Training and CNY!!

Just completed 5 days of First Class Suite training. Currently Etihad has two different kinda First Class cabins. As of now, only 4 of our 47 aircrafts are installed with this First Class suite, the rest of the aircrafts with First Class configuration will soon be retro-fitted with these suites.

Diamond First Class Suite

Poltrona Frau leather on the seat and ottoman (footrest), this leather is used in cars like Ferrari and Bugatti. The suite is manufactured by B/E Aerospace. 6'8" flat bed. 23" screen, own personal wardrobe with mirror and even calling function to call to cabin crew in the galley (like room service in hotels)! Pretty cool. I heard that a return flight from London to Sydney via Abu Dhabi on this suite costs Dhs 62,000.00 (that is almost equivalent to RM 62,000.00). Hahahahahaha... but if say I decides to go London for vacation on my staff discounted, confirmed, return ticket, it only costs Dhs 4000. Wahahahahhaha... so much of difference!

And now more Londons and Sydneys to come! But I don't mind. I like going to London (but not when we depart from there because there's so much hassle at the screening station before we board the plane). I enjoy going to Sydney (if only the flight time can be shorter, it's almost 14hrs one way).

Old Diamond First Class

It is a new step for us the cabin crew as one of these suite itself can buy you two Porsche! There are only 4 airlines in the world now with Suite class (which also means, it is a class above First Class): Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Jet Airways and Etihad Airways.

New Pearl Business Class

Old Pearl Business Class

Old Coral Economy Class

New Coral Economy Class

Anyhoo... CNY is fast approaching! I will be going back home for like about 2 weeks! Weeeeehooo... but thing is, one of my cousin will not be around, she is studying in Melbourne, another cousin is currently working with some tour agency and she will only be back in gramma's house till 2nd day and then she has to start working on the 3rd day of CNY. Not only that, school will not be out for too long, apparently Kelvin's school, the principal did not want to take any extra cuti (or ganti with hari Sabtu), reason given was, it is not a major celebration for the school because the school does not have THAT many chinese students! (what a load of crap!) She wasn't my pengetua when I was in school, so I can bitch all I want about her. My pengetua was a really nice lady.

Hmmm...what else went on recently? Oh ya... caught this small girl during MK's wedding, she is MK's relative's daughter (or something like that). She is oh-my-god-oh-so-cute!

Cute little girl in pink dress

So long, farewell, it's time to say good byeeeee~... will write prolly again some time during CNY or maybe after that long break! Keke... and then couple of flights (Almaty, Munich and Bombay), and then SEP recurrent training! Yikes!!

Good day everybody!

End of 2009, beginning of 2010

Year 2009 was a blast. I experienced many events, the unforgettable ones, and also those that should be forgotten, haha; went to places I have not visited, ate food I have not tasted before, met people whom I made instant friends with and not forgetting meeting up again with dear family members and friends from childhood to university days... it was a great year! Will definitely miss it and will make year 2010 another great one!

End of 2009 was great as we had a mini X'mas celebration. The 8 of us had buffet lunch at OneToOne hotel. It's actually a buffet event shared by 3 different restaurants, in the same hotel building and we can go to all 3 floors for different types of delicious cuisines. Top floor is an Asian restaurant called Wokcano (sushi rolls, popiah, fried noodles, beef salad and the likes...), middle floor is called 18oz, where we were seated, is more of Western cuisines (turkey, roast duck, roast beef, xmas cookies and the likes...), and bottom floor is called Resto, where it serves international cuisines (we found breakfast food, like baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, to arabic food like hummus, tabbouleh, to grilled seafood of prawns, and cold dish seafood of mussels, oysters etc...)

Christmas cookies

The guys

The girls

Table for 8

Merry Xmas sayang :)

Tons of good food with great companion, by far, this is one of the best christmas i have ever had :) Later that evening, we adjourned to the T-Garden for a bit. It was a good christmas. I made everyone a homemade cup of goodies! U can find 7 different surprises inside, Australian nougat, strawberry filled chocolate, truffle, mango chewies, lemon-tea sweet, Fererro Rocher and to top it off with a silver ball xmas tree ornament!

