I love u because...

The love u make me feel is js sooo amazin, I smile from within...I also smile in hope of the day we wont be so far apart...though right now there are tears swelling in my eyes, the smile refuses to leave my lips.
I pray for happiness for us, I pray ur mine to the end of time and beyond. I believe ur my soulmate n ur mine to keep. I cant imagine life without u, n I love dreamin bout life wit u
I trust u more than myself, my faith in u is undying and love everlasting. I've learnt more bout myself through u and I an can truly be myself, the person even I'm afraid of being sometimes.
I know we will get through anything together. Ur my strength, my hope...
I love u and no words cn ever fanthom how I feel for u
Can hardly wait to be ur wife.
Lionel I love u

Somewhere in between now and here

I did jump from my first layover in Venice to my most recent one. But I was itching to finish Sao Paulo while it was still fresh in my head. In Dubai now...between destinations. And today I pack to go to Birmingham where I will hopefully see a childhood friend who will come visit me from Manchester if she meets her deadline. 2nd post for the day....not bad I say. Should compensate for my long periods of absence. hehe

POA is cuddling up while watching the remaining half of a movie with Lionel...who btw is sitting all the way back home in India. We start the movie together while on the phone or Skype. And laugh about everything over bbm. Get teary eyed bout touching scenes. Its a bit silly but its what we do. 

Can i say We love Techno(logy)...hehe.

Also the theme of an upcoming event, WARPED he is helping organize. I wish u all the best for it love! I am returning from Birmingham the night of the event so I won't make it. But it will be killer I'm sure with the best minds behind it- Adam from Dubai, Frog-e-style Sanjay and Vapourizing Eric (my fav) setting the decks on fire with big Z and my boy FINE TUNING the night.

I've just been informed I've officially got my 2nd blog critic/reader that i know of...yeah, thats an achievement for me :) I also just found out that organiZe is not spelt with a 'S' in it. Looks like I'm in mood for some pointless ranting too! Lionel your encouragement was too much, now read and suffer..lol

My first Brazilian...

I was suddenly woken by the sound of my phone ringing and I thought to myself, 'that cant be anyone but rostering.' I had slept for less than 3hrs and just got called out for a long haul flts-Sao Paulo...aprox 16hrs! I had no idea how I was gonna survive this one. I repacked my suitcase (flight attendents NEVER unpack) and dressed for work finishing with the bright red lippy and hat. I arrived more than half hour early for sign in and sat waiting for gates to open, wishing I had got that extra half hour worth of sleep. But after getting late for my last flight I rather be here than in bed :p

There was one crew I knew from training and the rest looked friendly enough. Good news was flt time for the day was under 15hrs. Off for another adventure! Knowing all the economy crew were relatively new, me being flying for lil over 3months and the senior most (beat that) I was hoping for some company to venture out to explore the city. The SFS "Uni" was a darling appreciating the hardwork put in by all of us every chance she got. We also got rest in our Crew Rest Compartment and I used my rest pajamas for the first time ever. Yes, this instilled me a certain amount of excitement. We hardly sat for over a minute in our jumpseat coz we had many callbells but we were informed by Uni that this was the quietest Sao Paulo flt she has done so far so we thanked our stars and enjoyed our job. Everyone was promt and helpful so it was a good flt.

The bus ride to the hotel was a loooong one and most of us dozed off. I saw a road sign saying Rio De Janerio and felt compelled to update my facebook status from my phone. I had never thought I would be seeing this for real. Immediately I got a thoughtful msg from a brazilian friend to be careful as it was a long way from Sao coz he thought I was on my way there! Upon arrival at the hotel around 9pm some crew asked for a wake up call at midnight to go out-it was SATURDAY NIGHT! But even the party animal in me couldn't care less...all I wanted was a bed. After many unsuccessful attempts to msg Lionel, I was finally able to sleep after getting bbm to work. 

9pm bedtime meant eyes wide open at 5.30am without an alarm that to. Back to bed for a couple of hours more and then calls between the Y/C crew to meet in the lobby at 9. Mum informed me I had family there but couldn't contact them before I left the hotel. The boys kept us waiting another half hour or so in the lobby. Alex and me getting hungry split this delicious choco covered soft centered cookie before heading out. She had done the homework before any of us arrived about where to go and get a map.

We took a cab to the nearest metro station at Conceicao and headed to S.Bento from there. The conceirge had marked off some places we could go see. The cultural art festival was on which lasts over 24hrs. So there were a lot of carnivals, concerts and standup acts happening everywhere. Our first sight was of a hot air ballon as high as the surrounding building in the middle of the square with 2men dangling upside down fro it. We guessed it was part of the festival. Also a concert stage preparation happening nearby. Mercado Muncipal was first stop. After a bit od asking around we navigated our way there. En route saw a lot of closed shops coz it was sunday, shops full of magnets of diff shapes and sizes, the people and a lot of cops. They look so stern hands crossed in front of their chest,standing in threes. We saw a tiny cafe outside and popped in to have some puff type snack with pizza and sweet coffee. The mercado is the munciple market, selling the freshest fruit, veggies, meats, cheeses, olive oil with a few eateries and gelato shops here and there. A shop dedicated to chillies selling chilly jam! bar stools wit high tables middle of an aisle where u cud sit with ur beer and snack. I had to indulge in strawberries wit cream, while my collegues grabbed gelato, chocolate mousse and juices. All the fruit vendors eagerly ushered you to their stall and cut slices of various fruit for you to taste. Delicious cherries, ripe mangoes, acai, custard apple, dragonfruit....some fruits I didn't kno existed! We walked around eating and drinking grape juice and coconut water and orange juice merrily. A tiny stairway led to a maze of packed restaurants serving authentic brazilian food. After buying bags full of fresh produce we decided to head out to see more of the city.

