Hey my lovely family and friends,

I have just arrived home from my impromptu visit back to Brisbane and I have heaps of cool things to post on here. I didn't take my laptop so was unable to do it there. Unfortunately, I have to wake up in a few hours to go on my very first Hamburg/New York flight, and I am nervous and excited about flying again. It has been over 3 months since I worked as cabin crew - we'll see if I still have the Emirates touch!

Looking forward to updating you with all my New York shenanigans in a week from now.

Daniel

One week. One inch of sanity.

The new Emirates Training College opens next week -
amazing photos like this on every other wall

It has been a strange transition for me from the life of a cabin crew to that of a 9-5 (or in my case 7-6) man. I am now half way through my third group of trainees and very much looking forward to having a rest when I have days off the week after. It makes me feel very privileged to work in a job that is such an interesting and diverse mix of people and skills. Am I nervous about going back on to an aircraft? Absolutely! I have forgotten what to do! I have spent twice as much time on the ground than I ever did working in business class!

Here are some different pics of my last batch which, by and large, were a fantastic group of interesting and funny people - take a look...

The view from the cafeteria at the top of the new Emirates College - not a bad place to go to work every day!

Jeevan, myself, Holley and Belinda - the four of us started this job together.
Holley was my co-instructor for the first two batches, Belinda is stuck with me for the third...



Our ab-initio (1053) got together to surprise Holley for her birthday which made the whole day special



I was as sick as dog on their graduation day, so this is my last photo of them :(
Miklos, Kristy, Angelika, Kriti, Marit, Nelia, Khushboo, Gemma, Tando, Jo, Ziba, Michelle, Ingrid, Louise, Lucie

Letting loose at Shangas

The Shang-Ri-La.

In Chinese it means, shang-ri-la.

Nicole and I had BIG expectations for this evening. The sms and facebook invites went out and we waited. It's always hard getting a big group together with everybody's crazy rosters but a good group we indeed managed. The plan was to eat and beverage ourselves into a regretful stupor then hit Zinc (perennial cabin crew haunt) for a lesson in Embarassing Drunken Situations 101. I think if you follow the timeline of the photos you'll get the drift. Thankfully I was taking the photos not in most of them...

8PM

Daniel, Nic and Holley, and the gang

9PM

with Michelle and Nicole, and Ed (Michelle's boy) and Julian. I keep telling these guys they should come train with me at the gym but all they're interested in is staying home and eating junk food. Honestly boys!

10PM

My plate has become a penis, and Jen from Liverpool rocks up. Yes, the alcohol IS unlimited here!

2AM

When you have the two cutest ladies in the room on your arm, suddenly the drinks become free!

3AM

Cab drivers in Dubai could not possibly be paid enough for driving people like us home!

A little bit of Ginseng goes a long way

On a school night no less, Nicole, Franck and Holly managed to twist my arm and drag me out to dinner. Now as you know, I am ADDICTED to cooking healthy, fresh food at home and find the idea of spending unnecessary funds on restaurant food an abomination, so it was NOT an easy choice. However I relented and off we went to our old, pre-Shangrila haunt - Ginseng. I hear on the vine of grapes that the night went off after I had to depart for bed, but here are a few snaps of the team.


Nicole, Marcos, Franck, Holly and Daniel....and again sans Francko


Nicole talking about who knows what to Faisal and Shanna Banana; and Holly gets involved with the boys...

My little ones are all grown up!

Well my first official group of trainees have graduated and I could not be any prouder if I tried... and I'm also a wee bit chuffed with myself and Holley my co-instructor!

Andre, Azusa, Candice, Cheah, Elaine, Ewa, Fatimah, Kaamini, Karly, Kavita, Kevork, Panida, Sarinluck and Yumi were our first guinea pigs (representing 11 nationalities) and they exceeded our expectations and have set a very high standard for my next group starting tomorrow.

Sorry for the constant blog delays - I wake up at 5.30 every day and get home around 5.30-6 which is much a like a normal person, however it's VERY unusual for a cabin crew. Seeing my friends and housemates go to parties and getting texts to come along but knowing you have to be awake for fourteen pairs of eyes the next morning is tough, but as Shakespeare so eloquently said when he wrote True Lies "Someone's got to do it!"

Here are some photos of my first group on Graduation Day- a very proud moment for them and for me...



The day before graduation (Wednesday) we gave them a cake to say thankyou and tell them they were our first batch of trainees. It was a fantastic and emotional moment :)


After receiving their certificates at the graduation they were so happy!

Wanted: Spare Time

I'm really sorry for the constant delays in writing on here. My new life as a proper trainer is full on to say the very least and it leaves me with very little time to have a life let alone write about it on the blog! So I will bring you a wrap-up of the first two weeks as soon as they are done on Thursday.

In the meantime I somehow manage to fit Facebook into my life and it has more immediate details of my comings and goings. I recommend joining if you haven't already :)

Yours in EXTREME BUSYNESS,

Cap'n Dan

About to wet my pants!

Well tomorrow it all begins for real! I'm very nervous even writing this and last night I had my first proper dream that I was in front of all these new faces with nothing to say!

I have been in training to be a trainer for the last five weeks and in the morning at 8am I come face to face with my first official batch of cabin crew - Ab-Initio 1049 as they are collectively known. I was Ab-Initio 809 18 months ago, and now I'm standing at the front not sitting at the back.

I have been through the journey of the last few weeks with Holley (my co-instructor), Belinda and Jeevan and we have all learned a lot from each other and are ready for this new challenge. They have paired us up to teach together rather than putting us with more experienced trainers. I guess it's the sink-or-swim mentality...

Anyway, here are some pictures from my last few weeks being one of 'The Others' :-)


Holley and Jeevan preparing 'Emotional Intelligence' and 'Customer First'

One of our training officers, Kiran, whose job it was to stop us every two minutes to change words, correct mistakes and make us REPEAT!

Daniel had had enough towards the end of the 5 weeks, and this is where we eat lunch every day (though I plan to kiss my lunch breaks goodbye as of tomorrow)

Forty white roses will do the trick!

Franck and I emptied our wallets and filled up Marcos' car the other day with a trip to Ikea, and what an adventure it was! I will take more photos as we complete our apartment makeover with a paint job next week, but so far there is AMBIENCE GALORE!


The roses were a present from Marcos and they were such an awesome surprise :-)

Daniel DOES have a life!

If you look up Emirates Training College in the dictionary you might find the definition: completely negates the social life of anyone who dares to work there! So with the last five weeks being purely devoted to work and study, I have found few opportunities to mingle like the social butterfly I usually am! To prove to you and to myself that life is not all hard work, I'm posting a few of my favourite photos of the last few weeks.


My friend Miranda popped in from Saudi Arabia for dinner a couple of weeks back. I was so excited to see her, she is ex-Emirates now working for private charter in Jeddah. And my first favourite photo of Marcos and I :)

The Daniel and Nicole Show is going strong, 18 months on! Tune in daily!

Tuesday Musings

Could Paris Hilton change the world for the better if she wanted to?


Will the Spice Girls tour Australia or Dubai later this year, and if so will I call sick for work to get my hands on tickets?


Is K-Rudd fever on the decline?


Can Roger Federer win 5-in-a-row at the All England Club?


Is Martina Hingis injured or over?


Will Channel Seven continue to pip Nine every week once all their big series finish?


How long until I get to come back to Australia?


Will I be a good service trainer when I am let loose on fresh trainees next Sunday?