Daniel in October

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1st - 3rd KOLKATA, India

4th - 9th Family visiting from Geelong!!!!!

12th - 16th SYDNEY and CHRISTCHURCH

19th - 20th RESERVE DAYS (PRAY I get a Brisbane!)

22nd ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (turnaround)

23rd ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AGAIN!)

26th KUWAIT (turnaround)

30th ALEXANDRIA (yes, AGAIN!)

All other days in Dubai at this stage

OVER REACTION a new fragrance for him

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All is not lost! I may have gone in a little hardcore with the chainsaw reference, so I have taken a step back and taken the opportunity to salvage what I could of the roster and I have pleasantly surprised myself. Once crew scheduling get back to me in the next day or two, I will post my new, hopefully semi-decent schedule for October on this, the new look blog :)

(This is NOTHING compared to how good this baby will look by Christmas!)

Also, here is a picture of Nicole in serious Ramadan-mode in a recent retail excursion! Bless!

Razor blade, scalpel, chainsaw....STAT!!

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Okay kids the roster is in. I don't even know why I am bothering writing this because I couldn't have asked for a bigger piece of crap if I tried. As I am desperately aiming to change what I can, which doesn't look like a lot at this stage due to ridiculous amount of non-swappable Airbus 310 flights...AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!

In a nutshell: more days off than I know what to do with, more turnarounds than I know what to do with, and only ONE layover!

On the BIG plus side, Dad, Emily and Beetle are coming to visit on October the 4th for 5 days, and I cannot wait!

Still I guess there are children dying of something somewhere in the world, so who I am I to complain?

Cap'n Dan

They say incontinence affects one in three mothers. What they don't tell you (and should) in the advertising is that the same problem affects four out of five cabin crew waiting for their rosters! I've got a right-mind to call Depend and let them knw that!

RAMADAN KAREEM!

Well it was supposed to begin today (Sunday), but the moon got in early and thus Ramadan kicked off for another year at sunrise on Saturday. I had to go to the airport the night before to see off a friend, and what is normally a quiet time was absolute chaos, with families scrambling to be home in other parts of the region for the beginning of the fasting.

For those who aren't aware, Ramadan is the holiest month on the Islam calendar and officially observed by the whole of the United Arab Emirates, which means non-Muslims also have to fall into line for 30 days. For us it means: no eating, drinking, smoking or swearing in public at all between sunrise and sunset. (For Muslims it's a COMPLETE fast, not just in public) No loud music at any time, anywhere, which means no clubs with music til the whole event is over. Some hotels and restaurants have screened off certain areas so Westeners can eat during the day, but if it's partly exposed, the party is off. First offence is a warning, second is prison, if you're particularly flagrant about it.

I went to the mall yesterday afternoon and forgot to have a drink before I left home, and after two hours I was so thirsty it was doing my head in, but I couldn't do anything about it til I got home.

Oh and good news for Emily and Beetle....If you're under 15, they can't make you do it, so something to consider when you get here.

Last night I was pulled out from a 7pm to 7am standby shift for a flight to Kuwait and back, and thought I'd take a picture of the aircraft from the crew bus when we were leaving to go home. Nothing too exciting, we've all seen a plane, but you need some pictorial pay off for reading all these words!

A bit of Free Willy action for all!

I almost called in sick for it as the thought of working 12 straight hours inside an aluminium tube was doing my head in, but the reason within prevailed and I set off two nights ago for a bit of Nagoya lovin'. We were happily surprised to find out at briefing that we would be travelling on the brand new Boeing 777 Ultra Long Range aircraft which is more or less the newest and most advanced aeroplane in the skies (Middle Eastern or otherwise) I have taken some pretty cool photos of the stars which shine at night, the sleeping bunks for crew upstairs, and the new first class suites. On the way home we had only 76 passengers in a 360 seater plane which meant a LONG LONG break upstairs....3 and a half hours all up! Time for a movie AND a two hour nap! The captain let me sit in the cockpit for takeoff and landing on the way home which was simply amazing. I hadn't done that since my first flight back in February, and this time I had my camera, so I tried my best to take some good ones!

