Coming Up for the rest of May:

17th - Standby from 5am to 5pm
18th - Reserve (can be used and abused for any flight)
20th - MAURITIUS
24th-25th - SINGAPORE
26th-30th - BRISBANE
1st-2nd - SINGAPORE

39 degrees and rising

It has been a hectic few days since I've been back! What with going out to dinner and and going to water-based theme parks there has hardly been any 'me' time ;)

Thought I'd throw in a couple of photos...

Also EMILY KATE WATSON take note: while every member of the Watson family is featured in the previous blog EXCEPT for you, take heart in the knowledge that you are the face I see on my mobile phone desktop every day!!!! (don't you think that's better?!)



Dinner at Long's Bar on my first night back in Dubai on Monday night. These are some of my best freinds here. From L-R: Patrick (Ireland), Lara (Northern Ireland), Caio (Australia/Brazil - Franck's boyfriend), Franck (Aus/France - my housemate), Nicole and myself



A little old Japanese lady tackled the surfing wave at Wild Wadi - a better effort than me, that's for sure!

We here at the GrindStone wish to welcome you back Mr Watson.... Enjoy your stay!

Time to get excited by the blog again! I am finally back in Dubai for the long haul after my 3-week holiday and then 9-day working trip to Brisbane and Singapore. It actually feels really good to be back - better than I thought it would. Dubai is sweltering at the moment and it's only going to get worse. Today it's sunny, a little hazy, and a cool 39 degrees!! Hits you nice and hard when you go outside! Nicole and I are going to Wild Wadi Water Park today (it's like Wet n Wild) and apparently its only 25dhs or $9 for Emirates Crew to go there so we'll soon see.... I have a couple of days off now, and on Friday I'm going to either Rome or Osaka, probably Rome. The rest of my roster is a little up in the air (no pun intended) but I do know that I am doing the Brisbane flight again from May 24 to June 1 (I'll be in Brisbane from the 26th to the 30th).

Thought I'd share some pictures of my trip. I was joined on my Singapore/Brisbane trip by friend Chantal from Malta, so she features in a lot of the photos.

I'll also be updating a lot more often from now on, just like in the old days! Enjoy, and PLEASE feel free to post a comment or two.



Hanging out with Beetle



My Dad and I on my last night in Geelong



My evening of posing with family members continues! Deb, my lovely WSM



AND NOW FOR PICTURES TAKEN DURING THE 2nd PART OF MY TRIP, WHILE I WAS "WORKING"



The view of Singapore from my hotel room at the Carlton. It was taken around 5pm during a rain storm.



By the creek in Singapore where we had dinner on our first night



Chantal opposite moi at dinner



Chantal and I getting ready to do the bungy bullet ride at Singapore (right after dinner!) I am extremely nervous at this point!



And UP we go!



On the beach at Surfers Paradise with Chantal last Friday



Dinner with the crew in Brisbane's Sofitel... Joining us were my friends Mitch, Paul and Drew

Daniel's back!

Welcome to the new-look blog! I have just arrived back home here in Dubai after 19 days of joy and merriment in Brisbane, Caloundra and Geelong - it was the most fun, relaxing and enjoyable holiday I have ever had! Tomorrow morning I aim to keep the dream alive a little longer with my day back on the job taking me where else but BRISBANE again!

I have received my roster for the month of May but will hold off publishing it here as there are many changes still to be made to it. What I do know for sure is that on 24th of May I leave once again for another Singapore/Brisbane trip, so very excited about that - it feels like I've never left home!

I am looking at swapping a few flights around so I can get myself to Melbourne, Auckland, Perth, Mauritius and Osaka.....

Will let you all know as soon as I know :)

Daniel

So what does Dubai look like?

UP Tower, where I live



The view of Sheikh Zayed Road (my street) from the pool



A famous Dubai landmark - Emirates Towers - next door to my building



The building on the right will become BURJ DUBAI (Arabic for Dubai Tower) the tallest building in the world at 800metres, due to be finished in 2008 - check out www.burjdubai.com (this building will be monumental!) The site is on Sheikh Zayed Rd, about one kilometre from UP Tower.



A streetside view of Sheikh Zayed Rd at night time - for many, it's the clubbing and dining epicentre of Dubai

From Athens to Kuwait, and every disco I get in...

