aDrenais' Book of Shadows

G'day mate from Sydney! The weather here is nice and cool in the evening, shall give you a weather update of the daytime temperature after I've experienced it. I arrived in Sydney at around 10p.m. local time, spent an inordinate amount of time oohing over my beautiful hotel room in Intercontinential, boozed til I felt light-headed in the crew room, then proceeded to Chinatown for supper at a seafood restaurant that worked out to be AUD$20 per person. It's 4.23a.m. in Sydney now, but only 1.23a.m. in Singapore. Not feeling the least sleepy, while the rest of my crew are all holed up in their rooms. Oh how I'm gonna suffer tomorrow *wry*

A Series of Fortunate Events
I was called out on standby for this SIN-SYD block, replacing 4 days' worth of standby and a crappy 2-day block doing some Kathmandu turnaround. It was a pleasant surprise, and this very first time I operated as crew back to Singapore had me flying with 2 other Singaporeans. Considering that there are only about 40 Singaporean crew in Gulf Air, I think it's a first time Singaporeans form the majority nationality. The other crew hail from the Philippines (2), Thailand (2), Bahrain (2), Greece (1) and Australia (1). One of the Singaporean girls, Connie, is a senior who took the time to share with us her flying experience, scary tales and funny stories alike. The other one is Janna, my batchmate. We are equally new, so we were as blur as each other on board. It was her first time back to Singapore after 7 months, and yet I think I was more excited than she was upon arrival in Singapore. Just as we landed after the 8-hour flight, my contact lenses were killing me and I was tearing like crazy, but I preferred the extreme pain to walking in Changi Airport with my glasses. It was a very keen awareness of the fact that I was stepping into Changi Airport in my uniform for the first time ever, and God forbid I look less than presentable. Actually I didn't manage to hold my head all that high, because I'm still fighting a losing battle against my terrible pimple outbreak. I was self-conscious about every bit of my appearance; at the same time I was trying to affect a oh-I'm-so-glamorous image. Damnit I'm so going back on the pill to try to control my outbreak issue.

2) My December roster has been released, and I'd been granted my request to fly SIN-SYD on 22nd! This means that I'd be in Singapore for Ting's wedding, as well as on Boxing day. It's not the same as spending Christmas in Singapore, but I'm grateful that it's at least around the festive period. On the upside, I'd be spending Christmas countdown in Sydney, and if all goes well I should be having a blast :)
I will be in Bangkok for NYE. Not sure how exciting that is gonna be, but at least it's somewhere familiar and comforting (where I can spend lots of money).
The best thing about the December roster is that I have 2 days off on 6-7 Dec, so I'd be free to fly back to Singapore in time for the Mayday concert held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 6 Dec! It would have been ideal if I had been given a SIN-SYD block on the 5th, but I'd be too tired to enjoy the concert properly anyway if I had to work the day before and the day after, so this is just peachy. Can't wait to go scream myself hoarse once again!

I guess I should be bummed that I haven't been given a single European destination, like Paris, Frankfurt or Dublin. Frankly, I'm not that concerned yet, probably because I'm still too eager to fly home whenever possible. Give it a few months, my senior said while nodding sagely.

Self-discovery Part II
As mentioned, I've progressed somewhat further along my path of self-realisation, and I hope that I'm on my way to becoming a nicer person.

So, Dad was in Bahrain for a visit last month. It was both exciting and trying. Exciting because it was a deviation from the monotony of life in Bahrain, trying because of the necessity of living with him for 8 days within a confined space. As my flatmate is Muslim, Dad and I both decided that he should not hang around the common living area too much because we weren't sure how open my flatmate is to having a stranger in her private space. As such, Dad was restricted to my room most of the time, where he embarked on his mission to make my life in Bahrain more comfortable.

He organised my very messy room into neat stacks, and categorised everything before stowly it away out of sight. Dad's comments were like 'It would be easier if you could...', and before I knew it, the next moment it would be arranged exactly like how he said it should be. It was dead helpful of course, because I've had the flat for almost half a year and it was still in shambles, but I couldn't help feeling irritated at how he barged in and took charge of organising my domain. I was also irritated at his suggestions, because some of them were really valid and frankly quite intelligent, and then I had to be pissed with myself for getting irritated.

I realised that I was more like Dad than I would care to admit. When my friends speak to me about their problems, or even when they just bitch about life in general, I find myself thinking of how best to solve their problems, and make suggestions on how they can better their lives. While I was just trying to be of assistance, I bet my friends were mightily irritated by my interfering ways, making suggestions as though I knew better. Friends might have hinted at my annoying behaviour before, but it's much more effective to be on the receiving end of such treatment, to be aware of how exasperating it was to have someone constantly telling you how to lead your life.

Thus, whenever I'm tempted to offer my sagely advice nowadays, I force myself to think of Dad and the agonising week we spent together, and I clam shut, immediately. Methinks it's made me a more popular person :)