For those on holiday, enjoy, while the rest of us still have to work, hehe. It has been in and out of England this month for me. Four times to be exact. Oh goodness. Up and down. A bit north, a bit south. A bit of Birmingham, Manchester(2), a bit of Gatwick. Freezing cold. Enjoying the xmas shopping. Lots of people. Lots!! Everywhere in town! English accents. English attitude. Great. Enough.
In between I did go back to Cape Town for another 5 days(since my last letter) and I'm hoping to leave for Joburg for 5 days to spent with Param and family. And I hear you ask, how do I pull this off? The sacrifices for a mending heart, to be with the beloved. I swap a flight for days off..
But actually, my highlight of today's letter, is my travels in the cockpit. I go visit the boys(pilots) often and this month has been mindblowing, something to mention. The pilots are always very willing to share where we are flying over, how fast we're going and what is about to happen next. So I was in the cockpit once when
we flew over Iran, the border of Russia, over Hungary, Prague, Athens, and every sight just took my breath away. We overtook another aircraft once
(well, not once, I'm sure this happens all the time, but I was at the right place at the right time to see it for myself) and it was amazing to see how the streak of condensation behind the aircraft swirls anti-clockwise. Then one day I saw an aircraft cross our path from right to left, as I pointed it out, the captain showed me another aircraft coming from left to right, and then another going across it all. Man, this was crazy!! Soooo coool. It was this super dimensional experience, warpzone, space, 3dimensional traffic, something out of the futuristic movies:) When the captain calls you to come look in the cockpit, you know it's going to be good. So, I stepped in (on a night flight) and saw the moon. Right in front of us. Or so it appeared. As if we were flying towards it. And it became bright(the moon). Then it moved to our right. And then we turned, and it moved all the way left (if you can imagine the two windows of the cockpit being a wide screen television). Then the pilot switched all the lights off in the cockpit, and we were just surrounded by all these magical stars. High up in the air, it feels like you can touch them. As if you are part of the sky. Nothing above, nothing below. Below sometimes you can see little blops of light. And those are little parts of towns covered by thick clouds, and we perceive it as dims of light. Talking about dims. Then at that same moment, I saw an aircraft approach us again (me with my super eye sight these days. damn!! the things I've been missing out on, hehe) and the pilot switched our brights on (didn't even know planes have that). The sky illuminated. Then, wait for it, wait for it, the pilot said, a few seconds later, the other airplane flashed his brights back at us!!! WOW!! Haha, they do the same in the sky. I still love my job. I want to be a pilot.Otherwise, I am fully enjoying the challenges and rewards Business Class offers me. It is a huge difference then the circus in economy. I finally get to use my personality. My skills.
Hope to hear back from you, if not before the end of the year....well Happy new year once again:)
Twinkled eye,
A
