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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“I have an Aunt and Uncle, on my mothers side, that reside just outside of London and this was a great opportunity to see ... ” |
London. One of the great things about working for Emirates is the opportunities that the airline affords us. Case in point was this trip to London. I have an Aunt and Uncle, on my mothers side, that reside just outside of London and this was a great opportunity to see them again.
The flight was good. All Canadian cabin crew. Well not all of them but both pilots and one of the two SFS (Senior Flight Staff). So in actuality it was about ¼. The captain did the PA introduction using the nationalities and names of the crew. I had at least 2 passengers ask why there were so many Canadians working… to which I would reply with a grin “ this airline only hires the best” and walk on. It sounded better then saying “luck of the draw”. The actual flight was nice, the passengers were all very polite. I had a Delta Airlines Pilot sitting across from my door and we talked about the similarities and differences between the airlines.
The procedure in London is quite a bit different then most airports. Rather then disembarking in a similar fashion to the passengers, we left by bus; much as is the way in Dubai. No customs check the purser simply handed a paper with all our details in and we showed ID on the gate boarding the airport and off we went. London Gatwick is no where close to London. It is another 30 mins by train to get to the centre of London. But more on that in a minute. After checking into the hotel I call my uncle and arranged a dinner date. We were going to meet at Victoria Station for dinner. So off I went to catch the train. It was a modern train, clean and quite and we glided into town and beat the relatives by about ½ and hour which gave me some time to explore the station, and people watch.
Dinner with Aunt Trish and Uncle Chris was good. They were much smaller then I remember them and they have aged well. It was fantastic to see them again; it had been 13 years since last our paths crossed. We sat around the pub and swapped stories between trying to gett the waiters attention. Time flew by and before we new it we were both behind schedule. So I hopped back on the train and headed out to Crawley ( the name of the suburb in which our hotel was located), and then to bed. The next morning I woke Swathi (whom you might recall from the nine day trip to SIN, BNE, AKL) and we went for breakfast and ice cream (we are adults, if we want ice cream for breakfast were are going to have ice cream!) We went to a mall next door, typical, but empty, and then back to the hotel for an hour rest before we hopped back on the plane for the uneventful trip back to Dubai. Point of interest: there were at least three different airlines sharing the hotel. Then mean age of the other two cabin crew was at least 10 years older then our crews… not passing judgement, simply observing.
previous travel blog entry
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