Exactly 64 weeks later...

No more crappy little savoury biscuits, no more running down the aisle at night with my eyes closed to avoid call bells and eye contact, no more "...yes, your passenger load for today is 400"

That's right folks, NO MORE ECONOMY! As of last week, this fearless flight attendant is now a business class cabin crew for Emirates! Please bow down in my presence I beseech thee! (I have no idea if I have correctly used the word beseech in a sentence, however as I am working in business class, I command that it be so!)

Here are some pictures from my week in training college, learning the myriad of menial tasks I now need to remember: wines, cheeses, menu items, duty free $$$$$$ and the rest. Many of my good friends upgraded at the same time as me, in particular Nicole, Dache, Denise and Cristina. My first flight in said new swanky class is not til next Tuesday when I go to Colombo, so trying to keep it all stuffed in my brain for then.

Anyway, I'm off on a 35 minute flight to Doha in Qatar in a few hours, so best I go back to sleep!


With Stephanie (UK), Cristina (Spain) and Jeanine (France), in the 'mock-up' - the day we have a complete run through of the full service and get marked on how we do... and me again with Dache!

I took this one of Nicole's new housemate Ann Maree who was attending Nicole's mock-up in the second simulator. We all bring guests to act as passengers so we have people to show off our new skills to! This next one I took of Franck (from the galley) who came to mine- thanks Francky!

The Towering Inferno!

After a rather intense night at training college last night, we were finally released at 12.30am after 9 and a half hours of business class practise! (Mind you we get paid for a whole 3 and a half of that!) So I wasn't home and in bed til well after 2am. You can imagine my surprise and confusion when Nicole calls me at 6.45am talking very quickly about a fire! As it turns out, the building directly across the road from us - a half finished high-rise - had caught fire and was billowing flams, black smoke and a LOT of flying debri onto Sheikh Zayed Road below and this was peak hour traffic!

They closed off the road causing what I can only imagine as total traffic chaos in a city where heavy traffic is an excepted way of life. The main strip of Sheikh Zayed Road where Nicole and I live is the main road in Dubai and more or less the ONLY way to get directly from one end of town to the other, so when its completely closed in both directions.... I ran up to Nicole's apartment in my boxers to get a better look at the flames (her apartment faces the road directly and is higher up) and it was quite a spectacle. The falling flaming debris turned signs and bushes below into separate mini fires, and at one point the balcony of a next door building was completely alight.

However I couldn't watch for too long as sleep was beggng me to come back, and as I write this getting ready to go back to college, I am mentally preparing for a big theory and practical exam later in the day... SCARY!

Also my lovely, pseudo sister-in-law, Julie, is having major heart surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) so if you feel you can or want to, prayers for her and brother Ben are appreciated.

Now off to cram more information in my head!


The building on the left is the one that caught fire from the debris although it was extinguished soon after...

No cars... that NEVER happens around here - very surreal!

Dache and Denise got involved in the firewatching too - all of us have our final practical exam today!

Back in business: BUSINESS CLASS CALLING!

One could call it the most horrible roster known to mankind, but if we look at the positives - and I'm all about the positives - I had the pleasure of three, yes three, flights with Nicole. Sure they may have been crappy turnarounds to places no one should go, but with the Nicster by one's side, how can one go wrong?! We are both in the middle of our business class upgrades, so the last week has been a big mix of birthday celebrations, flights and crazy study. We both flew through the exam on Thursday just gone, and the rest of the course starts later today (Sunday). Menu terms, wine lists, cheese flavours and textures - we are cramming all this useless information into our brains. The blog mind you is benefiting from all this as I am resisting study at all costs!


On ground in Alexandria (flight one), and on our way to Muscat (flight two)... Flight three was middle of the night on the day of the huge airport delays and we were WAY too tired to work let alone take a photo.

Back in business: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!

What can I say about my 26th birthday last week other than that it was simply great. Unexpectedly fantastic actually. On the night of the 10th I held an impromptu party for my Emirates friends and it turned into a rather large, all night affair. When I said goodbye to the last guest at 7am, it was 3 hours sleep, then straight off to the Dubai Zoo for an afternoon stroll in the sun admiring the inhumanely caged animals - NOICE! It really was pretty sick to see fully grown tigers and gorillas in tiny cement enclosures... As this entry is all about hedomism and birthday fun, I will be saving my world conservation rant for next week!

