sure wasn't complaining!
I raced home, threw my uniforms in the wash and began madly packing my suitcase, hoping that I wouldn't forget anything important in the rush. I managed to get my bag packed so quickly that I even had a little bit of time to check my Facebook & email before I left, important for a slight internet geek like me :)
Then it was off to the airport in the hope that the figures on the travel website were correct and there were, in fact, seats available. I only needed one!!! I took my bag to the standby counter and to my luck the guy checking people in told me that I didn't need to wait for the flight to close, he could just give me a boarding pass right away. He asked me if I would like "3 or 4 seats".... errr, what??? Turns out there were so many seats free, he marked the ones next to me as last to be allocated so hopefully I'd have some space to lie down and sleep. I really needed to, as I had 2 hours of sleep before my flight back from Beijing, and none since then. So really, I hadn't slept much since the first night in Beijing.
I went through to departures, where I stopped in the store to buy some water, some snacks and a magazine or two to read on the flight. I also somehow miraculously managed to visit the restroom and get myself something for breakfast, all in the 20 minutes I had before boarding started. I'm not sure why everyone else seems to find it hard to find the toilet,or buy water but see, it can be done, travellers!!!! Haha.
Got on the plane and settled in, deciding which movies I'd want to watch on the way while waiting for lunch to come around. Luckily for me, the flight was quite light so the seats next to me remained unused. In fact it was so empty that everyone else who wanted to move to a row on their own got to, without having to sit next to me. Yay for a row to myself!! :)
Typically, I didn't sleep much on the flight. I dozed off until one of the crew woke me for lunch, then I watched a movie (From Prada to Nada which is apparently a remake of Sense & Sensibility) and after that I just. Couldn't. Sleep. Argh!! I spent the time reading the in-flight magazine, my book and wandering around the plane, occasionally chatting to the crew. I must add, they were really great, coming around regularly with water & juice, and one of them even left me a bottle of water & toothbrush on my seat after I had mentioned not going to sleep the night before. Yay you guys!!!
Soon it was time for the "dinner" meal, and I figured I'd try fit in another movie before we landed. I decided on 'Tangled', having heard good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed!
I thought it was a great movie, the graphics were brilliant and the little chameleon sidekick is quite possibly the cutest ever in a Disney film.
I think the lantern scene is my favourite, it's just so pretty!
Soon it was time to land & after spending about an hour in customs & quarantine, I was home free into freezing cold Perth!!! I think I underestimated just how cold it is & really wish I'd brought my fluffy pyjamas. Thank goodness for electric blankets & kitties that want to sleep on your feet! ^_^
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Down Time
The last few days I've been feeling sorry for myself, as somehow, somewhere in the potential bacterial breeding ground that is a giant aircraft, I managed to pick up some sort of bug and was now sniffling and snuffling through the day. As always, I began knocking back the echinacea, vitamin C and water in the hope that it might chase off whatever I'd caught in the minimum of time.
I'd felt fine the morning of my Hong Kong trip but by the time I got up the next morning I had a touch of a sore throat. Nothing to keep me from sightseeing though! But by the time we'd got back to the hotel at the end of (a very long) day, I was fast sounding like the penguin in Toy Story that lost it's squeaker.
Thankfully today I'm mostly back to normal so hopefully I'll be able to fly my next trip. Of course I'll call sick if required but unfortunately as I have leave after that I'll cop an 'absent from work' on my roster and I'd really rather not thanks very much... but, it can't be avoided if I'm sick. Ugh. I was doing so well, not getting sick with anything like this since just before I moved overseas!!
Today was spent in a somewhat frustrating and time consuming process of trying to fix a problem with the tickets for my leave. Getting home was no problem, but going elsewhere that I needed to go was fast becoming an issue. Normally, we just book tickets online but for some reason the system wasn't letting me. Online help wasn't, and trying to phone through to the call centre went unanswered for hours. Finally, I did what they told me to do last time and made the trip into the office to visit the ticketing desk.
Again, as last time, they refused to help me, until I had to plead my case and explain that as no one was answering the phone, and had been giving me the wrong info for weeks, that today was the last day I could possibly get the tickets. Normally, I could have requested them today and picked them up right before my leave, but with tomorrow being a public holiday here I didn't wat to risk missing the ticket collection. (I can't get these emailed to me like I can with everything else).
As with many things in this country, it took a lot of waiting around, a lot of re-explaining my story to several different people and a LOT of errors and wrong info before I finally had tickets in my hot little hand. It was an epic four and a half hours waiting until I got them, so needless to say I am glad to be back at home recovering and away from the freezing a/c of the office. I'm only a bit ashamed of getting a tad emotional with the supervisor but I think it was what finally convinced him to make them help me!! :P
Not much else was going on, as I was pretty much just resting and doing things around the house. I did go to the mall to pick up a few things, one of which was a scrapbook as some friends and I are planning on starting a 'craft n wine' night- bring whatever we're working on, have a few glasses of wine and watch some tv box sets. Yay!!!!
It's getting really hot in Dubai now, I felt the need to be outside for a little bit, so went to the pool with my book but I only lasted 40mins before the heat sent me scurrying back inside. It's sure going to be a change being in Oz during winter- family tells me there was a huge storm the last few days and it even hailed in my city!!!! I'd better pack warm clothes...
I'd felt fine the morning of my Hong Kong trip but by the time I got up the next morning I had a touch of a sore throat. Nothing to keep me from sightseeing though! But by the time we'd got back to the hotel at the end of (a very long) day, I was fast sounding like the penguin in Toy Story that lost it's squeaker.
Thankfully today I'm mostly back to normal so hopefully I'll be able to fly my next trip. Of course I'll call sick if required but unfortunately as I have leave after that I'll cop an 'absent from work' on my roster and I'd really rather not thanks very much... but, it can't be avoided if I'm sick. Ugh. I was doing so well, not getting sick with anything like this since just before I moved overseas!!
Today was spent in a somewhat frustrating and time consuming process of trying to fix a problem with the tickets for my leave. Getting home was no problem, but going elsewhere that I needed to go was fast becoming an issue. Normally, we just book tickets online but for some reason the system wasn't letting me. Online help wasn't, and trying to phone through to the call centre went unanswered for hours. Finally, I did what they told me to do last time and made the trip into the office to visit the ticketing desk.
Again, as last time, they refused to help me, until I had to plead my case and explain that as no one was answering the phone, and had been giving me the wrong info for weeks, that today was the last day I could possibly get the tickets. Normally, I could have requested them today and picked them up right before my leave, but with tomorrow being a public holiday here I didn't wat to risk missing the ticket collection. (I can't get these emailed to me like I can with everything else).
