Singapore/Melbourne

Hello mate

Insane 5 days have just passed. Quite an adventure, I'll try and keep it short and schweet.
Flew to Singapore, stayed in a gorgeous hotel. Went shopping in Bugis Street (shopping markets etc) and had some freaky local Singaporean food (preferred to travel alone, am getting quite good at it now) because crew wanted to go eat at fancy restaurants, shop in malls and take cabs. Boring!!!!
Ate some freaky fruit (beautiful bright pink skinned with snow white inside and black little pips, tastes like kiwi). Weather in Singapore was tropical, hot humid and raining. Loved it.
Then we went to Melbourne, Australia where I started losing my sleep (all the timezones confused my body terribly). Melbourne city felt like Cape Town to me. I traveled to Geelong (75kms from Mel, which felt like Stellenbosch) and met Param's brother, sister-in-law and their cute son. Spent the day with sis in law. Took train back, the train has this awesome toilet system with doors sliding open by the push of a little button, full length mirror inside, and very spacious and clean. Amazing what we get used to in SA:) Getting onboard is like getting on an aircraft, haha. Getting greeted, friendly service and getting information by the driver. Back in Melbourne, I went around in the city, looking for a specific street. After a long time, getting stressed because I'm running out of time, and already out of airtime (stupid prepaid) I finally meet Rochelle!!!! Yes, and it was SO AWESOME to see her there. She came back to my hotel, laughing and taking photos of me with a scary cloth mask on my face trying to re-energize my eyes and skin because of no sleep and again on my way to my next flight back to Singapore. Melbourne was cool, weather like Cape Town's - 4 seasons in one day. Their money is even more colorful than Monopoly's. For example bright seablue with yellow patches, haha etc. On the flight back, we experienced the worst turbulence ever (never want to go through that again). It was not expected and it lasted for about 25 mins. I was just praying all the way.
Back in Singapore, I crashed on my bed and woke up with my phone underneath me. Never heard the alarm, but obviously the body responded and switched it off. Anyway, had very good sleep, was later than planned, but not too late to travel. Took the trains again (my word, now this place's train system seriously impressed me) I was taking trains back and forth as if I've been living in Singapore for years. Excellent, you just can't go wrong. I traveled to Sentosa island, very close. It is very commercialized unfortunately, however I had great fun. Had to go see the PINK dolphins (no, this is not a band's name, but real dolphins that are pink). They have this cool ride called, the LUGE. It's almost like go-carting. Uses no petrol, works on gravity. Oh, Singapore is extremely clean and totally into recycling and being green. Loved it. You get fined a 1000 dollars if caught smoking in the trains, or even just eating or drinking and littering where you're not supposed to. So, traveled all over Sentosa island, even did a quick Dragon Trail nature walk in the rain forest.
People in Singapore I experienced as REALLY friendly and helpful. I had a nice chat to one of the locals as we were going in the same direction walking back to my hotel. Even befriended our crew busdriver (he's a local), and he gave me a little history when we were coming from the airport. Lots of Indians in Singapore, and Chinese, Malays, Thais, etc etc

Then I went to Chinatown. Man, this was cool. I heard a few tourists talking lovely Afrikaans. Did a little shopping, had some crazy local Chinese food (nothing like the stuff we ever get in take away shops). Then got a Chinese massage. I had fallen sick by this time (symptoms of a cold), because I was in need of rest. I wanted to go to Little India also, but had to choose between that or a little snooze before my flight back to Dubai (which was right through the night).
I also understand now why people are going on about the crime in SA. Whenever someone I meet hears I'm from SA, that's the first thing they talk about. Again, we are used to it right? But now these few places that I've traveled to, are so damn safe. It's so cool.
Difficult to choose which photo's to put here, but LOTS more on facebook.
Hope you enjoyed the news
Merrrry xmas to you all!!!

Good day, see you later (as the Australians said as they left the plane)
A

a journey of a thousand miles... (Birmingham)

Well hellu

Imagine going to work and you step into your office, or class, or shop, whatever it is you do - and everyday you enter, you have a different manager and a different supervisor, a whole different team of between 11-19 people that you work with. And you have to become one, a team within 5 minutes and within 1hour you feel like you've known them for years. And after a sometimes hard, sometimes short, sometimes long day, you leave your office/class/shop and step out and just happen to be in another country, haha. Breathe in some Pakistani air, or watch the sunset in Istanbul, or feel the rain in Paris. But just to take this a step further, you loose the definition of what a day really is. Or rather the definition of a day changes into anything that is 24hrs. You might be going to and/or leaving your office 2am or 11pm or 3h15pm and sleep for 8hours whenever your work has finished. Now this last step might give some of you the creeps, thinking that there is no routine. This is the part I love most. It is quite crazy and I don't feel bad for sleeping till 3 o'clock in the afternoon anymore:) Everyday is literally a new day...