Homemade goodies

A few days after that, boo sayang threw me a birthday party at Chili's in Khalidiya mall. It was a great gathering. Few friends came to share this tiny little moment of mine turning quarter century old. Haha :) It was a great night out. Food was great. Companion was awesome! Sweet having a birthday party!

Chili's staffs singing Happy Birthday to me!

Making a wish?

So what else before the curtain came to a close for year 2009? I think not that much because I spent my New Year's Eve in Frankfurt. With close ones really close by (via webcam), haha, watching fireworks on a rainy/snowy night at Frankfurt, it was good.

Then 2010 began with a really fantastic layover at Munich with darling Suhana (fellow Malaysian cabin crew). We visited Nymphenburg castle. It's a summer home for the Bavarian kings and electors, but now that it is winter in Germany, the place looks awesome! Would like to come here again during the summer. It took us about 40mins from the hotel to Scholss Nymphenburg station by tram, it's a great way to explore Munich by tram as we got to see Munich in a quick glance. The tram by passes Karlplatz, Marienplatz, Lehel etc. Very nice as we got from town to country side to city to mini town to country side again. I wanna say I love winter, but i don't really cos it really freezes your tushee off! haha...

Suhana and I in Munchen

Nymphenburg castle in the winter

And then just couple of days ago we headed to Global Village at Dubailand. It was fantastic. Temperature in the middle of the desert was pretty chilly. About 18-20'C, but with the wind, it felt like 15'C. We started off the day by having home cooked meal for lunch, keboo cooked fried meehoon putih yg pedas-pedas (with loadsa black pepper powder). Then we started off the journey using the onboard GPS in keboo's car and also the Garmin GPS. Took us about 2hrs to get there as traffic really slowed down as we entered Dubai.

Bought the ticket, Dhs10 per person, and started exploring all the different pavilions. This year around, looks like more countries took part! We were greeted by Indian pavilion and then UAE pavilion. Further on we explored almost all of the other pavilions. There were Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Thailand, Philippines, Lebanon, Egypt, Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan etc. There were just so much to see!

Not only that, we went to the theme park area where there were tons of crazy rides! Any rides you have seen and not seen are all here! From the springing rubber-band like bubble ride that shoots you up in the air with the elastic mechanism to 4 different types of roller coaster, to pony express (hahahaha... this ride is so funny, kids ride on this horse/pony look alike thingie, that really gallops!), to go-cart, to bumper car, to ferris wheel, to merry-go-round, to a few water rides, spiderweb, trampoline disco, ghost house... etc. Too many rides! A token costs Dhs5.

Boo boo can't wait to get on the rides

We went on the ferris wheel which needed 4 tokens per person. It was a great ride, it doesn't move too fast, but it took us around for 6 rounds and from the little umbrella capsule we got to see the whole layout of the Global Village. Fantastic! Yassalam!!

After the ferris wheel ride!

We got to see a few shows as well. French dance, American cowboy dance, Chinese sword martial art and also this dude blowing fire near the man-made canal. This is a really great outdoor idea for everyone. You can get different food, spices, accessories, cloths, comforters/bedspreads/quilts, potteries, toys.... anything!

Mini mufflers for the kids

So that sums up the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 for me. It had been awesome and I hope it stays awesome.

I am on 7 days off right now. I don't know why as well. I think there are too many crew right now, and maybe no one took the January leave slots. Not many flights this month, started off with FRA and MUC, and then BAH, DOH, KUL, RUH and FRA after this 7 days off. Easy peasy.

Happy new year everyone!

Have a great new year everyone!

Nov-Dec updates

Been a long time since I blogged, been too busy laaa... hahaha, no la, actually more like lazy laaa... Ok la, let me recap on what has been going on..

I was working quite a lot last month: Paris, Lahore, Sydney, 2x Frankfurt, 3x Bahrain, and Karachi. Crazy... Only 2 days off in between some flights, other than that, it was like 7 days in a row.. ingat saya ni robot ka??

But then hor, this month roster is like so freaking loose, started off with airport standby, spent 4hrs in airport doing nothing, but ok la, met so many of my colleagues and friends, get to catch up even for that just-a-while, then a short flight to Riyadh, and then 10 days leave! yahoooo... it was fantastic!