As with many things in this country, it took a lot of waiting around, a lot of re-explaining my story to several different people and a LOT of errors and wrong info before I finally had tickets in my hot little hand. It was an epic four and a half hours waiting until I got them, so needless to say I am glad to be back at home recovering and away from the freezing a/c of the office. I'm only a bit ashamed of getting a tad emotional with the supervisor but I think it was what finally convinced him to make them help me!! :P
Not much else was going on, as I was pretty much just resting and doing things around the house. I did go to the mall to pick up a few things, one of which was a scrapbook as some friends and I are planning on starting a 'craft n wine' night- bring whatever we're working on, have a few glasses of wine and watch some tv box sets. Yay!!!!
It's getting really hot in Dubai now, I felt the need to be outside for a little bit, so went to the pool with my book but I only lasted 40mins before the heat sent me scurrying back inside. It's sure going to be a change being in Oz during winter- family tells me there was a huge storm the last few days and it even hailed in my city!!!! I'd better pack warm clothes...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Things I'm Loving
* DVD box sets-
with the weather heating up (50'C is not uncommon now) a good, addictive tv series is just the way to go. I've been watching The Hills Season 6, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey (which I finished in about 2 days) and Big Bang Theory Season 4. Yay for good tv
* My $9 Jackets-
During my Sydney trip I stopped by SES on a whim and bought 2 semi-military style light jackets- one in a bone/beige colour and the other in charcoal. I have lots of 'cold' jackets and cardis but nothing really in between. I've been wearing the beige one almost constantly since I got back. Shopping this cheap is guilt free! :D
* Staff Tickets-
I really am lucky to be able to make use of discounted airfares to go travelling. As I already posted, I went to Prague for 2 days recently and am taking my sister to Adelaide during my leave so we can visit our grandparents. I'm going to try to aim to do a mini trip at least once every 3 months, if not oftener.
* Twitter-
Aside from keeping in touch with friends, I've been able to find out some great travel info, recommendations of places to go and best of all, I saved money on my credit card by talking to my bank on Twitter! They managed to sort out some issues I'd been trying to have fixed for at least 6 months and all it took was one phone call. I don't like to plug things but National Australia Bank is definitely taking a step in the right direction with the way they're using social media.
* Saving (Well, not spending as much)
As you might know, one of my goals this year has been to pay off my credit card debt- happy to say I've been making progress (with some help from NAB) and have been very good- I went to Sydney and didn't use my credit card once, not even for hotel bills or anything, which is very unusual for me! I'm on track with my car loan and in about 5 months it will be finished so I can use that money towards my credit card and start paying it down even faster.
* The Internet-
Well duh, this is an obvious one for me, but I do love it. Aside from my blog, it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family, and get things done that I would otherwise only be able to do when I go home on leave. Sometimes just a silly random email from a friend is just what I need. Currently, normal everyday emails from a friend about the progress of the house she is building are keeping me a little bit at home.
with the weather heating up (50'C is not uncommon now) a good, addictive tv series is just the way to go. I've been watching The Hills Season 6, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey (which I finished in about 2 days) and Big Bang Theory Season 4. Yay for good tv
* My $9 Jackets-
During my Sydney trip I stopped by SES on a whim and bought 2 semi-military style light jackets- one in a bone/beige colour and the other in charcoal. I have lots of 'cold' jackets and cardis but nothing really in between. I've been wearing the beige one almost constantly since I got back. Shopping this cheap is guilt free! :D
* Staff Tickets-
I really am lucky to be able to make use of discounted airfares to go travelling. As I already posted, I went to Prague for 2 days recently and am taking my sister to Adelaide during my leave so we can visit our grandparents. I'm going to try to aim to do a mini trip at least once every 3 months, if not oftener.
* Twitter-
Aside from keeping in touch with friends, I've been able to find out some great travel info, recommendations of places to go and best of all, I saved money on my credit card by talking to my bank on Twitter! They managed to sort out some issues I'd been trying to have fixed for at least 6 months and all it took was one phone call. I don't like to plug things but National Australia Bank is definitely taking a step in the right direction with the way they're using social media.
* Saving (Well, not spending as much)
As you might know, one of my goals this year has been to pay off my credit card debt- happy to say I've been making progress (with some help from NAB) and have been very good- I went to Sydney and didn't use my credit card once, not even for hotel bills or anything, which is very unusual for me! I'm on track with my car loan and in about 5 months it will be finished so I can use that money towards my credit card and start paying it down even faster.
* The Internet-
Well duh, this is an obvious one for me, but I do love it. Aside from my blog, it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family, and get things done that I would otherwise only be able to do when I go home on leave. Sometimes just a silly random email from a friend is just what I need. Currently, normal everyday emails from a friend about the progress of the house she is building are keeping me a little bit at home.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Catch-Up
Been awhile since I made any posts. Not really any excuse aside from the short Blogger outage and a general lack of motivation. I'd had a draft post about my Doha trip sitting in my dashboard for a little while now; I was adding bits here and there but it seems that the most recent additions I made disappeared. I think other people have had the same problems with their comments disappearing!
Of course, I like to blog for fun so when it starts feeling too much like work, I tend to get bored and would rather do other stuff. But, I don't want to leave it too long without any kind of update so I thought I'd just post about some other things that have been going on. I have a list somewhere of all the back-posts I have to make so hopefully I won't forget anything once I start putting up some more photos :P
As I probably mentioned, I finally got a trip to Sydney and it was a fun time. It just so happened that my Twitter friends Nicky and Gavin would be in town at the same time, so we got to catch up which was really nice. Post on that to follow of course.
I've seen a couple of movies at the cinema and gorged on far too much popcorn than is probably good for me (I just can't resist proper movie popcorn!). I saw "Something Borrowed" which while funny in places was frankly just a teeny bit depressing. The other was "Water for Elephants" which I was pleasantly surprised by and liked a lot more than I expected to. I totally adored most of Reese Witherspoon's wardrobe, of course, especially her black and white outfit at the end and all of the gorgeous accessories.
My other recent trips included Bangkok/Hong Kong and yesterday I came back from Beijing for the first time. Took quite a few pictures on that trip which I will try to post a few of once I've uploaded & edited them.
Today has just been a rest day, catching up on laundry & emails and wasting time checking out all the neat stuff for sale on Etsy. Got my eye on a few vintage airline pieces so maybe just maybe I will buy a little something for myself with our bonus payment after I bank most of it in my savigns account. I thought it was pretty good to get a bonus, while some people said it should have been more, something is better than nothing and it sure is something at least!!! =)
In other news I met a blog reader randomly on the way back from supermarket, it turns out she also works for my airline AND we even live in the same building!! :) So if you enjoy reading about the FA lifestyle hop on over and say hi to Nicole at her blog "The Trolley Dolly". Nicole is a newish FA who comes from Cape Town.