Walking though a lil rougher part of town, through a cobbled street with shops full of clothes we headed to the cathedral. The whole while Alex and me leading the way and waiting for the other three to catch up. Again showing our map and pointing to Parca da Se on it we sound our way to the place. More cops here and there. A crowd of people emerged and my ears picked up techy beats in the distance. We saw the cathedral which was also closed coz it was sunday. So I insisted on heading to the square nearby where the music came from. Lionel couldn't believe when I told him and he asked if I was actually telling him there was somewhat an open air rave happening right next to the cathedral. I had to send him pictures showing the crowd, deco and cathedral in the background for him to believe. We were in the middle of the festival, people drunk, men topless, everyone drunk. I had to remind my buddy we had work in less than 12hrs when he reached for a bottle. The sun got hot specially while we danced away for a bit so I was pulled away from there. Towards the cathedral for a few shots where a band sang away trying to be heard over the loud music. 

Inspite of Nerry, one of the girls being tired we dragged her to our next stop. We took a metro to Paraiso and then walked and walked and walked to find the Parque Do Ibirapuera. It was a long way parallel to the highway and we were exhausted, especially with the heavy bags of fruit the boys were carrying. We passes this upmarket but empty locality with some very pretty houses, saw the Formula 1 hotel in the distance and a huge african looking statue where we stopped for another group photo. Seeing a lot of green patches on the way we joked about how these would be called a park in the dessert city of Dubai we call home. Finally we saw the park we looked for. Also on one side what looked like a dog training park, an area with a pool where people raced tiny subs and a tall monument. The park featured 4 lakes, a couple of museums and other attractions which we were to tired to care about at this point. We bought packs of crisps and something to drink and headed to the closest spot near one of the lake. After all the time on foot we were relieved to park our ass and just took it all in. The couples sitting nearby, a family with a cute baby, a man sitting alone by the water's edge, the rythmic drum beat coming from across the lake....so lush, so green. Serene. We deicded its time to head back so as to get some rest before the long flight back home. 

I decided to speak t my aunt who lives here and maybe do dinner with her while the rest of the crew headed to carrefour nearby to buy the famous flip flops. I figured I was too tired to do the dinner after all so I'll meet my aunt and couz next time around. Contemplating on whether to have the barbeque I've heard about here or not, I decided against it. In bed for a quick few hours of sleep before getting ready for the flight back home. The eventful begining was with the bus being about 25min late for our pick up. The rest I'd rather not mention. I was all over the flight is what I was told by the boyfriend who got details of what all happened. But that's what I'm supposed to do as crew, amn't I?

around the half the world in approx 80days! part I

Well maybe not half the world...but i still wanna name tis blog entry that :P

Its been approximately 80days since I started flying with this particular airline. My job took me to Europe, Asia, Australia & Africa. Still to plot on my map Russia, USA, North America. Doubt I'll eva go to Antarctica though...but like they say, you never know. I couldn't possibly recount all the experiences I've had in these different places even if i tried. But I figured if I could write summarise it in tiny bits, I would someday read this and remember the travels. Maybe my children and my grandchildren would see the world through this twenty something year olds eyes (didn't think I'd give my age away now,did you? haha).

My first layover was to the city of Venice (yes I'm gonna try following the order here..hehe). Pretty much the whole bunch of crew went out in the cold rainy weather. A short walk to the bus-stop around the block had gave us a taste of what was to come up for the rest of the day- a steady drizzle and chilly wind. Bought my first magnet ever just as we hoped off at the bus depot. We walked for what seemed like forever on the cobbled streets sharing half the number of umbrellas between twice the number of people. The venetian architechture, the waterways and the gandolas were a scene I had only seen in movies and pictures. It was time for the Carnival at the Piazza San Marco but due to the rain the square was pretty much empty except for the sheltered walks outside the shops. Everyone walked so fast as it was freezing to the bone. Few of us managed to get a few shots and even popped into this shop making traditional masques and Shakespearean outfits. Eventually Barrie,our purser decided to hop into a tiny cafe cum bar where most of the crew settled for hot chocolate and three of us had this amazing sweet fizzy red wine, the name of which I can't remember. I also couldn't help but quickly grab a slice of pizza while walking, the first I've seen with fries as a topping along with peperoni. It was delicious as ever and it disappeared in no time to somewhat settle my very empty stomach. The walk back to the bus depot seemed longer as my limbs got stiffer with the cold. Finally we hopped back onto the bus taking us to our hotel. Did I mention I was told its a free bus shuttle only to find out later that it actually wasn't and the whole bunch of us were without a ticket or a travel card! A quick stop at the grocery store across the street for some chilly cheese for Khalid our SFS, some yummy cheese puffs and crisps for me and wine bottles for others. I bailed out for dinner plans later in a bid to save my allowance as I wasn't sure what dinner and drinks would amount to. This was my chance to speak to my boyfriend Lionel online. Sadly the computer at the crew lounge wasn't working. Our first officer who was also there, very nicely offered me to use his laptop as I looked worried. I had just come a few hours before my reporting for this particular flight after meeting my boyfriend who had just undergone an emergency surgery. After that I pretty much called it a day. My first internatinal layover was a success as far as I was concerned :)