With Sooky (South Korean) during my airport standby

First 2 days was spent in hometown, just catching up with my family and good friend, Nina, played tennis and went to pasar malam with the siblings, and then Boo came visit for 2 days, brought him around to see more of the place where I grew up, and then the next day went to Putrajaya to have my passport renewed...

Gosh... this process done in Putrajaya (supposedly the headquarters) was horrandous. Customer service at the information counter was really REALLY bad! She was not only rude, but also unattentive. I mean like, how tough can her job be? Let me tell you why I think it bad:

Me: Selamat pagi, di mana ya, mesin buat passport dalam building ni?
* these machines located at 8 of the offices in Malaysia that you can have your passport done within 20mins, all you need is your previous passport, 2 passport-size photos and money to pay for the passport; as all your information are already in your previous passport, there are no forms to fill, no queues to line up to, pretty much hassle free *
Her: Mesin? Sini takde mesin...
Me: Errr.. tapi cik, Putrajaya ni ibu pejabat kan?
Her: Kat sini takde mesin, sini kena beratur. U ikut je semua orang beratur kat situ, ambik nombor, tunggu turn
Me: Ahhh... ok, maaf ya nak tanya lagi, di pejabat mana boleh saya jumpa mesin buat passport tu?
Her: Kat damansara ada, shah alam ada, wangsa maju ada
Me: Ooohh ok, pejabat tu kat mana di damansara?
Her: Kat damansara la...
Me: Ye saya tahu, tapi cik, damansara tu besar...
Her: Damansara yang kat KL tu la
Me: (waaahhhh u think i so bodoh ar dono where damansara is!) maksud saya cik, cik ada alamat yg kat damansara tu?
Her: u pergi je sana, tanya orang, diorang yg tinggal sana tahu
Me: (so much for information counter) takpe la cik, terima kasih, sorry la jika terganggu (padahal it was not even busy at her counter)

So from queuing up to getting number to filling up the form to handing up the form to payment to collecting passport took me freaking 5 hours! One, was because it was school holiday (so everyone is probably going away from Malaysia) and also Two, because the changing of shift was really slow as some went for lunch and those who were supposed to take over took their own sweet time taking over...

Ok la, then after that went to 1U for some shopping therapy. Pa and Kel went jalan2 at the Men section of Jusco, mom and sis were at the lingerie section of Jusco, and I went wandering around 1U, that's because I needed stuffs from Watson, Guardian and Crocs. Haha... so later on, the whole family met up at Studio R before heading for dinner.

And what else did I do during these 10 days? Hmmm... oh yeah we went back to gramma's place as well. Grand aunt said my face look a little pucat d. Well, thanks to all the makeup lor... watudoo, comes with the job, for every time that i remove my makeup, that's everytime that some part of my good skin goes away with the makeup remover :(

We (karl and I) also helped mom with the fruit cake that she baked a day before we headed back to respective out-of-home homes. Met up with some of my childhood friends at the club. It was so good to see them again, been a long time since I saw them, but somehow it felt like we were still connected, thanks to facebook, great tool! haha...

And so the day of departure came and we first dropped Karl at LCCT, her flight was delayed 2hrs, due to aircraft navigation fault, AK pilots took them for a short trip around the taxiway of KLIA, she said she saw Etihad and Emirates aircrafts, haha.. After we dropped her, we went to Nilai to jalan2 for a bit, have tea and then hantar me to airport later that evening. Met up with Bernard who was going to Jakarta for some meeting/project/business.

So I got back to Abu Dhabi, had 2 days off to acclimatise myself before my USA standby, which I wasn't called up, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! and then today was supposedly rostered as standby as well, but was changed to OFF, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! And so Boo took me to Dubai to jalan2, dating2, paktor2.. haha.. went to Mall of Emirates, Dubai Marina Mall and then otw home to Abu Dhabi we went to Al Raha Mall.

It's 2:51am now, and I am supposed to be on standby today, but also, it got changed to OFF, weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! wahhh it's like I am on such a long leave! But it's good anyway, not ready to head back to serve people on vacations, haha..