Hope you're all having a nice weekend!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Stormy Weather
Living in the desert, it's easy to forget what "normal" weather is like. Sure, I don't live in the DESERT desert, like other people, and there are plants and trees and greenery around. But the weather, while mostly nice, can be downright depressing on occasions.
In winter, it's very pleasant, nice temperatures and the odd cloudy days perfect for going to the beach, every so often a windy day and occasionally a sudden dust storm will blow up out of nowhere. Those can be quite scary! During summer it's about 5 months on endless furnace temps (50'C is not uncommon) and the wind only makes it worse...
One thing I do miss living here is rain. Sure, at the time I used to moan about how annoying it was, getting from my car to the house and car to work and getting soaked. But I do love lying in bed & listening to the rain fall, it's soothing. I also love how the air smells after rain, it's fresh and earthy, like eveything is clean.
The other day a friend & I were talking about this exact thing actually, how nice it is to be snuggled up under the covers & listening to the rain on the roof. The weather forecast said there was supposed to be some rain the next day. We pooh-poohed it as probably coming to nothing like most rain showers here. I commented how I really missed the rain and how nice it would be to be able to do just that, hide under the doona while the rain comes down.
Funnily enough, about 30mins later I got a text from said friend telling me that at their place it has just started bucketing down rain, and was it raining at my house yet? It was starting to drizzle a little bit by this time, so I went downstairs. All of a sudden it was like someone turned on the tap- water coming down in sheets, thunder and lightning (very very frightening, haha) It was GREAT!!!
I stood in front of my building under the eave, still getting partly soaked but loving that we were in the middle of a storm and it was still WARM!! I was getting odd looks from everyone else takign shelter in the building lobby. A stack of delivery bicycles and motorbikes was slowly growing in our driveway as the poor food delivery guys ran to the lobby to get out of the rain.
It was awesome, and the rain probably happened again about three or four times that night, and again the next day. The storm seemed really close from 20+ floors up! My friends down the road are more than 40 floors up & said that it felt like the lightning was going to come inside the apartment! I woke up at about 4am with rain pelting my windows. I recalled seeing the window cleaners out all that day prior to the storm and felt sorry for them, all that work wasted and probably lots of gunk washed down from the top of the building to keep them occupied for another month!
So weird that I had just been saying I missed the rain, and not an hour later here was a storm! Now, about that million dollars I've been wanting...
In winter, it's very pleasant, nice temperatures and the odd cloudy days perfect for going to the beach, every so often a windy day and occasionally a sudden dust storm will blow up out of nowhere. Those can be quite scary! During summer it's about 5 months on endless furnace temps (50'C is not uncommon) and the wind only makes it worse...
One thing I do miss living here is rain. Sure, at the time I used to moan about how annoying it was, getting from my car to the house and car to work and getting soaked. But I do love lying in bed & listening to the rain fall, it's soothing. I also love how the air smells after rain, it's fresh and earthy, like eveything is clean.
The other day a friend & I were talking about this exact thing actually, how nice it is to be snuggled up under the covers & listening to the rain on the roof. The weather forecast said there was supposed to be some rain the next day. We pooh-poohed it as probably coming to nothing like most rain showers here. I commented how I really missed the rain and how nice it would be to be able to do just that, hide under the doona while the rain comes down.
Funnily enough, about 30mins later I got a text from said friend telling me that at their place it has just started bucketing down rain, and was it raining at my house yet? It was starting to drizzle a little bit by this time, so I went downstairs. All of a sudden it was like someone turned on the tap- water coming down in sheets, thunder and lightning (very very frightening, haha) It was GREAT!!!
I stood in front of my building under the eave, still getting partly soaked but loving that we were in the middle of a storm and it was still WARM!! I was getting odd looks from everyone else takign shelter in the building lobby. A stack of delivery bicycles and motorbikes was slowly growing in our driveway as the poor food delivery guys ran to the lobby to get out of the rain.
It was awesome, and the rain probably happened again about three or four times that night, and again the next day. The storm seemed really close from 20+ floors up! My friends down the road are more than 40 floors up & said that it felt like the lightning was going to come inside the apartment! I woke up at about 4am with rain pelting my windows. I recalled seeing the window cleaners out all that day prior to the storm and felt sorry for them, all that work wasted and probably lots of gunk washed down from the top of the building to keep them occupied for another month!
So weird that I had just been saying I missed the rain, and not an hour later here was a storm! Now, about that million dollars I've been wanting...
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
LV = Leave = LOVE!
Finally the day rolled around where that blessed green box appeared on my roster: XX followed by two weeks of 'LV LV LV LV LV'. Woo hoo!!!
I arrived from New York at about 9pm, then right away I started doing my washing and getting my bags ready. Of course, after being so tired on the landing and through to the bus trip back to my apartment, by this time I could not fall asleep. I probably had about 2 or 3 hours of sleep by the time my phone rang to wake me up. I decided to skip getting a taxi to the airport and use the convenient Dubai Metro instead. It was a short walk from my building to a station and then onto the train. It took maybe 15 or 20 minutes to get to the airport. From there it was easy to take my bags and check in. Phew, my bag weighed right on the 30kg limit, lucky!!!
I spent awhile looking around the shops and the airport in general. It's only when on leave that we actually get to see inside the airport; usually we get taken direct to the plane from our crew centre and so miss seeing all the goings on of the airport. I picked up some supplies for the flight (bottled water and some snacks in case I didn't like what was being served) then had myself a quick breakfast before boarding. (See, it's not that hard to do, passengers who tell me you can't buy water in the airport!!!)
I went to the gate as it said boarding, but silly me didn't actually look outside of the window and check if there was even a plane there. (It wasn't there yet). After waiting about 45 minutes, the plane did show up and was cleaned ready for our flight. While waiting, I got talking to a girl sitting by me, as she wanted to plug her iPhone to my laptop to charge it. No problem. It turned out she used to work in a town that one of my previous airlines flew to. We even knew some of the same people. Small world indeed!!!
Once boarding was called for my section I headed onboard, putting the things I needed immediately in the seat pocket (and making sure I didn't block the aisle while I did so). The size of people's carry on luggage still never ceases to amaze me. I had the smallest of small rollaboard bags, others were bringing stupidly large bags plus myriad smaller items, then getting annoyed when there was nowhere to put them. Of course, putting things under the seat in front (in their own legroom) was out of the question. The lady in front of me wanted to put her bags in MY legroom (Um, no thank you was my answer).