Hey! Just about to get on the plane and fly home! Cannot wait for the next 3-4 weeks!!!! Have been very busy flying this past week so I apologise for the delay in getting some new pics up... these are from my trip to Athens last week (April 2-4) In the last few days I have been on two 'turnarounds' (same day flights) to Kuwait and Alexandria in Egypt flying on Emirates' pride and joy, the Airbus 310! This aircraft, the only one of its kind left in the fleet, is ANCIENT!!! It makes noises on take off and landing that remind you of the opening scenes of LOST! And just walking around the cabin you find loose pieces of plastic that have fallen off somewhere, if only you knew where! Not everyone in the company is special enough to work on the old beast, but my training batch was picked - so every month for the next year I get a couple of 310 flights. Can't wait! Hope you like the pictures!




A small church in one of the town squares.... and me in the door



Outside the Acropolis with Zoe (Scotland) - a fellow economy slave :)



The freaky guards at Parliament House - who knew netball skirts and pom-poms on shoes could look so bad on a man?!!!

No place like home!

What an awesome trip! As you know I have spent the last 8 days on a long trip with Emirates to Singapore, Brisbane and Auckland. It was the best fun I've had in this job. The crew was fantastic (made lots of friends) and it made everything enjoyable. First of all, we stopped in Singapore where I proceeded to put my liver to the test in a bar called Insomnia (half price for Emirates staff) It was a crazy night for all and produced enough stories to keep us amused on the next flight through to Brisbane!

I was so wrecked when I arrived home in Brisbane, but couldn't wipe the smile off my face to be back! Despite everyone being so tired and arriving around 7am after a 7 hour flight, the whole crew met for breakfast at the hotel which was great because normally when you get off the flight, nobody wants to see each other again!

Caught up with Sue and the Chermside team for lunch on Friday, and then I had dinner with Mitch and Tracy, Macy and Ava out at their place in The Gap. When I came back to the hotel, despite my eyes falling out of my head, the crew was waiting in the lobby for me and managed to drag me out clubbing! (my arm gets twisted very easily!) 25 drinks and 5 hours later a taxi took me back to my bed for a whole 6 hours sleep!

On Saturday I caught up with Mitch and Tracy for breakfast again, Rochelle and Stephen for afternoon tea and my parents for dinner. Also in the afternoon I took 7 of the crew out for a ride on the City Cat to New Farm Park (see pics below) I was quite the tour guide!

On Sunday it was up at 4.30am for a LONG day to Auckland and back. Completely uneventful, it was a half full flight both ways and a 4 hour wait on the ground in NZ (slept in first class, probably the only time that will happen). We all had big plans for Sunday night but we crashed and burned big time and hit bed early when we checked in to Bris again.

Monday was bonding day with Jodie, Kim and Sandra for lunch, Shelley in the afternoon, and dinner with Nathan and Alissa - another excellent day - made me REALLY not want to go back to Dubai! Tuesday, the last day, was mainly about shopping and getting stuff I can't get here (cheap Milo, cheap Tim Tams, decent clothes...)

After arriving back in Singapore at 4am, for some inexplicable reason, I agreed to go out again - this time for Heineken tallies at a cheap local food court with the Captain, First Officer, Senior Flight Steward and Jamie (slumming it in economy with me!) What possessed me to drink 2 and half litres of beer at 6am, I DO NOT KNOW! All I know is I didn't pay, at least not financially!

It was a very tiring but very necessary experience - getting sick of Dubai fast and a dose of QLD was exactly what I needed! It was even better knowing that I'll be back home again on the 11th...

In the meantime, I'm heading to Athens tomorrow for a day, and right before I leave, I've got two turn-around flights to Alexandria in Egypt, and Kuwait.

I'll email soon with my exact whereabouts when in Australia (with the days off they're giving me either side of my holidays, I'll have close to 3 weeks to see you all!)

Daniel :)

(also congratulations if you read this far!)



In the back galley L-R Maria (Denmark), myself, Jason (Melbourne), Elizabeth (UK) and Jelena (Serbia).



With Michelle (Ireland) and Jamie (UK) during our rest in the back row - we only get this if the flight is not full



With Macy at breakfast on Saturday



On the Brisbane River's CityCat - L-R myself, Jelena, Elizabeth, Maria, Carl (Zimbabwe), Michelle and Mohammed (Egypt).



Our view of an unusually wet and windy Brisbane from the CityCat



Doing our best Dawson's Creek cast photo impersonation in a tree in New Farm Park.