So the only 2 flights left this month for me is Paris and Frankfurt. Spending boxing day in Paris and New Year's eve in Frankfurt. Still not sure what will I be rostered on my birthday as it is still empty on the roster. Let it be OFF, let it be OFF! Pweeeeeeeeeez...

Boo already got me an early birthday present, OSIM uSqueez leg and feet massager :) I love foot massages, especially the one at Sunway Pyramid, and this is one excellent way to help relax my feet after a tiring long flight, thanx sayang :*

Ok la, I think it is about time to count the sheeps now. Tomorrow wanna go paktor2, jalan2, dating2 again in Abu Dhabi.

Loyal

Taken near Duomo, Milan, Italy

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend :)

And thank you for being so loyal :)

Love you always, mwah

Dua orang PeLiK

Hari ni kan, saya terbang dengan dua orang yang agak pelik. Seorang tu agak sombong. Seorang lagi tu macam "little miss perfect", eh tak tak, "little mr perfect".

Hehe...itu je, esok terbang lagi! Yahoooo.... lepas tu will terbang dengan boo boo saya ke "tanah bawah di bawah" (as in the land down under).

MJ This Is It

Went for MJ's This Is It movie last night at Marina Mall. Had good dinner at Fuddruckers before that. I ordered this

Buffalo caesar salad

and boo ordered this

Grilled fish with mashed potatoes and vege

After dinner, went to Cinestar to buy the tickets

in front of the ticket counter

Woohooo... got 2 tickets for the price of Dhs30 (RM30) each, that's the price for normal theater tickets. Not sure how much the more premier classes cost? Haven't been into any of them here yet in AUH. But been to Gold Class in GSC The Gardens next to Midvalley Megamall. That one was really comfy!

Huge leather seat (red color leather), blankets on each and every seat. 20 seats in total in the whole huge theater. Call buttons on the middle coffee table if you need to order more snacks/drinks etc.

But this one where we went was not bad. I mean the seats are about the same as the seats in KL, the height elevation of the seat in front of you is lower (which means even if a tall freak sits in front of you, your view still will not be blocked), fewer seats though in the theater.

So after purchasing tickets, we still had about an hour to spare before this movie starts. So we went across to the other smaller mall, Centrepoint to jalan2. Walked in Home Center and bought 2 nice looking vases. Haha... nice looking ceramic, cream colored vase with a few green flowers painted around it.

Then went back to the car to keep the items before heading back up to the cinema to watch

MJ This Is IT

Last night, there were only 8 of us watching the 11.15pm movie. Hahahaa... that also two unta can take our seat, so we had to sit 2 rows below our original seats, but takpe la, still ok... but one thing, the theaters here are not as cold as the ones back home. Remember how we will always need to carry extra jackets when we are going to watch movie in KL?

Awesome movie. Great music. Makes you miss him so much. I admit I am not a big fan of MJ, but this movie will really make you wanna see more of his moves, listen to more of his music :(

F1 Yas Island tour

I slept like so long today. Must have been to replace the sleep for the night before, last night's and yesterday afternoon. I don't even know what time I went to bed, but I am guessing about 1am, and I woke up today at 3pm, so that makes about 14hrs of sleep. Well, not too bad, old record still holds at 22hrs. Haha...

So let's see what has been going on lately. Oh yeah, F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, I was here on the night for Beyonce concert, was here on the night of King of Leon's concert (who are they btw? seriously, i hv never heard of them, haha, until they came here for concert and ppl were all crazy abt them, who are they?), was here on the night of Jamiroquai's concert, was here on the night of Timbaland's concert. But but... I didn't go for any of these concerts. Yikes! Why?? you ask. Entah, just wasn't excited about it.

And then well, I was supposed to go home, as in operate KL flight like last week or so, but we got stuck in Kuwait, because the aircraft that we brought into KWI was faulty, stated in MEL, a no-go item, we can't go back to AUH until it is fixed :( And we ran out of duty time, had to put up a night in KWI airport "freaking small" hotel, and because no one brought any overnight kit, because who would have expected to stay in KWI as AUH-KWI is a really short flight of about 1:30hrs each way! Oh well, anyway most of our passengers had to either go with EK or change their whole travel itinerary.