Soon everyone was settled and off we went. I was going home!!! Despite being tired, I didn't (or couldn't) sleep. I ate my lunch (which was the fish as they'd run out of the choices) and it wasn't too bad. Of course some people made such a fuss, so when the poor crew got to me, he nearly had to ask me to repeat myself when I said that whatever he was serving is fine. I wasn't using a crew bag so I don't know if he knew I was crew- his reaction said probably not. After the meal was done I watched some movies. "Morning Glory" with Rachel McAdams and "Never Let Me Go" with Carey Mulligan. I quite like her, aside from her cute awards show outfits she has an interesting face.
Anyway, the flight was okay, weird and uncomfortable for me because I'm not used to sitting for so long. Eventually, we arrived and it was nearly time to meet my family. Yay!
After a brief stop in duty free to buy Moet for my sister's birthday, it was out to Arrivals & my family. We got my bags into the car then headed home. Being around 3am by this time, we were all hungry and I requested to make a stop on the way home.
Hungry Jack's!!! For those of you who like Burger King, imagine it but ten times better. I still haven't found any Burger King anywhere in the world that even comes close to Aussie Hungry Jack's- not even in NZ.
Getting home, I dumped my stuff in the foyer and we descended into the lounge to devour our burgers and fries.... man it was sooooooo good!!! All the while watching 'Jersey Shore' (don't ask) re-runs and me answering myriad questions about my life in the Middle East.
I'm not one of those people who can keep a good gift under wraps for long, so of course then the unpacking of bags in the middle of the lounge room floor followed, I like seeing what people think of the presents I got for them. As it was my sister's 30th birthday I splashed out a bit and bought her the new Dior Cannage makeup palette, she said it was exactly what she had been thinking to buy for herself and the cool thing is onc eth emakeup is gone the case can be used as a clutch bag. Cute!!
For my aunt I got an 'I <3 NYC' t-shirt and glass Arabic perfume bottle and for my sister's BF I got him a set of new york shot glasses with the Subway symbols on them which are really cool looking.
The first few days of leave were spent doing boring stuff like Dr's appointments, car service and all that fun stuff. We didn't really do a lot, I hadn't planned much before I left and we just went with the flow.
Most nights we had a dinner together followed by cocktails and watching tv. During the day it was so hot, which resulted in spending lots of time at the local pool or the beach. I loved going to the beach, here are real beaches, not the yuvky rubbish-strewn ones I'd seen in Dubai. I didn't need to worry about creepy guys taking my photo. SOme nights it was so hot that we went to the beach at 10 or 11pm. I'm also kind of ashamed to admit that we did have our fair share of meals at Hungry Jacks or making stops for M&M McFlurries from McDonald's. The last big meal I had in Oz was fish and chips at Peter's by the Sea, in Scarborough. It's been there since my dad was young and was THE hangout by the beach. Happy to say the chips are as good as ever and the fish was really nice, batter golden crispy and piping hot. As always there was lots of chicken salt involved. Yum!!!
This probably makes for a boring post, but just being at home and hanging out with the family was great. While home, I celebrated my 28th birthday, along with my gorgeous nephew who turned 1 on the same day. We had a big BBQ with delicious food and of course, cake- or in our case- cakes :P
The times when my family were working was when I did all those things that one does when on leave- bank stuff, getting my fillings re-done, sorting my boxes which were in storage. That part was kind of fun (despite the heat) and it was almost like shopping as I got to clothes I had wished I'd brought with me when I moved. Now, I have much more choice when it comes to what I wear in Dubai.
Too soon it was time to get on the plane back to Dubai. This time I had to share the row of 3 with a couple, about my age. All through the flight the girl kept going to the bathroom what felt like evry five minutes. She wanted me to trade my aisle seat for the window. Normally, I'd agree but they had been annoying me so much, sticking their elbows into my space, trying to put their bags in my foot space & so on... plus, I hate being in the window as sitting down for that long is hard enough as it is without being trapped. Eventually, I wandered down the cabin and found another seat as she just kept climbing over me without warning, not giving me the chance to move my legs. Win for the inconsiderate passengers! :P
Finally we reached Dubai. I lugged my bags outside the airport but having never come through the arrivals since I moved here, I got lost and couldn't find the way to the Metro (the odd directions from one of the staff didn't help, either). After about half an hour I managed to backtrack & find the right way. Arrived home at the apartment & typically couldn't sleep! It was okay as I had a day before my next flight.
Soon enough it was time to get ready for work again. This time I'd be going back to Bangkok!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Month of Blah
March roster. The dreaded reserve month rolled around. I didn't mind that I'd be on reserve for one month; I figured it'd be fun to be surprised about where I'd be flying to and maybe to get a flight to Sydney (like most of my friends) or to be assigned to fly somewhere new.
No such luck!! I'd finished February with a nice Bangkok trip, and then I waited expectantly to be assigned a flight- any flight. The days went by without any calls, and I was surprised, but just figured that it was the start of the month & not many people were calling in sick yet. Towards the end of the month is when people usually start deciding they're too run down to go to work or can't rally as much as they can at the start to go to work with say, something minor going on.
I had a couple of home standbys, and I was ready with suitcase (almost) packed and uniform ironed & hung up. (I wasn't sure how much notice I'd get if I was called for a flight). I needn't have worried- I still didn't get any calls. Must be a slow month, I figured.
Finally, on the 11th, I was assigned an airport standby. I knew there were several flights short of crew, so on arriving at the standby lounge at the airport I fully expected to either be pre-assigned a flight or to receive one shortly. A London Heathrow departed with another girl on it. The time crawled by. I wasn't feeling too good that day as I'd had a fight with a friend the day before; that wiped out any chance of sleeping in the quiet room until they called me. Finally, I saw the standby officer on the phone. He was mentioning JFK (New York) and kept looking at me. I was kind of tired for such a long flight but the hours would be good. He saw me looking at him, got off the phone then told me they weren't using me for that flight either, even though it was only an hour or less until departure time. They called someone in from home standby. No flight for me!!
I went home & crashed out, exhausted from the tension of waiting and going so long without working. I was starting to worry about not having a good pay next month, but there was nothing I could do about it. One more home standby followed and again without a call. That night, around assignment time at 6pm, my roster changed to - finally - give me a flight. Manchester. It wasn't the best but it'd do. I hadn't been to the UK in ages.
It ended up being a good trip, which deserves a little post of its own, and soon enough I was back in Dubai, waiting to see what woud be next. I had some days off, then some more standby, followed by a New York that appeared a day in advance on my line. Thank goodness, good hours!! Even though that flight has a bit of a reputation, I was glad to get more work. That trip also has a post in the works, so I won't go into too much detail here, but it was fun!