With Jodie at Garden City. Kim, Sandra and baby Madison were also there.



An empty Singaporean Food Court at about 7am - just before I crawled back to the hotel via McDonalds brekky.

African adventures

Just got off the crappiest flight I've done so far! Went to Nairobi in Kenya for 24 hours. The flight there and the actual time in Nairobi was really good just the flight home was challenging to say the least, but more of that in a bit.

Left Dubai on Thursday at 8am and arrived in Nairobi at about 1pm. I was so tired from not sleeping very well the night before, my eyes were closing while I was in my jumpseat during take off and landing (don't tell Emirates!), but still the journey wasn't over. We then had to do a shuttle to and from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania before we could go to the hotel. Luckily the flight had only 100 passengers so it was a quick meal service (flight was 1hr 20mins each way) There was a big temptation to hit the pillow when we arrived again in Nairobi but I stayed up and went out for dinner with the other crew and the captains. Awesome steak restaurant called 'The Pavement' (should you be swinging by Kenya in the next few weeks) and I had 3 delicious courses for under $20.... I did forget to take my camera although you'd just be getting pictures of me eating so I'm sure we can all move on with our lives :)

Next day, after a good 13 hour sleep, a few of us headed for the local markets for some African souvenirs. Kenyan Schillings are worth pretty much nothing in any other country so we were advised to spend all our allowance in Nairobi (like I need an excuse, but I'm going with that one anyway!) It was interesting and horrible at the same time. A big indoor/outdoor market of African animals made from various materials. It would have been great except for that I'd been to South Africa and seen much of the same thing. Every shop owner pulls at you and calls you into his shop to buy things...they conned me into a few things. I have no idea if I was ripped off or not but I took 2000 schillings with me (about $40) and came out with some cool gifts. The nagging and the pulling from the shopkeepers wore me down very quickly though I managed to find a new nice ones (see below).

Despite the poverty and the poor infrastructure, I enjoyed Kenya and the whole sense of being in Africa once again. It was just coming back to Dubai that did our heads in. We were so glad to be coming home, but the passengers were intent on drawing it out for everyone. The call bell didn't stop ringing, I was yelled at by passengers for more drinks when I was getting other people their's, we were complained about to the Purser for not being fast enough with drinks and snack requests (4 cabin crew in economy, 215 passengers, hmmmmmm let me see....) Anyway I now have a total appreciation of anyone who works in a bar or restaurant every day! Was very glad to be back on the bus back home where I am now, diligently typing this blog post before I go to bed.

4 days off now, then I begin my Singapore/Brisbane trip which I could not possibly be more excited about!

See you soon,

Daniel




The Grand Regency Hotel Nairobi, where we stayed (Room 709 to be exact)



The outside view from my room



With Keiren (from Johannesburg) outside the market



With the shopkeepers I liked, inside the market

Birthday pictures

All (well, most) of the table. Sho-Cho's Japanese restaurant at Dubai Marine Resort



My beautiful Nicole :)



The cake they organised for me!



A kiss from the girls (Gemma, Bronwyn and Nicole)



With Leah (her mum is my L'Oreal boss, Sue)



Palo from Slovakia and Chantal from Malta

B-I-G N-E-W-S!

Due to some miraculous force of nature at the Emirates Crew Scheduling Centre, some poor lass by the name of Ji Kang has swapped me her 8 day Singapore/Brisbane flight for my London, Johannesburg and Doha. I mean NO-ONE usually wants these flights and especially not at the expense of such a good trip as a 4-day Brisbane layover! Anyway thanks to the aforementioned Ms Kang and a lovely unidentified lass at scheduling who approved the swap (there are lots of legalities which must be met first) I AM COMING HOME!!!!!!!

I leave Dubai on Wednesday the 22nd bound for Singapore where I stay for 24 hours.
On the night of the 23rd we leave Singapore and arrive in Brisbane on the morning of the 24th.

I'll be in Brisbane all day and night of the 24th and 25th.....

On Sunday I'll be gone most of the day doing a round trip to Auckland, but will be back again around 8pm that night.

Then I'm still in Brisbane all day and night of the 27th, and all day of the 28th when I fly out.

One more night in Sinagpore before I get back to Duabi on the 30th.

Then as you know I'm back two weeks later for my annual leave - it's like I never left!!!