So, after that I had a day of airport standby where boo teman me for the whole 4hrs, occasionally went missing to take pictures and etc, then after lepaking 4hrs at starbucks, not called up for any flights, headed back home and slept till like reporting time for Paris the next day. Haha... i said slept here cos i can't remember what i did during the day actually.

So, in Paris, didn't go out to the city because it was raining the whole day. Winter is here!! Only went out to terminal 2A to get some food to eat. For those who don't know it yet, terminal 2A has McD and a couple of Cafes, plus a grocery store downstairs (heading towards terminal 2B). Terminal 2C has like a few restaurants and like one or two cafes. I didn't walk till terminal 2E. Across the road, that's where terminal 2B, 2D and 2F are. You can find Pizza hut and tons of cafes in terminal 2B, not sure what is in terminal 2D and upper class restaurants (meaning more expensive food and wine, and less food selections) at terminal 2F.

After coming back from Paris, had a few days off before Lahore. Played tennis. Fosh I sweated so much! Humidity level was as high as 83%, and because of that it was foggy the next day in the morning. Good thing when I got back from Lahore it was, well it was foggy but we managed to land with autopilot on and got back to AUH safe and sound. Came home, showered and then took a nap of about 4hrs before having lunch and then heading out paktor at Yas Island.

Yas Marina F1 Circuit

It was a really nice place. Can't wait till the Ferrari theme park opens. There will be a Yas Mall, it's attached to the Ferrari World (the theme park). Quite a number of hotels there, Yas Rotana, Park Inn, Radisson, Crowne Plaza, Yas Hotel (that's the one in the middle of the circuit). Awesome developement by Abu Dhabi government. I am sure in the future, with this 3yrs contract to host F1, Abu Dhabi tourism will definitely boost, and that will also mean more people will travel to and fro AUH, which means that Etihad (plus our competitions) will get more passengers on each flight coming from all 4 corners of the world.

Ferrari Theme Park

And and... wahhh i am getting excited, let me do it this way.

If A increase, B will increase.
If B increase, C will increase.
Therefore, if A increase, C will defintely increase.

A = Etihad flight passenger load
B = money generated
C = crew salary

So, you do the maths. Hahaha.... Thought of having our dinner at Yas Rotana, the buffet dinner. But yikes! I was in the ladies, boo was walking around, having a look at the scrumptious selection on the buffet counters, and then waaaaahhhhh, a freaking big rat ran from below the salad counter to the pasta counter! We are calling this place the RATana from now on. Eeeewwww... i told boo i don't wanna have dinner in any of the restaurants in RATana cos they probably share the same kitchen!!

What we did was we retracked back to AUH using the new highway that connects Yas Island-Saadiyat Island-Abu Dhabi city. Newly built 5-lanes highway, no speedtrap cameras yet, but it's ridiculous to drive in a practically empty road with the speed of 100km/h as noted on the road speed signs along the way.

Went for dinner at Benihana (a Japanese restaurant in Beach Rotana hotel). Good and fulfilling dinner. Miso soup, sushi and sashimi for starters. Teriyaki chicken, mixed tempura (prawn, eggplant, sweet potato) and more sushi and sashimi for main. And to end the good dinner, marshmallow soaked with delicious chocolate sauce and a slice of chocolate ice-cream cake for dessert. It was damn good! And... had all this Japanese buffet for free!

Wahhh... how u ask? Boo joined the Rotana Rewards club early this year and got a voucher for dinner at any Rotana restaurants (in the middle east) with a value of Dhs250 (that's RM250). And this dinner came up to Dhs230 after deducting from the 50% discount on food and 15% discount on drinks (with the Rotana rewards card). It's much better than Etihad crew discount that we get. Normally we get only 25% on F&B in these outlets. Hehe....

That's all for the night, tonight we are heading out to watch Michael Jackson's This Is It. Plan to have dinner at Fudrucker's before that. Best la, long time never go out dating like this already, hahahaha... blame it on the schedule we had for the past few months, timings always tak ngam wan.