Back again to Dubai, my body clock screwed up by arriving at night, therefore making me unable to sleep which sent me into about a week of being up all night and sleeping all day. Mushroom shift, I call it- only out at night ;P
I waited for the inevitable end-of-month rush, filling my time by reading, cleaning house, sitting at the pool trying not to get burnt, and other things like that. Had the odd outing with friends when I was released from home standby 'prison' (chained to the phone, lol) and yet... no flights. It was excruciatingly boring, especially when all my friends were going to Hong Kong (with a layover) Bangkok or even the long Sydney Auckland trip. I was dying to go back to Oz, and started to get really homesick.
People were flaking on plans made & friends were popping up on Facebook in photos of fun nights out, days at the beach and other fun things, all while not replying to my messages or saying they were 'too busy'. One of two people were reliable but I really got a glimpse of just how flaky life in Dubai can be... the saving spots were a nice dinner with my new Dubai friends Tai & Robert (yummy food as always; I was sent home with dessert carefully wrapped by Tai) and the few little explorations I made into new parts of Dubai I hadn't seen before. And some good books! I finalyl found a copy of Impossiblecat's book here and devoured it in about 2 days (thoughts on that later)
Roster day was agonisingly slow; it was 2 days late and as always, Facebook was full of people asking if anyone had their roster yet. I was anxious to see what I'd be doing in April, hoping against hope I'd have a busy month and maybe a flight to Australia in the mix. Finally, on the 28th, the roster came. Three flights. I got three flights for the whole month!! I'm bracing myself now for the inevitable two months of really low pay packets. I'm a little bit worried; I'll barely make enough to send home to cover my car loan & other bills, but there's no use worrying about that. Hopefully I can pick up more work in May. Fingers crossed!
April had me going once to London & twice to NY. I was hoping for a Hong Kong trip as it's the last month we'll be doing the direct flight, but I didn't get one. Quite disappointing as people in my group were getting two or three each for the last 2 months, even off reserve. I spent hours on the swap system, trying for a Sydney, but either people or were unwilling or illegal to swap. The standby day inserted in front of about half the Sydney trips was really messing with my ability to get a trip - we can't swap standbys, don't ask me why!! I somehow found a guy to swap with, but he ended up having no US visa, so the swap was invalid. I guess I'm just not meant to go to Sydney this month.
Finally, someone wanted to swap my New York for a Hong Kong layover trip. It was a really hard decision, as I'd lose hours, but eventually I decided that I took this job to see new places & I should seize the chance to go to HKG while it was there. I was going to be poor next month anyway, it didn't really matter how much... :P
So, that ends the Month of Blah that was!!! I know it sounds like a lot of complaining, and normally time off would be great... but I wanted to work ;) We'll see what the May roster brings...
No such luck!! I'd finished February with a nice Bangkok trip, and then I waited expectantly to be assigned a flight- any flight. The days went by without any calls, and I was surprised, but just figured that it was the start of the month & not many people were calling in sick yet. Towards the end of the month is when people usually start deciding they're too run down to go to work or can't rally as much as they can at the start to go to work with say, something minor going on.
I had a couple of home standbys, and I was ready with suitcase (almost) packed and uniform ironed & hung up. (I wasn't sure how much notice I'd get if I was called for a flight). I needn't have worried- I still didn't get any calls. Must be a slow month, I figured.
Finally, on the 11th, I was assigned an airport standby. I knew there were several flights short of crew, so on arriving at the standby lounge at the airport I fully expected to either be pre-assigned a flight or to receive one shortly. A London Heathrow departed with another girl on it. The time crawled by. I wasn't feeling too good that day as I'd had a fight with a friend the day before; that wiped out any chance of sleeping in the quiet room until they called me. Finally, I saw the standby officer on the phone. He was mentioning JFK (New York) and kept looking at me. I was kind of tired for such a long flight but the hours would be good. He saw me looking at him, got off the phone then told me they weren't using me for that flight either, even though it was only an hour or less until departure time. They called someone in from home standby. No flight for me!!
I went home & crashed out, exhausted from the tension of waiting and going so long without working. I was starting to worry about not having a good pay next month, but there was nothing I could do about it. One more home standby followed and again without a call. That night, around assignment time at 6pm, my roster changed to - finally - give me a flight. Manchester. It wasn't the best but it'd do. I hadn't been to the UK in ages.
It ended up being a good trip, which deserves a little post of its own, and soon enough I was back in Dubai, waiting to see what woud be next. I had some days off, then some more standby, followed by a New York that appeared a day in advance on my line. Thank goodness, good hours!! Even though that flight has a bit of a reputation, I was glad to get more work. That trip also has a post in the works, so I won't go into too much detail here, but it was fun!
Back again to Dubai, my body clock screwed up by arriving at night, therefore making me unable to sleep which sent me into about a week of being up all night and sleeping all day. Mushroom shift, I call it- only out at night ;P
I waited for the inevitable end-of-month rush, filling my time by reading, cleaning house, sitting at the pool trying not to get burnt, and other things like that. Had the odd outing with friends when I was released from home standby 'prison' (chained to the phone, lol) and yet... no flights. It was excruciatingly boring, especially when all my friends were going to Hong Kong (with a layover) Bangkok or even the long Sydney Auckland trip. I was dying to go back to Oz, and started to get really homesick.
People were flaking on plans made & friends were popping up on Facebook in photos of fun nights out, days at the beach and other fun things, all while not replying to my messages or saying they were 'too busy'. One of two people were reliable but I really got a glimpse of just how flaky life in Dubai can be... the saving spots were a nice dinner with my new Dubai friends Tai & Robert (yummy food as always; I was sent home with dessert carefully wrapped by Tai) and the few little explorations I made into new parts of Dubai I hadn't seen before. And some good books! I finalyl found a copy of Impossiblecat's book here and devoured it in about 2 days (thoughts on that later)
Roster day was agonisingly slow; it was 2 days late and as always, Facebook was full of people asking if anyone had their roster yet. I was anxious to see what I'd be doing in April, hoping against hope I'd have a busy month and maybe a flight to Australia in the mix. Finally, on the 28th, the roster came. Three flights. I got three flights for the whole month!! I'm bracing myself now for the inevitable two months of really low pay packets. I'm a little bit worried; I'll barely make enough to send home to cover my car loan & other bills, but there's no use worrying about that. Hopefully I can pick up more work in May. Fingers crossed!
April had me going once to London & twice to NY. I was hoping for a Hong Kong trip as it's the last month we'll be doing the direct flight, but I didn't get one. Quite disappointing as people in my group were getting two or three each for the last 2 months, even off reserve. I spent hours on the swap system, trying for a Sydney, but either people or were unwilling or illegal to swap. The standby day inserted in front of about half the Sydney trips was really messing with my ability to get a trip - we can't swap standbys, don't ask me why!! I somehow found a guy to swap with, but he ended up having no US visa, so the swap was invalid. I guess I'm just not meant to go to Sydney this month.