Anyway I can't wait to see you all - will be in touch closer to the time, and of course feel free to book me in via email, text or leave a comment here on the site if thats easier.

Seeya :)


Birthday pics coming later tonight....

THANKYOU!

To everyone who sent me a text,an email or made a call, thankyou for making my birthday very special. It was a bit lonely here today but you all made a big difference so THANKYOU!!!!! I have some cool pictures from my party on Thursday night, will post them when I get my camera back. Off to Dusseldorf in the morning- excitement all round!

Love Dan

From Singapore to Melbourne, and back.

On a Boeing 777-300 after arriving in Melbourne on 7/3/06 at about 2am


Well I just came back from an awesome trip to Melbourne via Singapore. Got to see Dad, Deb, Emily and Beetle in Geelong which was the real highlight even if it was only for a few hours. Also got to meet the new addition to the family - Eddie Watson (see below!)

This was all on the second day. On the first and third days of the trip we were in Singapore. A beautiful city although I didn't get to see that much as I slept most of the time. My friend Stephanie from training was on the flight as well which made it more fun.

I'm finally getting the hang of the job - serving and clearing faster, and responding quicker to everything but I guess that's the case in all new jobs. My roster has also just changed so I'm coming back to Australia (Perth) on the 21st and I'm now also heading to the Motherland (Dusseldorf in particular) on the 12th - day after my birthday...

Speaking of birthdays, in about an hour I'm heading to my party - managed to convince 14 people to come along! It's at this very funky bar/restaurant on the beach. Will post pictures when I can. Will be depressing not having my friends back home to spend the day with but I guess I knew that when I signed up- and at this stage it appears I'll be in the same situation for my 26th and 27th birthdays too :(

Anyway here are some pictures from my trip. Enjoy.

Daniel



Meeting the new member of the family for the first time - Eddie is a Schnoodle (Schnauzer - Poodle cross)



With Emily and Beetle and Eddie



With my friend Stephanie in Singapore - just outside the Carlton Hotel where we stayed.

Some changes for March....

Hello everyone

My roster for March has changed a bit so here goes...

Sunday 12th - Dusseldorf
Monday 13th - Dusseldorf

Thursday 16th - Nairobi
Friday 17th - Nairobi

Tuesday 21st - Perth
Wednesday 22nd - Perth

Sunday 26th - Johannesburg
Monday 27th - Johannesburg

You've got to have faith....

Everyone knows how I have stuck by my Westlife boys for the past 6-7 years, even though I was paid out beyond all belief! Now I feel my faith is being rewarded and others are seeing the light! They're one of the biggest bands in the UK but have never been big in Oz, but check this out.... this week their new album 'Face to Face' is the NUMBER ONE ALBUM IN AUSTRALIA!

Melbourne, here I come!

Well, it's midnight and I've just woken up after a few hours sleep. About to go downstairs and catch the crew bus to the airport for my next flight. Leave at 0245 for Singapore where I'll be for 24 hours. Then its through to Melbourne (WOO HOO!!!!!!!!) for a measly 17 hours on the 7th, before returning to Singapore for another 24 hours... Then on the 9th it's back to Dubai for my birthday on the 11th (big party planned!)

I've attached some pics from the tennis and Glasgow - nothing too exciting, but gives you a bit of an idea.

And I can't go let Oscar season go by without my tips, so here they are: ACTOR: Heath Ledger, ACTRESS: Reese Witherspoon, SUPP ACTOR: Matt Dillon, SUPP ACTRESS: Rachel Weisz, DIRECTOR: Ang Lee, PICTURE: Brokeback Mountain.

Feel free to add comments below!



With my good friend Dache at the Dubai Tennis Championship (yes, that's Lindsay Davenport on the right)



Being welcomed by the television in Glasgow last week.



Some Scottish scenery - ok you got me. I hardly took any pictures, this is the best I could come up with!

Where you'll find me in March!

Sunday 5th - Singapore
Monday 6th - Singapore
Tuesday 7th - Melbourne
Wednesday 8th - Singapore

Sunday 12th - Singapore/Kuala Lumpur
Monday 13th - Kuala Lumpur

Thursday 16th - Nairobi
Friday 17th - Nairobi

Tuesday 21st - London
Wednesday 22nd - London

Sunday 26th - Johannesburg
Monday 27th - Johannesburg

All the other days/nights I'm in Dubai.......