So, I saw my pookie in Johannesburg and it was magical;) Say no more. Was good seeing the love of my life.
Then I did Bahrain and Doha both in one day, sheesh what an experience. And now I have just returned from Birmingham. My first time in the UK. Unfortunately I have only one photo, dunno if I did something wrong when charging the camera battery:( but it died on me. My cousin came to visit me while I was there, what a nice surprise (she knew I was coming, and found out where I stayed). Took me to this beautiful lake and park. Afterward, when they left, I was too tired (and the weather too miff) to travel around and just went shopping. Found the cutest things in shops - believe it or not, but they have VERY healthy items in the shops and I sommer did grocery shopping because of all the things I found. Service in Birmingham I found extremely good, friendly and helpful, even the cleaners speak with their posh accent giving me professional (because everything sounds PROFESSIONAL in real English, haha) to the loo's. The robots (gosh, people think I'm little loony when I say that here, so traffic lights from now on) turn orange again before they turn green. I thought that was nice. I quite enjoyed my stay I must say, although the flight back was awful. 6 hours of no breaks, these English drink too much, hehe.. I am starting to (after 3 weeks of flying) get the hang of things. Finally finding my way around the (different) aircrafts, or getting there at least:)

Now I chill again (and recover from jetlag) for 3 days, then I go to Joburg again.
Well that's all for now. Looking forward to any replies.


Wishing you all a very happy and festive season, a merry xmas - and may the year 2008 be the beginning of yet more learnings, discoveries, new insights and great changes and prosperity. Sending you lots of good vibes and love.

Goodbye then
A

i love my job (Paris)

Bonjour

Just a quick one...

Paris was AMAZING!! I didn't want to come back, fell in love with this place. It is like nothing I ever imagined Paris to be.
The flight there was great, nice people, awesome crew. The moment we landed, we organized a shuttle together. The hotel was quite kitsch, but cool. On arrival, we each got a handful of euros for spending, and our entry swipe card. On our tv was an information channel. I thought this was so cool. When I went to it, it said: "welcome miss alta van der merwe. Your flight has been delayed and the new departure time is..... and your new pickup time is..... We hope you enjoy your stay." Wow, how cool is that, hahaha. When I switched on my phone, it was set to Paris time, and I could still get phonecalls and sms's. (on arrival my network company said: welcome back home, hope you had a pleasant and successful trip) haha, so cute

It was 6 of us that traveled together (we were almost an hour away from the city), but an hour later we split. Me and another South African. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and walked along the Seine river and passed all its beautiful bridges and ended up at the Champs Elysee. It was freakin freezing cold. I bought a pair of gloves, and when you walk into shops, there are warm air blowing at the entrance. We were starving and somehow ended up at this stunning cute organic vegetarian restaurant, with 2 litres of wine (the waiter fell in love with Candice and kept topping up our bottle, haha) The ambience was so perfect, food was great, music, ah - I was in love with Paris. It felt like Long Street to me, young people with skateboards, funky hairstyles, individuality. We asked every 5th person for directions, and even though their English was very broken, they were extremely nice and helpful (no, no one was arrogant:)
Afterwards, we decided to try out the crazy metro system and took a train closer to our pickup point which was at 11pm. It was so cool. By this stage, everything was fantasteeeque, merci boucoup, bonjour, and a whole bunch of phrases we learned on the aircraft, haha. We made acquaintances along the way, as seen on the photos - there are lots more on facebook. We still wanted to try out the nightlife scene, but ran out of time. Next time.

That's about it for now. Now I have 4 days off and then I go see my pookie in Johannesburg!!

Hope your weekend was great
Lots of lurve
Au revoir

delayed

So, how are you all doing?? Mmmm, I don't hear from some of you...

Ok, so I have finally graduated and it was fantastic. They make a big booohaaa about it, and we had photographers and LOUD music, and flowers and it was flashy. Amber (old friend from Dubai) and her flatmate came to see me. I cried when she gave me the beautiful bunch of flowers, it was an emotional day, after all that studying and hardship to have my license in my hand.