Finally, someone wanted to swap my New York for a Hong Kong layover trip. It was a really hard decision, as I'd lose hours, but eventually I decided that I took this job to see new places & I should seize the chance to go to HKG while it was there. I was going to be poor next month anyway, it didn't really matter how much... :P
So, that ends the Month of Blah that was!!! I know it sounds like a lot of complaining, and normally time off would be great... but I wanted to work ;) We'll see what the May roster brings...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Kitty Therapy!!!
Like many cat owners, I find that they can provide a general feeling of comfort when times are tough. Here's an example of my two, as seen on my arrival home on leave.
Too cuuuuuute!!!!!
Too cuuuuuute!!!!!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Finally to Sydney... (part 1)
Hello again!!! I'm currently awake at 3am, having got in from my Sydney trip last night and now my sleeping pattern is way off. I went to bed at 4am and slept until 10am, but fell asleep again at 5 and woke up at 11pm. Not good, as now I'm wide awake and really need to be sleeping nights as I'm going to New York tomorrow morning. Such is the jetlagged life of a flight attendant! :)
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!
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!
Friday, January 7, 2011
2010- The Year that Was
Happy New Year, everyone!!!!
I'm a bit late but here's a round-up of some of the things that happened in 2010.
January
Rang in the New Year with my fellow crew while on layover in Adelaide. We drank champagne and annoyed fellow guests by blowing our party horns :P I reminisced about favourite childhood toys, discovered Pretty in Pink at the Rocks Markets in Sydney and decided to start taking responsibility for my finances.
February
I found the perfect black & white Chanel-style jacket, fell in love with OPI nail polish all over again, started cleaning out my wardrobe via selling on Ebay and turned 27! I got the best birthday present of all when my third nephew was born ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
March
On the spur-of-the-moment, I attended a walk-in interview for a big foreign airline cabin crew position. Visited the new pandas from China at the Adelaide Zoo while on layover. Got the phone call that would turn my life upside down- I would be moving overseas to work!!!
April
Enjoyed my remaining flights & layovers in Oz. I had my wisdom teeth removed and was poked with more injections and blood tests than I care to remember. The Great Wardrobe Clearout continued, with me getting around $400 for all my unwanted stuff on eBay. I also took a lovely 5-day vacation to Bali for my good friends' wedding. I loved it!
May
Re-discovered my childhood love of video games when my sister gifted me her first-generation Nintendo DS (the one that also plays GBA games). Finished preparations for the Big Move Overseas. Loved every last minute of my final few weeks of flying, got some great photos then sadly fell victim to the flu so spent my final Melbourne layover sick in bed at the hotel.
June
Started to panic as my departure date grew closer. Had lots of fun times with my family and final catch-up parties with friends. Finished packing up my life and said goodbye to my family before boarding my flight the the Middle East. Arrived shell-shocked into the hottest part of the Middle Eastern summer, with temps above 50'C in the daytime.
Sporadic internet posting ensued due to lack of internet in my flat until my 5th week in the country.
July
I was still settling in to my new home. Training was very intense yet fun and I made a lot of new friends & learnt about the culture of my new home. Started nesting by decorating my room and making it feel more like 'mine'. We received our uniforms and had extreme fun playing dress-up. We completed our final weeks of training, learning how to do the service onboard.
August
I discovered Polyvore, spending hours procrastinating doing my homework to make fashion sets online. Lol. Through this I came to know about the fashions of Emma Pillsbury from 'Glee', but as yet did not start watching the show. I took my first supernumerary flight as a cabin crew for the new airline. I went to... LONDON!!! My first operating flight was to Paris.
September
Visited Bangkok for the first time. Finally got a taste of home with a 6 day Sydney/Auckland trip. It was SO good to be back 'home', even if it was in a different city. Stocked up on Aussie goodies in Woolworths, had a bit too much to drink on a night out with the crew in Auckland and generally had myself a whale of a time. Had an eBay relapse & bought a Sonia Rykiel dress for a fraction of the price. Took my first trip to Seoul, South Korea and fell in love with Daiso, a Japanese discount store.
October
Another trip to Sydney, where I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship.
I also returned to Seoul where I rode the metro for the first time and came home with a baby cactus plant for my room. Went to Manchester for the first time, getting to fly with fellow blogger Krysta and hit up Primark for a teeny shopping spree :P I ended October with another Sydney/Auckland trip, where we happened to layover in Sydney on Halloween. The crew all decided to have a last-minute costume party in the hotel crew room which was hilariously fun (and also got us kicked out of the lounge for being too noisy). At the time I didn't know it would be the last Aussie trip I'd have for the foreseeable future, or I wouldn't have bothered sleeping :p
My life became complete when I discovered the hilarity & plain craziness that is Hyperbole & A Half. Seriously, go look!
November
Just the same old, same old!! As I didn't really blog my trips I can't really tell you what I did. Actually, I took my first trip to Toronto, Canada (which I have yet to post about, but it's on my list) and I visited Niagara falls!!! =) I also discovered 'Glee'!
December
Began my month with a trip to Jeddah, had to call sick for my first New York trip (boohoo) which was then replaced with yet another Jeddah turn. Then off to Bangkok/Hong Kong three times, with the month ending with Jeddah again. Christmas was spent in Bangkok. I also hit the 6-month mark in Dubai and passed my probation period to become fully-fledged cabin crew for this airline.
At least the last Jeddah got me New Year's eve off, along with the first three days of January! I rang in 2011 with four cool fellow crew, dancing on the beach to live music and watching the fireworks go off at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Island.
All in all, 2010 was a pretty great year!!! Here's to 2011 being even better!
Myresolutions aims for the year to come are:
* Continue to pay off as much of my debts as I can
* Research the possibilities for getting back to my flying (pilot) training
* Enjoy travel as much as possible & take advantage of the perks of this job for as long as I can
* Don't overthink too much in life or worry about what other people think; do what feels right and stop worrying so much about everything. Be happy with my life & who I am, and stop worrying about being single. If someone is meant to come along, they will!
* Be grateful for the good things when I'm having a bad day
I'm a bit late but here's a round-up of some of the things that happened in 2010.
January
Rang in the New Year with my fellow crew while on layover in Adelaide. We drank champagne and annoyed fellow guests by blowing our party horns :P I reminisced about favourite childhood toys, discovered Pretty in Pink at the Rocks Markets in Sydney and decided to start taking responsibility for my finances.
February
I found the perfect black & white Chanel-style jacket, fell in love with OPI nail polish all over again, started cleaning out my wardrobe via selling on Ebay and turned 27! I got the best birthday present of all when my third nephew was born ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
March
On the spur-of-the-moment, I attended a walk-in interview for a big foreign airline cabin crew position. Visited the new pandas from China at the Adelaide Zoo while on layover. Got the phone call that would turn my life upside down- I would be moving overseas to work!!!