To throw off the emotion and stress we thought we'd put on our Sunday best and head out to the best place in Dubai - 360. It's out in the ocean next to the famous Burj Al Arab 7-star hotel. It was so great and such an awesome way to end my big day on the 11th. And I looked damn good too :p


Ch'an and Nicole, and with my great friends Ashleigh and Denise...

All of us together.... and as you can see, the alcohol begins to set in!

WIth Andres and Lasandro on the left, Ash and Jess on the right..

Nicole and Toby after an intense bowling match on the Wii... and my wonderful friend and housemate Francky. It was a big shame that our other housemate Jason was flying and couldn't hang out with us that night.

Heading out past the most iconic Dubai landmark and the most amazing hotel in the world!

The second most iconic landmark in Dubai - the Jumeirah Beach Hotel... and Franck and Nicole heading into 360: the venue for our festivities!

The Burj looked amazing as the night progressed - and this was from where we were sitting!

Ann-Maree was out for the count after vodka bottle number two! And this is me not looking that much better with Ann-Maree's bestie Vanessa!

Back in business: FAMILY BIRTHDAY!

On the Saturday night I was in Brisbane, Mitch dropped me at the train to go up to Caloundra, but accidentally drove me all the way! What madcap slapstick you say! Mum and David and the fam had planned a night out for some birthdays - mine and my sister Jessica's. It began with a car accident in the maxi taxi on the way to the restaurant (luckily no one was hurt, but a bit scary nonetheless.) We had a very fun night despite the headache in the morning, and it was great to have some family time.


The aftermath of the car crash...

The original Watson mob: Ben, Jessica and Daniel.... and Mitch and myself unwinding after a LONG day of swimming and drinking!

Jessica with Mum, and again with Georgia (sister number three!)

Jessica, Georgia and my older cousin from Geelong, Nadine - and brother Ben with his girlfriend, Julie

Back in business: BRISBANE!

No trip to the capital of Queensland is complete without going there, and that is what I did when I hit Brisbane a two weeks ago. Besides the love and goodness from the Westlife concert (see below), I had but a few days to mingle with my A-listers and to meet my new little best friend Zara Sampson (daughter of Ben and Kim) who was born on the 20th of February. Well Uncle Dan is getting clucky and looking for a suitable fertile mate to bear his offspring. My phone number is 050 2832783 should you know anyone... Also on the agenda: Movie bonding with Nathan following Thai dinner bonding with Alissa, Sizzler bonding with Jodie, roadtrip bonding with Mitch, Who Weekly bonding with Tracy, Bindi bonding with Macy and Ava, Beat bonding with Mal and Dan and James St bonding with Brian!

Like always, everyone made me feel welcome and important, as if no time had passed at all in the last 14 months. I was a bit light on with the camera on this part of the trip but the best of what I have is here:


Uncle Dan and baby Zara! Ben fell asleep putting the baby to sleep, and who could resist taking a picture of that!

Ava and bunny, Tracy and Macy after our swimming day

Back in business: WESTLIFE!

Shakespeare had Gwyneth Paltrow, Leonardo had Kate Winslet, I evidently, have Westlife. I'm all for original, innovative music (this month's flavour is MIKA's Grace Kelly) but I'm also very much in favour of being serenaded with rehashed classics by four well above-average looking Irish lads - and I have basically felt this way since 1999 with no signs of abating. I pledge to stand and defend them in the face slash barrage of criticism I recieve for feeling the way I do, and for parting with my hard earned dirhams every time they release so much as a souvenir toilet paper holder. So you can more or less imagine my unbridled excitement when they announced there first ever Australian tour last year! For whatever reason (and don't anyone suggest poor ticket sales!) they postponed from last September until February 28th this year. I call it the centrepiece of my vacation. Others may call it lunacy. For the loyal who have stuck with The Jube Eye, this will be your second Westlife pictorial (after June last year) and may it not be your last!

To Jodie, Alissa, Shannon, Mal and Dan who braved the lonely path with me and 5000 other mostly fat, old women, THANKYOU!


The obligatory pre-show beverage with Jodie in the pink, Shannon and Alissa. I was doing my level best to get them in the mood and I think largely succeeded...




The boys went all out and we loved it! It wasn't the full version of the show that the UK gets, but still pretty great and hope they put the wind in my sail again next year!