Afterwards we all went out for dinner, and then to a club that gave us separate entrance and free drinks for two hours. I got dressed up all sexy for a change;)

My first flights were AWESOME!! I got to sit in the cockpit for 6 flights, it was something out of a movie!! Saw the sun set above the clouds on the way to Istanbul, from the front view and it was spiritual, wow. And listened in on the Aircraft Traffic Control and how they get the plane to land and push all those buttons and all, wow. This is all new to me, and I plan on imagining that it always is so that I can live it so intensely:) It's been weird knowing that I land in another country and not be able to see it. (my flights have only been nights, and turnarounds - meaning that I stay on the airport for about an hour, then come back to Dubai)

One night I met a bikeracer, and I was fortunate enough to get invited and a free pass to go to the Dubai Motorsport Festival, and sit with the guys in the 'garage'. I watched the race (my first one) and it was awesome. The guys (Team Suzuki) came first and third. Attached is a photo of me trying the comfort of a GSXR600 out. The whole team is an extremely nice bunch of guys, and said that they will try to get me to ride on the track. Heehaa!!! I've been out with them a few times, and they are so cool:)

On the downside, I went through a few days of homesickness. I missed all my friends, and dinners and chats and my mom and just wanted to come home, to Cape Town. The crew website asked me to write about Cape Town for them, which I did and that put a smile back on my face:-)

Hope you enjoyed my news today

Okie dokes

Ciao for now

Hope to hear from you

Drukkies,
Alta

checking in

Marhaba

First Aid training was intense. I can treat asthmatic neckbreathers now, epileptic people, deliver babies, deal with diabetics and the list never ends. I am a firefighter, a nurse, a security officer, a waitress, a shrink, a kungfu fighter, all in one. If I was on a LOST island, I would be Jack, and Kate, and John, and Saeed.

Am now in my second week of service training and am seriously starting to loose my mind. My head cannot take in anymore!!! I feel like I'm in university. Not even to mention the Arabic lessons we've been receiving since yesterday. Two more days of that. Good news is, college is almost over. Tomorrow is my biggest exam, practical - we are doing a fake flight from Dubai - Heathrow. Thursday we should all graduate. Man, and will I party. There is a club offering the graduates free drinks for 2 hours, and we will take full advantage. I already received my roster for the month, and will be doing my first flight to Istanbul next Tuesday. Also Karachi, Kuwait and Jeddah. I am very excited about all this. Oh, did I mention that I will be going to Paris, moohahaha:-) on the 25th - my first layover. Getting a day to shop there or something. I will be flying to Joburg end of the month, also day layover, where my pookie will come visit me for the day.
But first, back to studies. I am tired and sick, and have to drag this body around, haha. At the same time hide my emotions and support my team ( they have elected me again for groupleader, sweet bunch) We have become real close, which is nice and comforting.
Oh, meant to mention before - that we are 31 000 people working for Emirates, and 9000 of us are crew. It is quite insane!! They've got quite an impressive system trying to keep everyone happy.
Marcela and I have become good friends, she is from Brazil Sweet girl.


I have been giving some yoga classes, requested by team members. That has been working out well.
Over the weekend I camped on the beach (how cool is that, here you are allowed to camp and make huge bonfires on the beach - the beach was packed, looked like a festival, was nogal interesting), the next day got invited to sail on a catamaran (FUNCAT)for the day, free food and drinks and a few of us got invited to go parasailing. I found myself jumping overboard, swimming in the deep ocean to swim to the next boat that would take us parasailing. My first time, wow. Felt like a little holiday.
Made an effort to see what the sunset looks like in Dubai. Not too bad;)

And otherwise, floating in and out of reality. I will hopefully soon recover, having a few days off after graduation and each flight.
It is great sharing these things with all of you. Please tell me about your days, and moments.


Ma'salama
Alta

buenas dias

Ola!!

How are you all machachos??

Finally finished two weeks of Safety Emergency Procedures, passed all my exams and got positive feedback. Today we did one day of intense security training, which included restraining disruptive passengers(hitting pressure points, etc), hijackers, identifying a wide range of firearm types, learned some amazing things and techniques. Only had yesterday off, and now back for 6 days till my next day off:( Tomorrow is a week of First Aid and General Medical training. Someone said something very accurate - that we are undercover agents -> on the surface we look like sweet, innocent, friendly air hostesses -> meanwhile, triggered, we'll have the attitude of a soldier:-) haha. But true.

Otherwise, not much news. Planned my first night out on Thurs (18Oct) very excited, to find myself on the couch Fri morning - I had passed out and missed out - slept for 11 hours. Eish. Sad story..:) Better luck next time

Little quiz:
Who can tell me where the fuel is kept in a plane?
And
What happens to all the wastes that are flushed in the toilet?
mmmmm

Till later amigos

Take care

Alta

Eid Mubarak

Hello skatties

Wow, a whole week of intense training has passed. I aced my first exam:), now I have two days off (Fri/Sat) and jumping straight into a practical exam on Sunday - Monday is a written exam. Geez!!! My brain is fried already!!