April
Enjoyed my remaining flights & layovers in Oz. I had my wisdom teeth removed and was poked with more injections and blood tests than I care to remember. The Great Wardrobe Clearout continued, with me getting around $400 for all my unwanted stuff on eBay. I also took a lovely 5-day vacation to Bali for my good friends' wedding. I loved it!
May
Re-discovered my childhood love of video games when my sister gifted me her first-generation Nintendo DS (the one that also plays GBA games). Finished preparations for the Big Move Overseas. Loved every last minute of my final few weeks of flying, got some great photos then sadly fell victim to the flu so spent my final Melbourne layover sick in bed at the hotel.
June
Started to panic as my departure date grew closer. Had lots of fun times with my family and final catch-up parties with friends. Finished packing up my life and said goodbye to my family before boarding my flight the the Middle East. Arrived shell-shocked into the hottest part of the Middle Eastern summer, with temps above 50'C in the daytime.
Sporadic internet posting ensued due to lack of internet in my flat until my 5th week in the country.
July
I was still settling in to my new home. Training was very intense yet fun and I made a lot of new friends & learnt about the culture of my new home. Started nesting by decorating my room and making it feel more like 'mine'. We received our uniforms and had extreme fun playing dress-up. We completed our final weeks of training, learning how to do the service onboard.
August
I discovered Polyvore, spending hours procrastinating doing my homework to make fashion sets online. Lol. Through this I came to know about the fashions of Emma Pillsbury from 'Glee', but as yet did not start watching the show. I took my first supernumerary flight as a cabin crew for the new airline. I went to... LONDON!!! My first operating flight was to Paris.
September
Visited Bangkok for the first time. Finally got a taste of home with a 6 day Sydney/Auckland trip. It was SO good to be back 'home', even if it was in a different city. Stocked up on Aussie goodies in Woolworths, had a bit too much to drink on a night out with the crew in Auckland and generally had myself a whale of a time. Had an eBay relapse & bought a Sonia Rykiel dress for a fraction of the price. Took my first trip to Seoul, South Korea and fell in love with Daiso, a Japanese discount store.
October
Another trip to Sydney, where I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship.
I also returned to Seoul where I rode the metro for the first time and came home with a baby cactus plant for my room. Went to Manchester for the first time, getting to fly with fellow blogger Krysta and hit up Primark for a teeny shopping spree :P I ended October with another Sydney/Auckland trip, where we happened to layover in Sydney on Halloween. The crew all decided to have a last-minute costume party in the hotel crew room which was hilariously fun (and also got us kicked out of the lounge for being too noisy). At the time I didn't know it would be the last Aussie trip I'd have for the foreseeable future, or I wouldn't have bothered sleeping :p
My life became complete when I discovered the hilarity & plain craziness that is Hyperbole & A Half. Seriously, go look!
November
Just the same old, same old!! As I didn't really blog my trips I can't really tell you what I did. Actually, I took my first trip to Toronto, Canada (which I have yet to post about, but it's on my list) and I visited Niagara falls!!! =) I also discovered 'Glee'!
December
Began my month with a trip to Jeddah, had to call sick for my first New York trip (boohoo) which was then replaced with yet another Jeddah turn. Then off to Bangkok/Hong Kong three times, with the month ending with Jeddah again. Christmas was spent in Bangkok. I also hit the 6-month mark in Dubai and passed my probation period to become fully-fledged cabin crew for this airline.
At least the last Jeddah got me New Year's eve off, along with the first three days of January! I rang in 2011 with four cool fellow crew, dancing on the beach to live music and watching the fireworks go off at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Island.
All in all, 2010 was a pretty great year!!! Here's to 2011 being even better!
My
* Continue to pay off as much of my debts as I can
* Research the possibilities for getting back to my flying (pilot) training
* Enjoy travel as much as possible & take advantage of the perks of this job for as long as I can
* Don't overthink too much in life or worry about what other people think; do what feels right and stop worrying so much about everything. Be happy with my life & who I am, and stop worrying about being single. If someone is meant to come along, they will!
* Be grateful for the good things when I'm having a bad day
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Flight Pattern
One lazy night at home, I was browsing on Etsy and got to looking through all the listings of vintage sewing patterns. I've always liked the artwork on the pattern envelopes, especially on vintage patterns.
I remember as a little girl when my mum would take me to the sewing store. She'd put me on a seat at the pattern book table and I'd happily look through all of the pictures of the clothes, while she went to buy the things she needed. I'm actually quite surprised then that at that time, I had no desire whatsoever to actually sew. At that age I was more interested in a) playing in the sandpit with my trucks and Legos, and b) in drawing & painting then sewing.
When I was in high school, I preferred Edwardian and 1940's styles to anything later, though a nice full skirt would ocassionally get my attention. Of course, since becoming a flight attendant - and researching the history of my profession- I've fallen in love with the late 50's/early 60's fitted pencil skirt/dress style.
Here's a few patterns that I like from Etsy. They could easily be used to make an outfit for a costume party or Halloween if you wanted to go as a traditional "stewardess", or even for a 60's/"Mad Men" themed party.
This blue dress on the right would be perfect with a jaunty hat.
(From RRebelGirl)
(Bluette Court)
(ClayFletch)
(Studio G Patterns)
(Wildrose Primitives)
Finally, this cute Misses Pattern from Historically Patterns.
Oh, now if only I could sew!!
(I'm hoping to learn at some point, what with the days off we get in Dubai- especially in the reserve months)
I remember as a little girl when my mum would take me to the sewing store. She'd put me on a seat at the pattern book table and I'd happily look through all of the pictures of the clothes, while she went to buy the things she needed. I'm actually quite surprised then that at that time, I had no desire whatsoever to actually sew. At that age I was more interested in a) playing in the sandpit with my trucks and Legos, and b) in drawing & painting then sewing.
When I was in high school, I preferred Edwardian and 1940's styles to anything later, though a nice full skirt would ocassionally get my attention. Of course, since becoming a flight attendant - and researching the history of my profession- I've fallen in love with the late 50's/early 60's fitted pencil skirt/dress style.
Here's a few patterns that I like from Etsy. They could easily be used to make an outfit for a costume party or Halloween if you wanted to go as a traditional "stewardess", or even for a 60's/"Mad Men" themed party.
This blue dress on the right would be perfect with a jaunty hat.
(From RRebelGirl)
(Bluette Court)
(ClayFletch)
(Studio G Patterns)
(Wildrose Primitives)
Finally, this cute Misses Pattern from Historically Patterns.
Oh, now if only I could sew!!