Now as for our time in Nagoya... I had sussed out the tourist hotspots before we left and felt I was overdue for a visit to an aquarium - aren't we all? Ask yourself!

So off I went with Aaron (of recent Brisbane trip fame) and Delia from Transylvania (no, not my zany wit - it's true) to visit the dolphins, the penguins, the turtles, the mantarays, the belugas and the ORCA!!! Yes, a real life enormous orca was there! So without further ado, enjoy today's marine themed blog. As there are so many photos and this is taking me forever to do, I'm skipping captions today. It's all fairly self-explanatory....please don't confuse me with the whale.


























A BIT OF TRIPLE-7 EXCITEMENT



Getting ready for take-off out of Nagoya!

Our new first class suites - 19 inch monitors, mini bar, flat bed, food on demand, the list goes on!

It's a small space for a big boy like myself, but it certainly beats sitting in the back row. We have our own tv, pillows, blankets, pyjamas....Very comfy retreat right above the passengers!

Underneath the stars!

View of Dubai....and coming in to land!

Is that an Orca in your pocket....?

I've just arrived home from my trip to Nagoya in Japan with lots of great pictures and stories, all of which you can see here in a WORLD EXCLUSIVE when you come into work tomorrow (assuming a) you live in Australia and b) you use the Internet at work and c) you read my blog.)

Off to sleep now, but not for long - I am on standby tomorrow morning at 6am which in a word, SUCKS!

Yours in quality blogging,

The Captain

Grab a coffee - this is a LONG one!

Well it is finally here....a blog entry to signify one of the most fun and pleasant trips I've had in a very long time. Normally I don't take that many photos on a Brisbane layover, but you know how I'm always living on the edge!

Without going on about it, I had a VERY good crew, and by good I mean relaxed, easy-going, friendly, sociable and funny - extremely rare qualities from any crew. There's always one or two, but rarely sixteen others! To add to the general merriment, we had reasonably light loads for many of the sectors which makes life sweeter for all. Then if there can be a cherry on the cake that was my life for the past nine days, Nicole happened to be in Brisbane on the night I arrived and she came out to meet my friends and crew which I must say was noice.

I'll let the pictures and what I have no doubt will be witty captions, tell the story...

SATURDAY NIGHT DINNER

With my long time amazing friends, Rochelle and Sacha

Can't believe my little girl Tania is all grown up and getting married! Paul is a VERY lucky guy!

Rochelle plants one on her unsuspecting husband, Stephen

Nicole was able to meet my friends, including Nabil, the extraordinary purser we were very lucky to have :)

...not to mention the cuter-than-usual First Officer, Marcio from Brazil

Captain Mike from Canada gets aquainted with Fiona of the British (and first class) pursuasion!

Senior Flight Steward, Shahram (from Iran - so was Annie the other SFS) with Louise from the UK

Obligatory group shot: Charlie (Jordan), Cristina (Spain), Marcio, Cookie (Philippines), Nicole and moi

AIRPLANE MADNESS - WHERE WILL IT END, WHO CAN SAY!!!?

Waiting in Brisbane Airport for the shuttle to Auckland. We picked up an extra 100 passengers from a cancelled Royal Brunei flight, which was not the ideal start to the day.

With Aaron and Louise as the wait to board the aircraft dragged on...

...but always time to sneak in a photo before passengers begin ruining the day!

Aaron (Sydney), Silbee (South Korea), Shahram, Louise and I/me

With the hot-to-trot economy SFS Annie (she developed DVT and had to stay behind half way through the trip)

With my buddy Shahram - an absolute champion!

This was the camera view coming into Auckland International...

...and a few hours later heading back into Brisbane, we encountered a lot of turbulence hence the wobbly picture, but I was allowed to sit in the back seat to take this picture.

Peace and quiet in the cabin during the night flight to Singapore - no call bells for hours...BLISS!

Hanging in the cockpit during aforementioned blissful (but boring) flight to Singapore

Captain Dan saves the day! Thanks Captain Dan!

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

My sister, Georgia

Georgia, myself and Mum

With Nathan and Alissa

Tracy with Macy...

...and to complete the set, Mitch with Ava

Macy and Ava




LEAVING THE BRISBANE HOTEL AFTER AN AMAZING 5 DAYS :(