I wish I could send you more photo's, got these from fellow trainees (remember, my camera got stolen...)

I have been having a lot of fun, learning amazing things, forming friendships, keeping my focus, experimenting with freaky foods, exploring Dubai on foot (went to the beach today - water is nice and warm, and got a whole tour of Dubai from housemate) Dubai is twice the size since I've been here. It is one big construction site.

We do a lot of training in the simulators (when you see us wearing overalls, it is when we do practical stuff) - we have 3 fake planes operating as real ones, even does turbulence, smoke, takeoff/landing - feels absolutely real. The swimming pool is for emergency landing, where we had to get on the lifeboat and practice ditching etc. - had to go overboard, the works. Emirates has state of the art training schools and areas - it is really amazing how much they put into training the staff. I've gained new respect for airhostesses:)

Tomorrow is a day of chilling at our pool. Ramadan is finally over.. Makes things easier. From next week (starting Sunday for us), it is back to getting up at 5h30 for school.

I hope you enjoyed reading my news.
Can't wait to hear back from you.

Take care
Hugs,
Alta

Induction

Hi guys

thanks for all your replies!!

My flatmate turned out to be REALLY AWESOME! She is from Pretoria and we get along great. Realized that we got wifi at home, so enjoying being connected.

So, have been in an induction programme this week (have been getting up at 5h30 every morning) - today was grooming day. I learned to put my hair in one of those perfect buns (not an art), how to wear our uniform to perfection and generally learned to be a lady today. Did the whole shebang, giggling with the girls, removing makeup, splashing our faces with expensive products and then applying makeup (Gosh, will take some time to get used to the red lipstick, although am enjoying the conservative uniform and the pride to be in it - my mother will be really proud). I look around me when I wait for the bus - the people here are full of themselves, and I get it - because they all know that they are in one of the best companies to work for and one of the best airlines. And sometimes I feel so detached, as an outsider, because at the end of the day I must be professional and fit in here - and at the same time remind myself who I am, and what I am. I work hard(in myself) to hold my own opinions while being trained into a new perspective. And I can feel the changes happening. Today I miss Cape Town...(sniff sniff)

There is a certain smell about Dubai (I realized as I landed, and remembered from before). I am quite centred, have Spinneys (like Pick 'n Pay) next to me, a mall opposite, the creek where I can go do yoga and chill on the grass, etc, etc. We have a gym in the building and a beautiful swimming pool on the roof. I am proud to say that I have given up alcohol (maybe in the future have an odd glass of wine now and then), the girls try and drag me out, but I am content at home for now:)

I am also proud to say that I am my group's co-ordinator/teamleader:)

Tight hugs,
Alta

Hi guys!!

Thought I'd pop in quick to share some stuff:)

So I left yesterday very early, both my flights went extremely smooth, which was quite nice. When I landed in Dubai (00h30) it was 30'C and extremely humid (my glasses kept clogging up - embarrasing). We were greeted by Marhaba (a personal meet & greet company) and waited till 3 this morning for all the crew to arrive before we were taken to our accomodation (moved straight into our permanent pozzie:)

I have got such a gorgeous apartment. My housemate stuck notes for me all over the place (welcome note on my door, personal card to welcome me, info, and the name of the cat - Chanti) Yes, yes, I finally have a cat now also!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bonus!! So, she's been keeping me company, coz Linda (housemate) is only coming back tonight. Linda added her own personal touch to the place, bit African, bit arty, it is just plain beautiful. Can't wait to meet her!! I wanted to take photos straight away to add it here today, only to find that my digital has been stolen (in Joburg ofcourse)

Nir, there is an entire Fry's range here, whohooo! There are white eggs, brown eggs, golden eggs, omega 3 health egga, french eggs and no freakin' free range eggs:(

Today is also 30 degrees, but it's stunning!! Just perfect (for me) No wind, humidity VERY low. So, I've been exploring today. Alone, it's fun. The malls are very quiet, basically closed because of Ramadan.

I wil go now, very hungry - haven't eaten coz my hamper only consisted of wheat, dairy and sugar products:(

I hope you enjoyed reading this mail. If there is anyone who wants to be removed from this mailing list, please let me know (I will really not take offence at all)

En ek hoop julle Afrikaanse mense mind nou nie vir die Ingils nie:)

Looking forward to hearing back from you

All my love,

Alta