(I'm hoping to learn at some point, what with the days off we get in Dubai- especially in the reserve months)
Friday, November 19, 2010
Gym Time...!
I admit it. I've been really slack in the gym department over the last few months. It's quite shameful really, considering that the apartment building I live in has a gym and pool on the premises. There's really no excuse!!
Back in October, I'd decided to get my act together and work out regularly. I'd go to the gym, even if for 40 minutes. Then after a particularly tiring trip, I spent the next three days sleeping during the day and awake all night, and any gym routine went out of the window.
Over the last two weeks, I've been pretty good. I've been going to the gym at least every second day and doing about 20 minutes on the cross trainer and 10-20 minutes on the rowing machine. I'd love to do some weights and I really need to get some toning in my abs but I have no idea how! Not being a gym bunny in any respect, I always feel like a total loser trying to use the exercise machines aside from what I already use.
I also have problems with motivation. I have my ipod and I work out to music or podcasts, but I'd love to find some other ways of keeping motivated in the gym. If you have any suggestions or advice to stop me falling off the wagon again, please leave a comment!!!
Back in October, I'd decided to get my act together and work out regularly. I'd go to the gym, even if for 40 minutes. Then after a particularly tiring trip, I spent the next three days sleeping during the day and awake all night, and any gym routine went out of the window.
Over the last two weeks, I've been pretty good. I've been going to the gym at least every second day and doing about 20 minutes on the cross trainer and 10-20 minutes on the rowing machine. I'd love to do some weights and I really need to get some toning in my abs but I have no idea how! Not being a gym bunny in any respect, I always feel like a total loser trying to use the exercise machines aside from what I already use.
I also have problems with motivation. I have my ipod and I work out to music or podcasts, but I'd love to find some other ways of keeping motivated in the gym. If you have any suggestions or advice to stop me falling off the wagon again, please leave a comment!!!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Coming Home
Well, to Dubai-Home.
I took these photos yesterday morning on the way home from the airport. Everyone else on the bus was snoozing away, but I love the early morning light so I always stay awake to watch the city light up.
Burj Khalifa. There was actually a really cool reflection/flare of light but the camera couldn't capture it properly. I really need to get a 'real' camera. Maybe the tiny Sony with the changeable lenses. (Please Santa?) :P
Looking towards Sheikh Zayed Road. I live in one of those buildings.
Is strange but I think of Dubai as a home, pretty good after four months.
I took these photos yesterday morning on the way home from the airport. Everyone else on the bus was snoozing away, but I love the early morning light so I always stay awake to watch the city light up.
Burj Khalifa. There was actually a really cool reflection/flare of light but the camera couldn't capture it properly. I really need to get a 'real' camera. Maybe the tiny Sony with the changeable lenses. (Please Santa?) :P
Looking towards Sheikh Zayed Road. I live in one of those buildings.
Is strange but I think of Dubai as a home, pretty good after four months.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sunnies
During the time when I was having a crappy few days last week (homesickness, mainly) I was a bit naughty and succumbed to retail therapy.
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Since I wear contact lenses when I fly and mostly during my layovers, I have some cheap'n'cheerful sunglasses as my good (read: expensive) ones are prescription. During my shop, I spotted some cute retro-style sunnies. I like some vintage styles, but they always look stupid on me; also, I tend to shy away from overly large styles. I saw a cute pair with stud detailing & liked them. When I saw the price was 30 dirhams (about $10 Aussie) I snapped them up!!
I love them!!! (However, I think I need to wear my hair out with these, as having it back combined with the large size of the glasses doesn't seem to be so flattering, haha)
I also bought a pair of aviator style glasses
(but not in the cobalt blue/silver tint I've been lusting after), this shirt from Zara- which looks way cuter in my pic-
.JPG)
and some new towels & bath mat for my bathroom. (That last one is boring so I won't show you!!)
Oh yeah and a Grazia, a Kinder Bueno (yum!) and some rose face cream (for half the price it'd be in Oz!)
Yey shopping! Now, I'm eating tinned soup until payday in 4 days' time... hehehehe
.JPG)
Since I wear contact lenses when I fly and mostly during my layovers, I have some cheap'n'cheerful sunglasses as my good (read: expensive) ones are prescription. During my shop, I spotted some cute retro-style sunnies. I like some vintage styles, but they always look stupid on me; also, I tend to shy away from overly large styles. I saw a cute pair with stud detailing & liked them. When I saw the price was 30 dirhams (about $10 Aussie) I snapped them up!!
I love them!!! (However, I think I need to wear my hair out with these, as having it back combined with the large size of the glasses doesn't seem to be so flattering, haha)
I also bought a pair of aviator style glasses
(but not in the cobalt blue/silver tint I've been lusting after), this shirt from Zara- which looks way cuter in my pic-
.JPG)
and some new towels & bath mat for my bathroom. (That last one is boring so I won't show you!!)
Oh yeah and a Grazia, a Kinder Bueno (yum!) and some rose face cream (for half the price it'd be in Oz!)
Yey shopping! Now, I'm eating tinned soup until payday in 4 days' time... hehehehe
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Anyonghaseyo!
Since my Paris trip I also had a flight to Bangkok and then a 6 day trip to Sydney & Auckland.
It was great to be back in Australia and be around familiar things again. In Auckland, we were all so happy to see green grass that we ran to a nearby park and spent an hour taking photos there :P
Tonight I'm off to Seoul, South Korea, a trip which I'm quite excited about as I've never been before! Once I get back I'll be sure to post some photos of all of those trips.
In other news, I was a bit naughty today. Somehow my finger slipped and I bought a Sonia Rykiel dress on eBay. I'd been drooling over it in the window of the SR boutique in Dubai mall for ages, but at a few g's there was no way I could justify or afford it.
Well, I'm very happy to say I scored it for less than a tenth of it's retail price, and all because a little of the hem looked a bit loose. Nothing the tailor across the road can't fix. What a find, can't wait till it gets here!
Ok, off to pack my bags...
It was great to be back in Australia and be around familiar things again. In Auckland, we were all so happy to see green grass that we ran to a nearby park and spent an hour taking photos there :P
Tonight I'm off to Seoul, South Korea, a trip which I'm quite excited about as I've never been before! Once I get back I'll be sure to post some photos of all of those trips.
In other news, I was a bit naughty today. Somehow my finger slipped and I bought a Sonia Rykiel dress on eBay. I'd been drooling over it in the window of the SR boutique in Dubai mall for ages, but at a few g's there was no way I could justify or afford it.
Well, I'm very happy to say I scored it for less than a tenth of it's retail price, and all because a little of the hem looked a bit loose. Nothing the tailor across the road can't fix. What a find, can't wait till it gets here!
Ok, off to pack my bags...
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